Results 5,701-5,720 of 8,245 for speaker:Bríd Smith

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Social and Affordable Housing (18 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: To add to that, I doubt if there are many in this House who can imagine what anticipation, hope and joy a family have when they are told, after years of waiting, with many of them in homeless accommodation, that this is their home. Deputy Ó Snodaigh spoke about the homes in Cherry Orchard, which are gorgeous. They are passive housing and have lovely fitted kitchens and so on. They are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Broadband Plan (18 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: I recently heard the Taoiseach eulogise the Land Development Agency comparing it to the electrification of Ireland, a comparison I often use when I talk to the Minister about broadband. I think that is a joke but I also think it is such a shame that we privatised broadband. It will go down in history as one of the worst decisions this Government has made. Of course, I welcome and look...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Petroleum and Gas Exploration (18 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: Every time I ask a question on climate change, I can locate it in the context of another climate disaster or global event of climate and weather extremity. This week, we saw such extremes in the USA and the far east and the absolute destruction to life and planet they have caused. That is why I bang on about this all the time. Our situation and the threat to our planet and our lives on it...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Petroleum and Gas Exploration (18 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: That is fair enough. We have obviously a very serious difference about how to tackle climate change: it emerges every time we have this discussion. The Bill I have before the House passed Second Stage. There was strong cross-party support for it although the Government may be opposing it. What the Government is doing by extending these licences and leaseholds is attempting to sabotage...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Broadband Plan (18 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: Am I being asked to forfeit my 30 seconds?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Broadband Plan (18 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: Am I being asked to do so or is the Leas-Cheann Comhairle assuming it? I have no problem with the request.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Broadband Plan (18 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: 52. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the way in which the national broadband plan will meet its targets; if there have been changes to the costs of the plan from when it was first announced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37617/18]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Broadband Plan (18 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: I am here just over two years and, in those two years, time after time the Minister has come in here to eulogise the privatisation of broadband. I almost feel sorry for him that by now he is probably choking on his words. He repeatedly says what a wonderful plan this is and what it is going to do for the country. Bidder after bidder has fallen aside but the Minister still comes in here to...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Petroleum and Gas Exploration (18 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: 51. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the extensions and renewals to licences for petroleum exploration issued in 2018; and the way in which the issuing of these licences is compatible with commitments to tackle climate change. [37615/18]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Petroleum and Gas Exploration (18 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: I assume the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, is taking this question. He usually does. I think I have asked a similar question previously. I will come to the reason I ask that question but I want to ask him about the extensions and renewals of licences for petroleum exploration issued this year and the way in which the issuing of these licences is compatible with and complements our...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Energy Infrastructure (18 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: The planning permission for an LNG terminal at Ballylongford has been extended by An Bord Pleanála for five years. It was due to expire in 2018. Compared with when that planning permission was first given, we now know more about the dangers of LNG, the way that fracking is conducted in North America and the damage the latter does to the environment and the planet. As such, it is...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Energy Infrastructure (18 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: I must contradict the Minister's statement that his priority is just to supply energy. It is also to ensure that we move away from overheating the planet. Liquefied natural gas is the dirtiest fossil fuel imaginable - scientists argue it is as dirty as coal. What we did not know in 2008 when permission was first granted for offshore LNG licences was that methane emissions from natural gas...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Energy Infrastructure (18 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: 45. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if his attention has been drawn to proposals to build a liquefied natural gas, LNG, terminal here; his views on whether such facilities are compatible with the State's commitments to tackle climate change; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37591/18]

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Energy Infrastructure (18 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: The question is on the proposal for a liquefied natural gas terminal in the Shannon Estuary. How is this proposal compatible with the State's commitment to tackle climate change, given that Ireland has banned fracking and given the likelihood, should the proposal proceed, that fracked gas from North America will be used off the Irish coast? This seems to fly in the face of the Minister's...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Post Office Closures (18 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: 69. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to save the existing post office network in view of the recent closures of rural post offices and the plans for future closures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37614/18]

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Electricity Generation (18 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: 82. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if his attention has been drawn to plans by Bord na Móna and the ESB to generate electricity by use of large scale biomass and that such plans could result in the destruction of forests outside the State and lead to the generation of increased emissions of CO2; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37616/18]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Waiting Lists (7 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: 639. To ask the Minister for Health the number of persons who have been contacted in relation to being on a HSE waiting list; and the number who have been removed from the waiting list for not returning correspondence. [35682/18]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Control of Dogs (7 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: 959. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the enforcement of the 2015 legislation to microchip dogs that is in place; the fines and penalties that have been imposed since the legislation came into force; the reason some pounds are still not microchipping dogs three years after the legislation was enacted; and the details of the new databases in view of concerns that the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Impact of Retirement Packages for Postmasters: Discussion (4 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: I thank the PBFI representatives for their presentation. We spent a good deal of the last Dáil term looking at and talking about the Sparkasse and Kiwibank models. The issue came up many times at this committee and on the floor of the Dáil, including through questions to the Minister for Finance. We had some very energised debates about whether it could work and the Government...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Impact of Retirement Packages for Postmasters: Discussion (4 Sep 2018)

Bríd Smith: I am under pressure to leave and I thank the witnesses and the Minister for coming here today. I have a question for the Minister. In the past few years I watched closely a game of pass the parcel, pardon the pun, in the relationship between what is going on here and what went on in the Dáil between the Minister, Deputy Naughten, the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy...