Results 641-660 of 704 for speaker:John Kelly

Seanad: Report by Interdepartmental Working Group on Mortgage Arrears: Statements (Resumed) (25 Oct 2011)

John Kelly: I welcome the Minister of State. I am eagerly awaiting the outcome of the referendum on Thursday to see whether Oireachtas Members will be given powers of investigation. The sub-prime lenders must be investigated to determine how they operated their businesses. I fully accept there was reckless borrowing throughout the Celtic tiger years, mainly driven by a political belief that the good...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Oct 2011)

John Kelly: I raise the issue of commercial rates. Yesterday, in Buswells hotel we met a delegation from Irish employers for affordable rates. To say that the retailers this group represents are struggling is an understatement. I have raised this issue on numerous occasions, including with the Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, and the Minister of State at the Department of...

Seanad: Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Statements, Questions and Answers (5 Oct 2011)

John Kelly: I welcome the Minister to the House. I have a number of concerns and issues which I wish to raise with the Minister. The first issue relates to the warmer homes scheme. This scheme is working very well. I do not have information on how it is being operated in other counties but in my county of Roscommon the people who had their attics insulated in 2009 and 2010 were promised, where...

Seanad: Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Statements, Questions and Answers (5 Oct 2011)

John Kelly: -----instead of Deputy Pat Rabbitte because Conor Lenihan granted the licence to explore in the Lough Allen basin. I ask the Minister to introduce a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in the Republic of Ireland until the completion of a study of the potential impact of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources by the United States environmental protection agency. This study commenced...

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Oct 2011)

John Kelly: I do not want to appear heartless by bringing up this issue, but begging in this country must be tackled. Begging is mainly city based here and is not seen to the same extent in country areas. The UK has legislation in place to deal with this issue, on the basis of three strikes and then one is out, but we have not legislated for it. Every night on the streets of Dublin city I am...

Seanad: Company Closures: Motion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2011)

John Kelly: I welcome the Minister to the House and thank Senator Mary White for raising a matter with the Minister that I wanted to highlight myself, namely, the issue of the jobs in MBNA. I must ensure Senator White does not peep at my notes in future. I will not labour the point of these jobs because the Minister has dealt with it as much as he can. I urge him to leave no stone unturned in securing...

Seanad: Company Closures: Motion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2011)

John Kelly: Why are we not promoting tourism in China and India to a greater degree that we currently are given that those are the emerging markets? We need to reduce the red tape for Chinese and Indian business people and tourists to enter this country. The Minister opened the Small Firms Association's conference yesterday and my brother was the keynote speaker following the Minister. At that meeting...

Seanad: Innovation at the Heart of the Jobs Challenge: Statements (14 Sep 2011)

John Kelly: I welcome the Minister and share his sentiments. Most of what he said concerned what we needed to do, but by now it is what we must do. Everyone knows we need to do something. I will pass on to the Minister another book my brother wrote, "How? When You Don't Know How". If the Minister does not know how, he might if he reads this book. We met the Minister's officials at a committee this...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (21 Jul 2011)

John Kelly: Since my election, I have been amazed to listen to Senator Cullinane complaining about not having speaking time. He is taking over the Seanad today. This Bill is a necessary first step, as was pointed out. I tabled my amendment purely for the purpose of debate. Debate is required. Perhaps today is not the best day to convince the House of my argument because fewer than 10% of Senators are...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (21 Jul 2011)

John Kelly: I will be very brief. The PPS number does not always carry the up-to-date address of the person. In our efforts to appease the general public by reducing the number of Members in the Dáil, closing down the Seanad and reducing the number of county councillors and all that kind of nonsense, we are actually taking power away from the people. A number of years ago when we decided to abolish...

Seanad: Electoral Amendment Bill 2011: Committee Stage (21 Jul 2011)

John Kelly: There is much merit in Sinn Féin's amendment No. 13. The Labour Party has always argued a vote should be related to a person's personal public service number, PPS, number. However, the timing may not be right as we recently found out that there are 7.2 million PPS numbers in circulation for a population of 4.5 million. Before we try to introduce a PPS-based register, we need to clean up...

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Jul 2011)

John Kelly: I welcome the decision to establish the Seanad Public Petitions Committee, an announcement in respect of which was made on Tuesday last. The establishment of that committee was first proposed by Deputy Tuffy when she was a Member of this House. It is good that her proposal has finally come to fruition because it will give power to the people in the context of feeding their ideas into the...

Seanad: Agriculture and Fisheries: Statements, Questions and Answers (20 Jul 2011)

John Kelly: It is not related and I make that quite clear.

Seanad: Agriculture and Fisheries: Statements, Questions and Answers (20 Jul 2011)

John Kelly: A matter of grave concern to many farmers is the fair deal scheme, which I often refer to as the unfair deal when it comes to the farmer because the family farm is under threat once an elderly person goes into a nursing home. Has the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food any plans to discuss this with the Minister for Health and to exempt farmers from the process. They were exempt...

Seanad: Agriculture and Fisheries: Statements, Questions and Answers (20 Jul 2011)

John Kelly: I have a number of questions about the land reclamation amendment to the Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which will come before the House. Can the Minister outline the area of land above which an application for consent must be made if a farmer wants to restructure his holding, carry out land drainage or remove field boundaries? Can he give a commitment that the new legislation...

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Jul 2011)

John Kelly: I am glad Senator Byrne touched on social welfare fraud. A couple of weeks ago, I dropped some kind of clanger in the House when I suggested we should introduce a method of fingerprinting to combat social welfare fraud. As a result, great debate was generated in the media over recent weeks. There is an appetite to clamp down considerably on social welfare fraud in areas where it did not...

Seanad: Medical Practitioners (Amendment) Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Jul 2011)

John Kelly: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Róisín Shortall. My only regret is that the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, is not present, as he is the man to whom I should be addressing all my concerns about the health service. This legislation, while welcome, is eleventh hour stuff. It has come too late for the accident and emergency department in Roscommon County Hospital. Most...

Seanad: Medical Practitioners (Amendment) Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Jul 2011)

John Kelly: I reiterate my point that I do not believe this to be about patient safety but that it is all about money.

Seanad: Medical Practitioners (Amendment) Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Jul 2011)

John Kelly: It is not about patient safety. This is about money and in this case about saving it at the expense of the people of County Roscommon. I note from today's newspapers that the Minister supposedly intends to put in place an urgent care unit in Roscommon hospital as a replacement for an accident and emergency department. However, neither the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, nor...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Jul 2011)

John Kelly: Stop codding yourself.