Results 761-780 of 6,944 for speaker:Michael McNamara

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)

Michael McNamara: I thank the Minister for coming in. Looking at the EPA's report and the famous, or infamous, map on page 27 that points out areas identified as "Areas draining to [those] waterbodies that have met [or exceeded] the criteria specified by the Commission under Article 12, and will therefore require additional measures", and also looking at the 2022 derogation herd locations, information which...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)

Michael McNamara: Do the officials have anything to add?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)

Michael McNamara: Does Mr. Massey want to say anything before I come back in?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)

Michael McNamara: I will go back to what the Minister said when he linked phosphorous emissions to urban waste. There is no apparent correlation between urban centres and phosphorous sediment in County Clare. The big urban centres in the county are Ennis where the River Fergus drains southwards towards the Shannon Estuary, and Shannon and Sixmilebridge in the south. They are the second and third biggest...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)

Michael McNamara: There is no correlation with the level of derogation farming or intensive farming in the parts of Clare identified as requiring remediation in water quality. I do not know County Leitrim as well, but I would be surprised. I would say there is less intensive farming. I am open to correction by the Minister, who is closer to Leitrim than I am.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)

Michael McNamara: There is less intensive farming going on in Leitrim than there is in the Golden Vale. I think that is a fair comment, yet almost all of Leitrim is in the map. I do not want to mention the war, but there is also this stuff about Coillte engaging with private capital funds to buy land and try to buy existing forestry, and it is all Sitka spruce monoculture forestry that is having an effect....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)

Michael McNamara: It is not though. It is not, unfortunately.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)

Michael McNamara: Obviously, Coillte is better at PR around the issue now, but I am not sure that the actual change in practice is as profound as the Minister has portrayed. However, I accept that Coillte is at least talking the talk at this stage. Perhaps the Minister will come back to us with the detail on what concrete changes there will be in forestry generally, and in Coillte in particular, in areas...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Water Quality and the Nitrates Derogation: Discussion (15 Sep 2023)

Michael McNamara: I hope the Minister is right.

Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Second Stage (Resumed) (13 Jul 2023)

Michael McNamara: I respectfully disagree with the previous speaker. It is my belief that the stigma arises from a profound disagreement on when life begins, which is obviously informed by religious communities but not only by them. That disagreement goes a lot further than religious communities. The Bill has three particular provisions. The first is to outlaw engaging in conduct that is likely to obstruct...

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

Michael McNamara: The Tánaiste is a proponent of the nature restoration law. I have reservations regarding who will pay for the measures that will inevitably be necessary. I will give two examples. The first relates to agriculture. It is essential to pay farmers properly for their produce if you want them to produce to high environmental standards. I proposed looking at the cost of production and...

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

Michael McNamara: What about coastal communities without sewers?

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

Michael McNamara: It has been a century since the State was founded.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (13 Jul 2023)

Michael McNamara: I wish to revert to the issue of overcrowding in hospitals across the country, in particular, the hospital closest to me, which is University Hospital Limerick, UHL, in Limerick. I wish to put it in context as well because, on 14 January 2014, then Deputy Micheál Martin raised the spectre of overcrowding in hospitals. He stated that the Minister had neglected it as a priority in...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (13 Jul 2023)

Michael McNamara: I welcome the emphasis on primary care. There is a great new primary care centre in Ennis. The Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, opened it. I welcome that, but there is a shortage of GPs right across Clare and right across the country. It is increasingly difficult, as I highlighted to the Taoiseach, to get an appointment to see a GP in Scarriff. That will be exacerbated by...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Television Licence Fee (13 Jul 2023)

Michael McNamara: 54. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if the current legal requirement to have a television licence, the revenue from which goes to RTÉ to carry out public service broadcasting commitments, will be reviewed; if the consideration of providing revenue to local radio stations in respect of news and current affairs output will form part of any review; and if she...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Television Licence Fee (13 Jul 2023)

Michael McNamara: Funding for those national heroes is key to their future. Could the Minister tell me if the current legal requirement to have a television licence, the revenge from which goes to RTÉ to carry out its public service broadcasting commitments, will be reviewed and if the consideration of providing revenue to local radio stations in respect of news and current affairs output will form part...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Television Licence Fee (13 Jul 2023)

Michael McNamara: The Sound and Vision scheme sounds great but we both know, and it is important to outline to the House, that in reality it provides funding for documentaries and one-off measures on local radio stations rather than their day-to-day news and current affairs output, which is of a very high quality, whereas RTÉ's news and current affairs output is funded continuously or was up to now...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Television Licence Fee (13 Jul 2023)

Michael McNamara: Public service broadcasting is indeed important but the question is how to define it. Public service broadcasting is not about telling people what to think. Sometimes one might look at the output of our national broadcaster and see a deliberate attempt to tell people how to think on major matters as opposed to reporting what happens. A lot of media - not just broadcast media - has moved...

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: Report and Final Stages (12 Jul 2023)

Michael McNamara: There will always be exceptions that states will cling to to justify breaches of international law, just as our near neighbour clings to exceptions, or sought to do so. This is the first time that I am aware of that Ireland has spoken about exceptions. The other is a case that did not arise as recently, which is with regard to not having to justify the DPP's election to send a case to the...