Results 5,501-5,520 of 7,765 for speaker:Maurice Cummins

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009: Report and Final Stages (1 Dec 2009)

Maurice Cummins: I referred to this issue on Committee Stage. It is ludicrous to seek a two thirds majority when a simple majority is required currently. This provision will give a small rump on a council significant authority and this should not be allowed. A small number of people could block or promote a development. A simple majority is more than sufficient. It has served us well up to now and I...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009: Report and Final Stages (1 Dec 2009)

Maurice Cummins: I second the amendment.

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009: Report and Final Stages (1 Dec 2009)

Maurice Cummins: I second amendment No. 28. It is ludicrous to suggest that the workload of An Bord Pleanála demands that there be a quorum of two in these instances. I have not heard of a quorum of two for playing tiddlywinks. This proposal is an absolute disgrace and could lead to deadlock in many cases unless there is collusion between the two people to agree. It is a dreadful situation to propose...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009: Report and Final Stages (1 Dec 2009)

Maurice Cummins: I concur with my colleague's remarks, especially in regard to the Parliamentary Counsel and the Attorney General. I accept the Minister of State's bona fides but if he is seeking opinions from them, Report Stage should have been delayed until the advice had been provided. He has stated inspectors' decisions have been accepted on many occasions but, in some cases, their decisions have been...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009: Report and Final Stages (1 Dec 2009)

Maurice Cummins: We accept the Minister of State's bona fides.

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009: Report and Final Stages (1 Dec 2009)

Maurice Cummins: I second the amendment.

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Nov 2009)

Maurice Cummins: Last week we discussed the Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill and paid tribute to the work of the Defence Forces on peacekeeping missions abroad. In the past week we have seen the Trojan efforts of the Army to help the victims of the flooding. The numbers in the Defence Forces are below 10,000, the lowest in over four decades. Will the Deputy Leader invite the Minister for Defence to...

Seanad: Flooding: Statements (Resumed) (25 Nov 2009)

Maurice Cummins: The first phase of the Clonmel flood relief scheme, which is in the Minister of State's constituency, will not be finished until next year. There are two other phases which have not even gone to tender. I spoke to Councillors Acheson and Murphy earlier today and they say those two phases have not gone out to tender. Will the Minister of State update the House on the current situation? I...

Seanad: Flooding: Statements (Resumed) (25 Nov 2009)

Maurice Cummins: Have they gone to tender yet?

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Nov 2009)

Maurice Cummins: I agree fully with my colleague, Senator Coffey. The principle of subsidiarity has not been considered in drawing up the Bill. Many people talk about subsidiarity and bringing issues down to a local level for people to decide on them, but this is practically a case of asking the Minister to rubber-stamp everything a local authority or regional authority does. The Minister of State...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Nov 2009)

Maurice Cummins: Clarity is sought on regional authorities and on regional plans. Senator Daly is right that we are putting the cart before the horse regarding regional authorities. Who puts in place the regional draft plans for regional authorities? Is it the county managers or the regional manager? It seems county plans are just fed into the regional plan and that this is how the latter is thought out....

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Nov 2009)

Maurice Cummins: I agree with my colleague, Senator Coffey, in this regard. The Minister of State is correct that we must have a national spatial strategy. We must have regional guidelines which come from the top but it is the make-up of the regional development plans specifically we are speaking about rather than the guidelines in terms of who organises them, puts them into place and operates them. As has...

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Nov 2009)

Maurice Cummins: Wishful thinking.

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Nov 2009)

Maurice Cummins: The Government has no proposals.

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2009)

Maurice Cummins: Will we take the entire amendment? Our discussion will take longer than five minutes and could conclude in a vote.

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (19 Nov 2009)

Maurice Cummins: I fully support the amendments tabled by my colleague and the Labour Party on this. Having one third, or less than one third, of a local authority dictating the planing policy of that local authority is undemocratic. I see no problem with requiring two thirds for a material contravention but surely a simple majority is more than sufficient for drawing up a development plan for a particular...

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Nov 2009)

Maurice Cummins: A report in today's Irish Independent indicates that hospital consultants in many hospitals are not treating the required number of public patients, with some consultants operating a case load that consists of up to 80% private patients. Consultants are paid large salaries in respect of which it took a long time for contracts to be agreed. Who is responsible for ensuring they do the job...

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Nov 2009)

Maurice Cummins: They were just words.

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Nov 2009)

Maurice Cummins: Fianna Fáil put us in the position we are in.

Seanad: Defence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Nov 2009)

Maurice Cummins: I support the amendments. It is very important Seanad Éireann is consulted on such important matters. We made several comments on safety issues in Chad in debates in the House and we were proved right on several of them. In regard to the aside from Senator Feeney, I assure her Fine Gael will work as usual to ensure Seanad Éireann works in a proper manner as long as it is in being. We...