Results 7,521-7,540 of 8,023 for speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice

Midland Regional Hospital: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this matter. First of all, we offer our condolences to the parents who have lost their babies, be it in Portlaoise hospital or any other hospital around the country. It is a harrowing time when something goes wrong for the parents. Down my part of the country in Ballinasloe, this issue has come into the limelight as well. When we do an inquiry...

Midland Regional Hospital: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Because they were not given the resources.

Midland Regional Hospital: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I never said brain surgery.

Midland Regional Hospital: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Deputy Twomey should read the paper from last week.

Midland Regional Hospital: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Read Dr. McMullen's reply in the paper.

Midland Regional Hospital: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Accident and emergency.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Peat Briquette Production: Bord na Móna (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I will tell the Deputy what the wording of the legislation means. If one buys it and accompanies it from North to South one does not pay carbon tax. If a person has his hand around the bag of coal he is sound.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Peat Briquette Production: Bord na Móna (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I thank the delegates for their presentation. Am I right in saying that Bord na Móna's peat prices have to come from €35 down to €23 or €25 after the levy has gone? The witnesses spoke about biomass, but I have talked to people in Bord na Móna who have looked at the ESB plant in Lanesborough. Is Bord na Móna not clutching at straws in this area? People...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Peat Briquette Production: Bord na Móna (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: What must Bord na Móna do?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Peat Briquette Production: Bord na Móna (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I thought it was exempt.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Peat Briquette Production: Bord na Móna (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: It is not exempt.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Peat Briquette Production: Bord na Móna (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: We have been led to believe it was exempt.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Peat Briquette Production: Bord na Móna (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: What do they cost? Is it €4 or €5 per tonne?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Peat Briquette Production: Bord na Móna (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Mr. Quinn said Bord na Móna was teaming up with Coillte. We have to be realistic about Ireland at the moment. We are importing timber for the sawmills from Scotland. Mr. Quinn has spoken of pulp but we have uses for all timbers and we do not actually have enough of them. Am I correct that some kernels are being imported from Africa?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Peat Briquette Production: Bord na Móna (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: They are not too far apart. Bord na Móna has aspirations about biomass but I have done research on willow and know the amount of area one needs as compared with the amount available. I also know about the quality of land which will be required if Bord na Móna teams up with Coillte for spruce or the other trees it grows. We are importing timber from Scotland, manufacturing goods...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Peat Briquette Production: Bord na Móna (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Is Bord na Móna expecting to produce peat and supply it to the ESB at €25 per tonne? It will not be able to buy biomass for anything near that. It will cost between €45 to €50 per tonne to import it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Peat Briquette Production: Bord na Móna (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I have two other questions. Did any of the hierarchy of Bord na Móna take the 30% pay cut that it is expecting the people who do the work, day in, day out at Mountdillon or in Offaly, to take? It is my understanding that the higher echelons in Bord na Móna have not taken a cut and the ordinary people who do the work on the ground are very upset about it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Peat Briquette Production: Bord na Móna (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Mr. Quinn spoke about the new mix of 50:50 peat and biomass for the new briquette Bord na Móna is bringing out. Will the briquette be dearer than the current peat briquette? Bord na Móna sells peat currently for €23 a tonne or €25 a tonne, and it makes briquettes from some of its stock, and so it can produce a briquette much more cheaply. How much will profits be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Peat Briquette Production: Bord na Móna (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: I do not want to know the exact pricing. I simply wish to know the approximate percentage.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Peat Briquette Production: Bord na Móna (27 May 2015)

Michael Fitzmaurice: Does Mr. Quinn think that Bord na Móna will lose market share given that peat briquettes coming in from Estonia and other places are being sold more cheaply than the price at which Bord na Móna can produce them? I would be the first to say that they may not be of the same quality. If the price of the biomass briquette increases, which will be the case until Bord na Móna can...