Results 161-180 of 776 for at speaker:Matt Shanahan

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (12 Oct 2023)

Matt Shanahan: It is a new clinical medical school at CUH. I cannot see where the project was presented to the Dáil and where it was debated, scrutinised or approved by the House. University College Cork, UCC, informed us through the Irish Examinerthat the development is for "anticipated" needs, not pressing or present needs. South East Technological University, SETU, is awaiting the outcomes of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Skills and Apprenticeship Landscape in Ireland: Institute of Physics (11 Oct 2023)

Matt Shanahan: I thank our guests. It is a wide-ranging area. I had the misfortune to study physics in secondary school thinking I was going to do mechanical engineering but I ended up in a course that was all about maths, which I hated. I will raise the matter of the learning background for physics and the curriculum, particularly at secondary school. My own kids are going through that stage at the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Skills and Apprenticeship Landscape in Ireland: Institute of Physics (11 Oct 2023)

Matt Shanahan: We absolutely need specialist teachers because teachers do so much to motivate and influence students. I will raise a couple more points. The first relates to the STEM route and more apprenticeships and craft working. Our guests are probably well aware that there are now far more opportunities for people to go on to third level. We have a kind of hangover, compared with places such as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Skills and Apprenticeship Landscape in Ireland: Institute of Physics (11 Oct 2023)

Matt Shanahan: I will return to the issue of integration at university or technological university level. I am particularly interested in where the technological university sector is going. In Waterford, where I am from, we had Waterford Institute of Technology, which is now the hub of the new South East Technological University. We have three scientific gateways down there - the Pharmaceutical and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Skills and Apprenticeship Landscape in Ireland: Institute of Physics (11 Oct 2023)

Matt Shanahan: I think the institute has a platform and a voice that perhaps a lot of people in the research community do not have. The next issue I will touch on is the circular economy. Deputy Bruton might speak to this as it is a particular favourite of his. It appears that it will have to be a very big area and you imagine that there will be a lot of aptitude there for people to get involved from the...

Financial Resolutions 2023 - Budget Statement 2024 (10 Oct 2023)

Matt Shanahan: Before I start, I mark the passing of Ollie Cleary, a past mayor of Waterford and somebody who campaigned tirelessly for 20 years for the South East Technological University, SETU. It is show time all over again. I feel as though somebody should stand up and question the wisdom of breaking the fiscal rules in developing this budget, particularly given how without the windfall corporation...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Healthcare Infrastructure Provision (10 Oct 2023)

Matt Shanahan: 482. To ask the Minister for Health the status of a HSE tender (details supplied); if he will give a guarantee that the Waterford surgical hub will be nominated first to be constructed and awarded the highest priority, given the high level of surgical activity at University Hospital, Waterford and in its subsidiary unit in Kilcrene, County Kilkenny; and if he will make a statement on the...

An Garda Síochána: Motion [Private Members] (4 Oct 2023)

Matt Shanahan: The debate is to finish at 12 noon.

An Garda Síochána: Motion [Private Members] (4 Oct 2023)

Matt Shanahan: ...speak about Garda transfers. Gardaí have been waiting for many years for transfers with not a hope of getting one. This is why we see early retirements. It is something the Minister has to look at. We need radical action and this is what the vote represents. It is frustration among rank-and-file gardaí. It is a communications issue with governance and head office. This is...

An Garda Síochána: Motion [Private Members] (4 Oct 2023)

Matt Shanahan: I thank Cáit Nic Amhlaoibh in our parliamentary service for helping us with the motion, and I thank the line Minister, Deputy McEntee, for being in attendance for the entirety of the debate. That does not happen often and, as such, we note the Minister's attendance and thank her for it. As we know, it has been 100 years since the foundation of An Garda Síochána. It is a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: The Circular Economy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Matt Shanahan: I thank the Minister of State and Ms Higgins for attending. The Minister of State has a very important job as regards reuse and recycling. The biggest environmental challenge we see at present is that of microplastics in the oceans. Even at European level, we do not seem to be making any great strides in trying to address the amount of plastic we are producing. I will return to an issue...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: The Circular Economy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Matt Shanahan: On the issue of fly-tipping, it came out previously that if a camera is to be deployed on a site for fly-tipping, locals cannot do it. The local authority has to do it. Will the Minister of State look at that? The local authority cannot get out to rural areas where there is fly-tipping going on. Locals are prepared - indeed, in my own area, we tried to do this - to put in their own...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: The Circular Economy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Matt Shanahan: I want to look at the issue of refills. We need to look at the amount of plastic we consume for detergents and cosmetics. The Department might have a role to play in trying to incentivise the use of refillable bottles. It is happening now, but to a very small degree, in some SuperValu stores. This allows people to bring back used cosmetic bottles and refill them. This keeps the one...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Departmental Policies (3 Oct 2023)

Matt Shanahan: 586. To ask the Minister for Health if, given that the advisory board of Southwest Hospital Group has been disbanded for some time, he can outline what oversight and governance is in place at SSWHG to decide performance and remuneration parameters applying to the executive management, roles and functions; if he is comfortable that relevant governance is in place; and if he will make a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: SME Energy and Carbon Demands, Green Initiatives and Technology: Discussion (27 Sep 2023)

Matt Shanahan: I thank our guests. They have a difficult job and to be fair have been doing it well. Outside the climate discussion, it must be acknowledged that Enterprise Ireland, EI, IDA and the local enterprise offices, LEOs, have done great work. I have stated before in this committee and in the House that we need a framework for the indigenous SME community. The LEOs do a good job. I would like...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: SME Energy and Carbon Demands, Green Initiatives and Technology: Discussion (27 Sep 2023)

Matt Shanahan: It needs to be acknowledged that we have two separate streams of business going on here. The Enterprise Ireland people will know that Enterprise Ireland is largely export-focused. A large number of the companies that would be engaged with Enterprise Ireland have very good market intelligence in terms of where they are going, and they would understand the benefits of sustainability and how...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Rural Recreation Policy (26 Sep 2023)

Matt Shanahan: I know the Minister has visited Waterford and I have had the pleasure of accompanying her on some of those visits. She rightly pointed out the very significant number of attractions. We are blessed in Waterford with the topography that we have, with lakes, rivers, mountains and the sea right on our doorstep. The measures that the Minister is announcing are very welcome. However, it is...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 Sep 2023)

Matt Shanahan: I notice the absence in the Government benches today. I hope that is because the Members are down supporting the farmers and not intimidated into not attending Dáil Éireann today. One of the strongest vestiges of our colonial mentality is our continuing to unthinkingly replicate the policies of other nations as though they somehow have things figured out. We think the Finns...

Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Second Stage (20 Sep 2023)

Matt Shanahan: ...of money to put into an election of this sort. It does beg the question of whether a person who can raise more money is in a better position to be potentially elected than somebody who cannot. That again speaks to the ability of people to do this job. I wonder as well how the division of labour, if you want to call it that, within the local authority is really going to work. On the one...

Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Second Stage (20 Sep 2023)

Matt Shanahan: As the Minister of State knows, a plebiscite was held in 2019 in three city areas to decide whether to have a directly elected mayor. Waterford was one of those and I voted in that. I actually voted against the proposal at the time. I could not understand exactly what this person was going to be doing in terms of the way the job was being framed. What I saw in essence was a job in which...