Results 3,981-4,000 of 15,805 for speaker:Michael Ring

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: With regard to what has been spent-----

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: I have given the information to the Deputy but the problem is he has come in here having asked a specific question about LEADER, for which I have all the details for him-----

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: I will give the Deputy so many figures that he will not be able to take them all in.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: I will just give Deputy Ó Cuív the table. It might be easier. The Revised Estimates for 2018 in respect of the Department of Rural and Community Development set out an allocation of €87.5 million for gross capital expenditure, supplemented by €7.7 million carried forward from 2017. I have provided an update of capital expenditure to date across the...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: The Deputy knows this. He has been around this House for long enough. I reject what he says about me spending the money. I have spent the money. It is the Leader companies, the local authorities and the people who have actually got the money that have not spent it. I am putting pressure on the local authorities on a daily and weekly basis. The Deputy and I both know that much work has...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: To date, 24% of the overall project allocations have been approved, totalling €40 million.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Departmental Expenditure (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: The total to date is €40 million. Some 24% of overall project allocation has been approved. When the value of the project applications which we have received and provisionally approved is considered, this figure increases to 28% of overall allocation, €46 million. Some 1,300 projects have been approved with a further 324 in the pipeline. I have allocated the money in time....

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Post Office Closures (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: As the Deputy is aware, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment has policy responsibility for the postal sector. However, I am acutely aware of the value placed by rural communities on services such as the local post office. Ensuring access to services for rural communities is an issue that cuts across almost all Departments. It also relates to services provided...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Post Office Closures (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: I have provided €80,000 to the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment to support the establishment of ten digital access post offices on a pilot basis. An Post have picked the ten post offices; we are looking at how we can support it in the digital era. I do not like saying things like this, but I have to be honest sometimes. I have said to Deputy Ó...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Post Office Closures (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: The Deputy should listen. It was a village of 500 people, made up of 300 families. In the local post office, 50 TV licences had been bought, which amounts to one per week. If people want post offices and small shops and such services they are going to have to use them. Almost 87% of people last year taxed their cars online. People are getting their passports online. They are banking and...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Post Office Closures (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: I disagree with the Deputy; rural Ireland is not dead. There have never been as many people working and living in rural Ireland. However, the small shops and little businesses that once were there are no longer present because people are shopping with their feet. People are working in towns and going home to rural Ireland in the evening, and are using the bigger outlets. That is a...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Action Plan for Rural Development Implementation (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: I thank Deputy Ó Cuív. He is aware of this but in respect of the action plan, there were 270 actions and 254 have been completed. That is a success rate of 93%. Deputy Ó Cuív is long enough in this House, longer than I am, to know and understand better than anyone how the House works. It is one of the things that he is actually good at. He also knows about Ministers...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Action Plan for Rural Development Implementation (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: Deputy Ó Cuív amazes me sometimes. When I give him statistics he does not like them. The statistics are that when we came into government more than 50% of the population had high-speed broadband. I do not have responsibility for it. It is the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Action Plan for Rural Development Implementation (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: Wait a minute now. More than 75% of the people in the country now have high-speed broadband.

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Action Plan for Rural Development Implementation (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: Deputy Ó Cuív is correct that the commercial sector did that and I compliment it. We are now going to deal with the rest and that is why the Government is putting a package and a tender in place. I am glad to see there is competition within that tender to make sure the rest of the country will get high-speed broadband. The Deputy has travelled the world. I represented the...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Action Plan for Rural Development Implementation (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: It is a world-wide problem but people are looking at Ireland and are seeing what we are doing. They are saying well done on having 75% of the population with high-speed broadband. As I said, the 25% who do not have it want to have it. I am one of the people provided with it, where a commercial operator came in. That happened because the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, the Minister, Deputy...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Action Plan for Rural Development Implementation (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: In fact, if we had not drawn that map we might have had up to 80% because there were areas where the commercial sector could not go ahead because someone would have had us in the High Court because we did not put it out to tender. I say well done to the commercial sector. It is doing its job and has rolled out as much as possible. I hope with the new tender that many corners of Ireland...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Action Plan for Rural Development Implementation (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: Improving the quality of life of those who live and work in rural communities is a key objective of the Action Plan for Rural Development. It is the most comprehensive Government plan ever produced to support economic and social development in rural areas. Progress reports on the implementation of the action plan are published twice-yearly on my Department's website. The most recent...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Action Plan for Rural Development Implementation (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: The Government's three-year Action Plan for Rural Development was published in January 2017. The Plan includes a suite of measures to support our rural towns and villages, with a view to revitalising over 600 towns and villages over its lifetime. The Town and Village Renewal Scheme is a key part of the Action Plan for Rural Development. Since the launch of the Action Plan, I have...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Walks Scheme (25 Sep 2018)

Michael Ring: As the Deputy is aware, my Department administers the Walks Scheme which facilitates the development and maintenance of many of Ireland’s walking trails. The scheme involves landholders as key participants in the provision of high quality walking trails, by contracting them to undertake maintenance work on sections of National Waymarked Ways and other priority walks that traverse their...