Results 541-560 of 3,644 for speaker:Michael Collins

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges facing the Horse Sport Industry: Discussion (20 Sep 2023)

Michael Collins: ParaEquestrian Ireland has 47 members. I gather, and I may be corrected, that Dressage Ireland has 860 members. I am afraid I do not know the rest. I have not done the research. It looks like those here are funding much of what is going on and Horse Sport Ireland is standing back and not delivering.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Challenges facing the Horse Sport Industry: Discussion (20 Sep 2023)

Michael Collins: I have one other question. Do the four groups here today have anyone on the board of Horse Sport Ireland? The witnesses are saying "No". That is an astonishing situation, to be quite honest. They are on the outside and they will be kept on the outside until that is rectified. Surely to God we can help so that each of the organisations here today can have at least one board member on the...

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: State Legal Services (20 Sep 2023)

Michael Collins: 4. To ask the Taoiseach if the position of State Solicitor for west Cork has been advertised since a person (details supplied) retired in November 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40614/23]

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (13 Jul 2023)

Michael Collins: Sophie Toscan du Plantier was brutally murdered outside her home in Kealfadda in Goleen - in the parish in which I live - on 23 December 1996. Twenty-seven years on, her death continues to enthrall the world but remains a blight on our island. Sophie's father is now 97 and her mother is 92. They and Sophie's son Pierre Louis want justice immediately in this case in Ireland. The French...

European Council Meeting: Statements, Questions and Answers (12 Jul 2023)

Michael Collins: It was reported at the weekend that the cost to the Irish taxpayer of taking unlimited numbers of Ukrainian refugees alone will be over €5.5 billion just to get us to the middle of 2024. To make matters worse the Government will pay €1.5 million of taxpayers money to the EU for its failure to accommodate asylum seekers with 350 international protection applicants without...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 Jul 2023)

Michael Collins: I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. He does not seem to grasp the crisis I am talking about. He is always welcome to west Cork, one of the most stunning parts of our country. However, it is not Jurassic Park, where you drive in and drive out waving and smiling. We live there with the unfinished bypasses and those that have not been done at all. We live with no simple passing bays being...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (12 Jul 2023)

Michael Collins: I have heard the Taoiseach has visited west Cork twice in the past two years. Last year he went as far west as my parish in Goleen, passing my own door on the way to Schull and the last weekend he went to Bandon and Courtmacsherry. In contrast to the recent visit by the Minister, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, who is sitting next to the Taoiseach, my biggest regret is that the Taoiseach did not...

Investment in Football: Motion [Private Members] (12 Jul 2023)

Michael Collins: I welcome David Hall and Michael Burgoyne from the west Cork schoolboys' and schoolgirls' leagues, who made the journey up from west Cork today to the Gallery for the debate. West Cork boasts an ever-increasing footballing population, with a current active player register of 3,000, from under eight to adulthood. In recent years, the league has gone from strength to strength in terms of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Jul 2023)

Michael Collins: I fully respect what Mr. Carroll is saying but I would like independent evidence regarding the prices. Factories are dictating the price of lamb. Some people feel there should be a full investigation into the whole processing business under Meat Industry Ireland. That is what the farmers on the ground are telling me. What is the monetary value of sheep offal? Where does it end up in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Jul 2023)

Michael Collins: I appreciate that. We have been listening to proposals from the Minister and the Department on how the sheep sector will improve and on what is needed to improve it from the perspective of farm organisations. In practical terms, when can sheep farmers expect to see an improvement in the whole sector, putting more money into their pockets for their product and with a working plan for the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Jul 2023)

Michael Collins: My final question, which is for the representatives of both organisations, is on when a processing plant takes in a delivery of lamb carcasses from abroad to be processed. Where does that lamb end up? Does it end up in Irish shops or is it exported again? Is the place of origin stamped on it? Is Bord Bia's stamp on any of these products? I am concerned that lamb imports, despite our...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Development of the Sheep Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (12 Jul 2023)

Michael Collins: I have four questions, two for Meat Industry Ireland and two for both Meat Industry Ireland and Bord Bia. The first is a more serious question so I will ask it on a stand-alone basis. We have heard from sheep farmers and marts, and also on various media, about how the factories are raising or lowering the price of lamb. We are hearing rumblings and calls for a full investigation into the...

Housing and Homelessness: Motion [Private Members] (11 Jul 2023)

Michael Collins: There are many reasons we have a housing crisis and we have put forward many of those in motions recently at every opportunity available to us. Planning permissions are a very significant issue, as are sewerage issues, where housing developments are being objected to and where county development plan decisions are taken out of the hands of councillors. All of these decisions are feeding...

Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Second Stage (Resumed) (11 Jul 2023)

Michael Collins: When the Minister addressed the Seanad on 10 February 2022, he acknowledged that introducing a law to create exclusion zones outside abortion facilities would push up against civil liberties, yet he persisted in bringing forward this Bill before this House. In the same intervention in the Seanad he publicly admitted that he was rejecting the advice of An Garda Síochána that a Bill...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (6 Jul 2023)

Michael Collins: We have been drip-fed information about the RTÉ scandal every day of the week for almost two weeks now. There are people in my constituency and all over the country who are rightly furious. We hear of wrong payments made to certain people RTÉ that have been going on for years. We hear of ticket purchases for bands at exorbitant prices and thousands of euro paid for flip-flop...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Jul 2023)

Michael Collins: It is no wonder that newly qualified GPs are emigrating as soon as they qualify. It is no wonder rural areas are suffering. It is no wonder GPs are closing their lists to new patients. What is the Taoiseach's solution to this crisis?

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Jul 2023)

Michael Collins: It is not.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Jul 2023)

Michael Collins: Maybe if the Taoiseach had listened to my speech, he would know that they were extracts from Dr. Fiona Kelly’s social media. That is what I read out. It did not come from me. I say that to start with. Second, where are the GPs the Taoiseach is talking about? Obviously, the Taoiseach says that there might be more GPs, but we have a bigger population, too. That has to be taken...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Jul 2023)

Michael Collins: If this were the case, the Castletownbere clinic would not have been forced to close last Friday. These are just a few solutions to a huge crisis. Will the Taoiseach work with the likes of Dr. Fiona Kelly throughout the country, or will he let such doctors burn out and close their doors?

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (5 Jul 2023)

Michael Collins: I will move channel away from RTÉ for the time being to the issue of rural doctors and burnout. Dr. Fiona Kelly is one of the finest rural doctors in this country. She has been practising in the Beara Peninsula since 2009. She is dedicated to her job, is hardworking and almost always contactable outside working hours. She offers same-day appointments for anyone in need and still...