Results 1,821-1,840 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Passport Services (16 Nov 2022)

Simon Coveney: With regard to the specific application about which the Deputy has enquired, this application is within the current turnaround time and has not yet reached its issue-by date.

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Departmental Meetings (16 Nov 2022)

Simon Coveney: Table 1 - DATE Location Purpose 1 24.05.2021 Shannon Airport Bilateral Meeting 2 08.06.2021 Ennis Open new civil defence HQ 3 19.10.2021 Clare County Visit 4 30.10.22 Clare County visit ...

Written Answers — Department of Defence: EU Data (16 Nov 2022)

Simon Coveney: My Department has not paid any EU fines within the specified timeframe..

Written Answers — Department of Defence: Defence Forces (16 Nov 2022)

Simon Coveney: As the Deputy will be aware, the Constitution and the Defence Acts enshrine the governance of the Defence sector. Under the provisions of the Defence Act, members of the Permanent Defence Force are prohibited from being members of a political organisation and members of the Reserve Defence Force are prohibited from political activities when called out on permanent service or when deployed on...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Foreign Policy (15 Nov 2022)

Simon Coveney: The situation in Venezuela remains complex and deeply concerning. Political repression continues, and the humanitarian and human rights situations in the country are still of serious concern. Ireland and the EU have continued to call for the release of all political prisoners, for the independence of political parties, for freedom of expression to be respected, and for an end to human rights...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Foreign Birth Registration (15 Nov 2022)

Simon Coveney: My Department is responsible for processing Foreign Birth Registration (FBR) applications for people who are born abroad and claim Irish Citizenship through a grandparent born in Ireland or through a parent who has claimed citizenship also through FBR, Naturalisation or Post Nuptial Citizenship. Demand for this service increased significantly as a result of the Brexit vote in the UK. In...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Passport Services (15 Nov 2022)

Simon Coveney: Each year the Passport Service proactively plans for the demand forecasted for the following year. Part of this planning involves a public communications strategy carried out by my Department, with a view to ensuring passport demand is manageable throughout the year. This year the Passport Service communications campaign was deployed at the start of the year with the objective of...

Written Answers — Department of Defence: Emergency Planning (15 Nov 2022)

Simon Coveney: I chair the Government Task Force on Emergency Planning which coordinates emergency management policy across Government departments and agencies. The Office of Emergency Planning in my department provides a secretariat function to the Government Task Force. One of the tasks of the Office of Emergency Planning is to convene a meeting of the National Emergency Coordination Group within 1 hour...

Written Answers — Department of Defence: Emergency Planning (15 Nov 2022)

Simon Coveney: A National Emergency Coordination Group is convened at the request of a Government department in response to a threatened or ongoing national-level emergency in the area of responsibility of that department. As Minister for Defence, my Department, and specifically the Office of Emergency Planning, has the responsibility to convene the National Emergency Coordination Group in the...

Written Answers — Department of Defence: Naval Service (15 Nov 2022)

Simon Coveney: As the Deputy will be aware, there has been significant recent investments made in improving the infrastructure at the existing Naval Service base with more to come in 2023. To that end, I am satisfied the current infrastructure provision is sufficient to enable the Naval Service carry out it's current operational requirements. The provision of additional infrastructure will be considered in...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (10 Nov 2022)

Simon Coveney: We are dealing with the Defence and Foreign Affairs Estimates today. For what it is worth, I think that the Defence Estimate is pretty straightforward. There is a relatively small number of extra pensioners that we must cater for and I will go into details in a second. The rest of the Estimate essentially accounts for the new wage agreement that has been agreed. The Foreign Affairs...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (10 Nov 2022)

Simon Coveney: I just wanted to make the point because I know that an hour has been allocated for each. I am in the hands of the committee if anyone wants that timeline changed. I thank the committee for the opportunity to present for its consideration the 2022 Supplementary Estimate on the Army Pensions Vote. The Army Pensions Vote makes provision for retired pay, pensions, allowances and gratuities...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (10 Nov 2022)

Simon Coveney: As the Deputy will be aware, we have spoken on many occasions, and I suspect we will do so on many occasions in the future, about our efforts to improve retention rates within the Defence Forces, to keep people in the Defence Forces for longer and to extend the time people are able to stay in the Defence Forces. We have made some progress on that in the past year. This year we have seen 30...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (10 Nov 2022)

Simon Coveney: Yes, I think that is fair.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (10 Nov 2022)

Simon Coveney: It involves everything because basically it is an hour-long session-----

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (10 Nov 2022)

Simon Coveney: I just wanted to reassure the committee that we are more than aware, as are the Defence Forces, of the challenges that we face with recruitment and retention, which are not unusual. Throughout Europe recruiting and retaining people is a big challenge. We need to get on top of it and we have a plan to do that. We will spend a considerable amount of money to back that up. We need to assess...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (10 Nov 2022)

Simon Coveney: That is all part of our recruitment campaigns. Sometimes we can do that through direct entry. We may be able to fill some of those skills gaps through growing and expanding the Reserve. We may be able to do some of it through civilianisation. We need to be open to all of those things. Obviously, my preference is to get people into the Permanent Defence Force with the skills we need to...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 27 - International Co-operation (Revised)
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs (Revised) (10 Nov 2022)

Simon Coveney: That is happening all the time and it needs to happen. I would like to be able to give the Chief of Staff and his team as much flexibility as possible to be able to move skills around within the Defence Forces. We will see new management structures in the Army in particular, but also in other parts of the Defence Forces. That is part of what the commission looked at. A very active...