Results 21-40 of 204 for speaker:Tony Mulcahy

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Jan 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: I wish everybody a happy new year. I am delighted we will have a debate on disability but that debate should be as informed as possible. On her second visit to the House the Minister outlined that she was carrying out a value for money audit of disability service providers, in particular those who provide intellectual disability services, and the cost of running those businesses on a day to...

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Jan 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: The issues of service delivery and medical cards were discussed recently in the House. However, the issue of family income support has not been addressed. I have been contacted by a number of constituents about family income support. People in receipt of FIS receive notification of cessation of payments six weeks prior to the date on which it will cease. They are told when they apply for...

Seanad: Water Services: Statements (25 Jan 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, to the House. Water is a resource that is essential to life. Every day we consume vast quantities of water, washing ourselves, and our clothes and dishes, flushing toilets, cleaning cars and drinking it. Industry uses it as a key input into the production process. Irish people use approximately 150 l of water each day. The single biggest...

Seanad: Renewable Energy: Motion (1 Feb 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: I move: That Seanad Éireann: — commends the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources for his work to date in the area of renewable energy, particularly wind and biomass; — welcomes the planned publication of the Government's new energy policy framework in 2012; — recognises the need to enhance and increase renewable energy in Ireland's overall energy mix and underlines...

Seanad: Renewable Energy: Motion (1 Feb 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: My colleagues will deal with some elements of it. The population of the nine counties along the western seaboard and the Shannon Estuary, from County Donegal to County Cork, is approximately 1.6 million. They cover an area of 38,450 sq. km., or over 50% of the country, and there are not enough people to fill it, as for decades emigration was a fact of life for young people until the Celtic...

Seanad: Renewable Energy: Motion (1 Feb 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: The Senator is good at misinterpreting what people say. I will clarify the issue presently.

Seanad: Renewable Energy: Motion (1 Feb 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: I will respond to some of the issues raised. The part of the motion referring to the North-South interconnector indicates that it should be delivered in a cost-effective and sustainable manner.

Seanad: Renewable Energy: Motion (1 Feb 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: We can play with the words and pick out lines from statements. There has been much of that going on in recent weeks.

Seanad: Renewable Energy: Motion (1 Feb 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: I am not really interested in who promised what but there is much talk like that going on in recent weeks.

Seanad: Renewable Energy: Motion (1 Feb 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: I will discuss the potential for development of privately-owned grid solutions. That would be an option for those building wind farms or hydro-pump storage facilities, as they could bring their line to the grid. The grid consists of infrastructure like pylons and cabling, and that may reduce the cost in having to meet targets as there may be quicker delivery. We must consider alternative...

Seanad: Energy (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Feb 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: I welcome the Minister back to the House. The Daily Mail said that I did not have much to say for eight months but I am making up for it in the past five weeks. There are many reasons this Bill is necessary - fairness, theft of energy, energy safety in electrical, LPG and natural gas fields, and to encourage energy efficiency and combat fuel poverty. The EU required member states to...

Seanad: Croke Park Agreement: Statements (9 Feb 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: I agree with Senator Cullinane; public and civil servants are a much-maligned group of workers. Their morale is low but they all show up for work every day and put their shoulders to the wheel. They are down quite an amount of money in the last few months. There are, however, areas that must be attacked. I take issue with Senator Byrne's remarks. Unfortunately I must use the accident and...

Seanad: Immigrant Investor Programme and Start-Up Entrepreneur Scheme: Statements (9 Feb 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: I warmly welcome this creative thinking and it is certainly the way forward. This is exactly the type of thought process we need. There was another proposal included in the Finance Bill which will be of great benefit to the country, the new tax regime for foreign investors. They will pay tax on between €75,000 and €500,000 at a rate of 30%. I heard a colleague in the Opposition...

Seanad: Energy (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Feb 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: I join my colleagues in thanking the Minister for bringing the Bill to the House. In his last summation the €2 billion in fuel supports that he mentioned shows where we are coming from in the past ten years. If the houses had been built and insulated properly it would not have been necessary to spend the €2 billion. The same issue arises in another area involving retrofitting...

Seanad: Energy (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Feb 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: At 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday next.

Seanad: Media Standards: Statements, Questions and Answers (22 Feb 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: "Standards" is a word we use daily, whether it relates to the standard of debate in this House, the standard of service we as elected representatives get from Departments or the standards that the public rightly expect of us. Oireachtas committees monitor how we behave, for example, the Committee on Members' Interests of Seanad Éireann, which was established under the Ethics in Public Office...

Seanad: Wind Turbines Bill 2012: Second Stage (22 Feb 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: The Minister is welcome to the House. I wish to preface my contribution by saying that I got this brief only six or seven months ago and it is an acquired knowledge at this stage. There are few jobs in wind energy. There is the job of bringing in the turbine and erecting it and then it only requires to be maintained once a year, which means that few jobs are created in the management and...

Seanad: Order of Business (8 Mar 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: I agree with Senator Byrne regarding senior managers in the organisations in question. They should be removed. In the past three or four years, every business has needed to contract and tighten up its activities. Unfortunately, I have needed to lay off many staff. The days of underwriting and subsidising loss-making businesses and organisations are long gone. I include the banks in this....

Seanad: Small Business: Motion (28 Mar 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: The Minister of State is welcome to the House. I agree with Senator Byrne because I have many friends in that scenario. He is right to say the situation has improved but it should not regress to where it was. It would be wrong of me not to reply to Senator White, for whom I have the greatest respect. The business model that was applied here from 1997 to 2010 certainly did not leave much...

Seanad: Order of Business (2 May 2012)

Tony Mulcahy: Senator MacSharry referred to the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice. It produced a very useful piece of information last Christmas. I ask the Leader to invite the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, to come here to facilitate a question and answer session like we had with some Ministers to discuss the multiple welfare payments made to some homes, the multiple welfare...