Results 81-100 of 257 for long speaker:Michael McNamara

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2022: Second Stage (9 Feb 2022)

Michael McNamara: I commend the Minister of State and his officials on introducing this Bill. It is long overdue. I have been asking in the Dáil when the commitment in the programme for Government to empower ComReg to apply administrative sanctions would be introduced. I kept being told that it was coming, but it is finally here. I hope that it will be effective and lead to a change in how...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Hospital Overcrowding (9 Feb 2022)

Michael McNamara: ...the issue of the necessity of some kind of an independent review with the Taoiseach. He seemed to take the idea on board and said he would refer it to the HSE and the Minister for Health. I, along with my Independent colleagues from the region, have raised this matter to ascertain what is happening with this independent review. Will we proceed with it? I do not have the answers. I...

Electricity Costs (Domestic Electricity Accounts) Emergency Measures Bill 2022: Second Stage (3 Feb 2022)

Michael McNamara: ...of State's Government. I appreciate that the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, did not determine this response in any way, but he happens to be sitting in that seat right now. On the issue of longer-term energy security, I have heard a lot of what I would consider aspirational from the Government benches, including Deputy Leddin from Limerick, with whom I would sometimes find myself in...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (26 Jan 2022)

Michael McNamara: ...colleagues over the past two years. Yesterday set a new ignominious record for overcrowding in UHL, with 98 people on trolleys. At the same time we learn that the new 96-bed unit which is long awaited will actually deliver only 48 new beds; other beds will be taken out and replaced. I accept that any number of new beds will not meet the exponential growth in numbers on trolleys in...

Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Second Stage (3 Dec 2021)

Michael McNamara: I am weary from talking about Covid. The people I represent are weary. We are all, I think, weary at this stage, nobody more, I suspect, than the Minister. Notwithstanding that, I am here, along with some of my colleagues, to oppose this Bill and to try to explain in brief why I am opposing it. In March 2020, in the first substantive debate on the pandemic after the last general...

Health (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (2 Dec 2021)

Michael McNamara: ...air, I cannot accept that a mask is going to stop the transmission of a respiratory virus where people are infectious. The reason for masks in this instance is because we followed the fiction for so long that schools were safe. Schools were not safe. They are absolutely necessary-----

Merchant Shipping (Investigation of Marine Casualties) (Amendment) Bill 2021: Second Stage (24 Nov 2021)

Michael McNamara: ...servants from other Departments to be appointed? I ask because they are impartial civil servants. However, they are not really impartial, are they? If they have been part of the State apparatus for so long of course every inkling in their body is to defend the State at all costs and to take the approach that we will go to the European Court of Justice if we must but by God we will not...

Sex Offenders (Amendment) Bill 2021: Second Stage (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Michael McNamara: ...else who has spoken I regard sexual offences as heinous crimes which are exceptionally damaging to society, which is why we punish them as crimes, and to individuals. These offences leave a long-lasting mark on the victims. I can understand some of the calls in the Chamber for far greater punishment of perpetrators in that regard. Nevertheless, I have a couple of questions about the...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Coast Guard Service (4 Nov 2021)

Michael McNamara: ...body for them but the vast majority of those in it are former members rather than current members. It is a morass and we will not solve it tonight but the Minister of State needs to take a long look at it. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, spoke about visiting Doolin and I was there myself when its lovely new shining Coast Guard station was opened. The officer in charge there...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 Nov 2021)

Michael McNamara: ...which is estimated to have been 3.79% in September. It is 3% in Germany. The Financial Timesyesterday announced that the Federal Reserve was to taper its stimulus programmes. I accept it has been a long time since monetary policy for Ireland was set by the Minister for Finance. It was set for a very short period given the peg to sterling and that short period is not really a glowing...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (4 Nov 2021)

Michael McNamara: ...reading the Financial Timesand The Economist, that we have some input as a nation, either at the eurozone table or, more broadly, into our monetary policy, and that we are not just drifting along. As the Minister for Finance of a sovereign state, what does the Minister want to see done with monetary policy in Europe in response to this? Only that will have an impact on inflation and...

Extension of Part 3 of the Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020: Motion (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Michael McNamara: But so is tweeting during debates. The Chair is long enough around to know that is disrespectful and out of order.

Extension of Part 3 of the Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020: Motion (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Michael McNamara: As long as the Minister does not take the opportunity to spread disinformation.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Shannon Group: Chairperson Designate (7 Oct 2021)

Michael McNamara: .... I have six questions and I hope Mr. Ó Céidigh will answer them all, if possible. He mentioned promoting Shannon's environmentally-friendly credentials. He will be aware that Shannon Airport has the longest runway in Ireland which enables planes to take off with a higher load than they can from shorter runways, thereby delivering greater fuel efficiency per passenger than is...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (6 Oct 2021)

Michael McNamara: ...with environmental groups and the data giants - these huge companies - in order to identify how this issue might be addressed? Moving the problem to another country is not going to solve it as long as all of us use more data every day.

Afghanistan Crisis: Statements (29 Sep 2021)

Michael McNamara: ...think the Taliban came to power without popular support. No occupational force could sweep through a country as quickly as it did without considerable support on the ground. It was obvious from a long time ago that the western project would not succeed there, such as it was.

Data Centre Moratorium: Motion [Private Members] (29 Sep 2021)

Michael McNamara: ...what we can do is so insignificant but shifting where the data are stored to somewhere else is not the answer - shifting where that plastic is produced to somewhere else is not the answer - as long as Irish consumers and consumers right across the world continue to use these data and those data are stored somewhere, using vast amounts of energy and perhaps more energy in other places than...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (28 Sep 2021)

Michael McNamara: ...General, the only person answerable to this House for the Attorney General is the Taoiseach. He is reputed to be a very hard-working Attorney General. What is the delay? This family has waited long enough for a report into what happened to their son and brother in 1984.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (7 Jul 2021)

Michael McNamara: ...unsustainable. However, it is not having an impact. The Taoiseach said 296 critical care beds; Dr. Colm Henry, the chief clinical officer of the HSE, said 289 last week. Either way, it is a long way short of the number promised by the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly. In addition, we provide 6% of our budget to mental health. I suggested mental health was suffering because...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Beef Task Force: Discussion (6 Jul 2021)

Michael McNamara: I thank Mr. Dowling. I am glad we have been able to conduct this meeting virtually. When I asked the Minister's predecessor why the beef task force had not been sitting for such a long period at the start of the Covid crisis, I was told it was not possible to meet virtually, so I am glad it is possible. In the course of the beef task force's existence, laws have been passed in Spain that...