Results 8,201-8,220 of 9,814 for speaker:Steven Matthews

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: I thank the Minister of State very much. Today will be the final session we have on this. We hope to present the Minister of State with our pre-legislative scrutiny report as soon as possible to allow the legislation to go to the next Stage. I remind members that I will be strict on five minutes because we only have an hour and a half. If we want to get everybody in it will be strict five...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: I thank the Deputy for his observation. I advise the Minister of State it will be mostly observations rather than questions in this meeting and we will feed back to him about the experience we have had with the witnesses who have attended.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: I thank the Deputy. The Minister of State has about a minute and a half.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: It is grand. We are just tied to these five-minute slots, which makes it a little more difficult. The composition and independence of the board will be in our PLS report anyway so it can be addressed at that stage.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: I thank the Deputy and the Minister of State for keeping to time on that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: I will move on to my own five-minute slot. We had a number of meetings about the Bill, which attracted quite a lot of attention. A wide range of issues are covered in it and that is why it attracted so much attention. A lot of that attention went on registers and political advertising. I was particularly interested to hear some of the concerns and suggestions that came out of the session...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: It has come back to me. The two students we met were from Sion Hill College. It was excellent. Senator Boyhan referred to them as well. I have a meeting with the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. The ICCL has submitted a written submission on this, which we will also include in the pre-legislative scrutiny report. I will move on to the second Fine Gael slot.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: I thank Senator Fitzpatrick. There is a third Fianna Fáil slot, which we might get back to, to answer those questions. I call Deputy Duffy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: I briefly follow on from Deputy Duffy regarding the time period this covers. I draw the Minister of State’s attention to the submission we got from Ms Liz Carolan, which talked about international interference campaigns. It said that it is clear from international evidence that interference operations begin long before the official election period.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: The final slot is the Fine Gael slot.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: That brings us to the end of the members' contributions. There are two further things I wish to stress to the Minister of State. In one of the earlier sessions on this we looked at concerns about the expertise that would be in the commission to keep pace with the rapid change in the online world and in online and digital advertising. The question asked was whether the commission should...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Electoral Reform Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: I thank the Minister of State.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues facing the Aviation Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: I am in Leinster House. I thank the witnesses for their attendance and their submissions, which outline the struggles at Shannon Airport. When we reviewed the national development plan, this committee, including Senator Garvey, Deputy Cathal Crowe and others, strongly recommended a rail spur link to serve the airport, as it would be beneficial. Would the witnesses support such a move and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues facing the Aviation Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: We reviewed the national development plan recently and, as a committee, we made a strong recommendation that there should be a rail spur to Shannon would benefit the region and the airport. Would Ms Embleton consider that such a move would give confidence to Shannon and the region and benefit the airport by improving access and passenger numbers with connectivity across Ireland to Shannon...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues facing the Aviation Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: That concludes my question on that point. I thank the Chairman for adding that clarification. That was important. I had not realised how-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Issues facing the Aviation Industry: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: Local knowledge is hugely important.

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Greenways Provision (17 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: 32. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the position regarding the code of practice for greenways; the potential limitations of their development including the impact on biodiversity; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32402/21]

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Rail Network (17 Jun 2021)

Steven Matthews: 33. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport further to Parliamentary Question No. 78 of 26 May 2021, if his attention has been drawn to a proposal by Iarnród Éireann to fix the Barrow Bridge on the Waterford to Rosslare rail line in the closed to rail position later in June 2021; the potential damage this may do to the bridge; and if he will request that this proposal...