Results 701-720 of 1,262 for speaker:Garret Ahearn

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: As part of the future of RTÉ, is the Minister confident it will support the independent production companies that provide good, independent content for RTÉ? That is obviously a concern. These companies employ people in Ireland. There will be a knock-on effect if RTÉ has less money in terms of things that are being produced and paid for by RTÉ. Is it still key for the...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: There is also the support of unscripted production. Is that something the Minister will look to support in future?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: I mean as regards the tax breaks given to unscripted productions under section 481.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Is it something the Minister will consider, since we are making big changes within RTÉ? Is that something she thinks we should be looking at?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Has the Minister spoken to Revenue in relation to the licence fee and proposed changes being made to that, including talk of a possible household media charge? Has anyone from the Department had communication with Revenue on how that would work?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: The Minister said that RTÉ cannot fall. I totally agree with her there. At the same time, we are saying that conditionality would be put in, if we are going to fund it. How do both those statements make sense? RTÉ is putting a proposal to the Minister that it is looking for extra money to keep it going. The Minister is saying these are the conditions for giving RTÉ the...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: How do we enforce that conditionality if we are essentially saying we will not let RTÉ fall? I am not saying we should, but the ordinary person will say that just does not make sense.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Can the Minister see how there can be confusion in that we are not letting the organisation fall, yet we are putting conditionalities into public funding to support it?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: I will let the others go first. I have a question but the Chair would have to be very lenient with me. It is not in relation to RTÉ. It is more of a local issue. If there is time at the end-----

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: RTÉ Oversight and Long-Term Support and Funding: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media (4 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: It is a simple question. I was at a comedy club in Cahir in Tipperary at the weekend. It has been set up in the last couple of months by a guy called Tom O’Mahony. It is connected to RTÉ because he does the pre-show for “The Late Late Show” every week. He is a genius. A brilliant comedian. He is bringing the best comedians in the country to Cahir in Tipperary...

Seanad: Control of Exports Bill 2023: Second Stage (3 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber again and thank him for the work he and his officials have done on this Bill and in general throughout the year in the Department. As Senator Crowe said, this is important legislation. It has come through the Dáil already. It is a technical Bill but important nonetheless. The aim of the Bill is to streamline and strengthen Ireland's...

Seanad: Control of Exports Bill 2023: Second Stage (3 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: I am trying to do so. It is a business-related issue. While the Minister of State is before the House, I will raise the issue of work permits and people in the workforce. There is a real problem whereby people apply for work permits and get accepted, but are refused a visa and then cannot be reimbursed for applying for their work permit. Surely, there is something we can do for...

Seanad: Control of Exports Bill 2023: Second Stage (3 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Will Sinn Féin stop it straight away if it gets in?

Seanad: Control of Exports Bill 2023: Second Stage (3 Oct 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Next Tuesday.

Seanad: Address to Seanad Éireann by An Taoiseach (28 Sep 2023)

Garret Ahearn: Judging by all the contributions, the Taoiseach has an awful lot of problems to solve and money to give out after today, and I am going to add one more that has not yet been spoken about, although I have spoken about it many times previously. It relates to speeding up investment for infrastructure in Irish Water. Clonmel has been decimated with outages and disruptions all year to the point...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Statement of Strategy: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (12 Jul 2023)

Garret Ahearn: I welcome all the witnesses. I congratulate Mr. Hughes and wish him well in his new role. I did this when all the Ministers came into this room. Sometimes we can focus on the challenges quite a lot and that is really important but we need to take a step back sometimes and see what is being achieved. In the last 12 years, the role the Department has played in creating employment in this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Statement of Strategy: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (12 Jul 2023)

Garret Ahearn: With regard to supports for businesses, we gave huge supports during Covid and most businesses were really appreciative of that at the time. There is certainly a feeling when I talk to businesses that the supports given to businesses in the UK are much more supportive of business and enterprise than those given in Ireland. Do the witnesses find that is the case? There are probably budget...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Statement of Strategy: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (12 Jul 2023)

Garret Ahearn: I would not say we are ahead on the solar PV panels scheme. Seeing as Mr. Hughes brought it up, the scheme was introduced last week by the Ministers, Deputies Coveney and Eamon Ryan. It was welcome. They spoke about it at a committee meeting a few months ago. The funding for it is through the temporary business energy support scheme, TBESS. Mr. Hughes will be aware that many businesses...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Statement of Strategy: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (12 Jul 2023)

Garret Ahearn: At the start of the meeting, Deputy O'Reilly raised the level of employment for people with disabilities, which is lower than we want it to be. It is approximately 32% or 33% nationally. The EU average is roughly 55%. A strategy plan is in place. My question relates to reserved contracts for companies more than 30% of whose staff are people with disabilities. It is done quite a bit in...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (11 Jul 2023)

Garret Ahearn: I welcome the recent announcement by the Departments of the Environment, Climate and Communications and Enterprise, Trade and Employment of extra financial support for businesses to install solar PV panels. It is hugely welcome. The Government has done an awful lot for homeowners in the form of SEAI grants to support them to install solar panels but we probably had not done enough for...