Results 121-140 of 704 for speaker:John Kelly

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Jan 2015)

John Kelly: Senator Cullinane is seeking that the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, come before the House today. If the Minister is at a location 150 miles from these Houses and if there is no way that he can get here, does the Senator propose to proceed with a nonsense vote that will be of no relevance in respect of this matter?

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Jan 2015)

John Kelly: That is my first question.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Jan 2015)

John Kelly: I wish to raise an issue to which I and Senators Whelan and Landy have made reference on many previous occasions, namely, wind energy. Planning permission - with conditions - was granted to a particular company in respect of a development in the south east. An issue arose afterwards in the context of noise levels and the local community spent 18 months liaising with Wexford County Council...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)

John Kelly: Like other Senators, I do not see the need for this amendment. Senator Ó Clochartaigh seems to suggest that the system is not working. Perhaps it is not working in Galway. County Roscommon has had serious water quality issues for the past 20 years, including contamination with cryptosporidium and E. coli. The HSE acted quickly to inform the public in those cases. Public notices were...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)

John Kelly: Senator Ó Domhnaill will have to go back and get his script.

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Dec 2014)

John Kelly: Who was that?

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (18 Dec 2014)

John Kelly: How would they pay €8?

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (18 Dec 2014)

John Kelly: I compliment the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly. It is well acknowledged that he is doing a good job and that he is a fair Minister. He has listened to the concerns of the people and has turned the situation around. We all acknowledge that the way in which Irish Water was set up was wrong and the Minister has dealt with that appropriately....

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (18 Dec 2014)

John Kelly: However, all we have ever paid for through our taxes is the maintenance of a broken system. Since the establishment of Irish Water, I have never seen as much activity in my county, Roscommon, where 20,000 people are on boil water notices. In Boyle and Ardcarn, where 6,000 people are affected, the system has been fixed and the plant is now in operation, all in the space of a number of...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (18 Dec 2014)

John Kelly: I am also somewhat flabbergasted by Senator Walsh's statement that there should be competition in the delivery of Irish Water. That is grand but we know what competition can bring. It can bring cartelism and price fixing, in which case people would have no control over the price of water. I am encouraged by some of the Minister's statements in regard to something that has never happened in...

Seanad: Electoral Commission: Motion (17 Dec 2014)

John Kelly: Hear, hear. That is a valid point.

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Dec 2014)

John Kelly: The community in Ballingeary, County Cork, like the community in Dysart, County Roscommon, has had to take a High Court challenge to a decision by An Bord Pleanála to grant a wind farm development. The local community won in both cases. It was ruled that a company cannot get planning permission for a wind farm development without knowing how it will access the grid. The company in...

Seanad: Road Traffic (No. 2) Bill 2014: Second Stage (16 Dec 2014)

John Kelly: If they did renew the licence, they would not have required it. They let it slip because they got no notification.

Seanad: Road Traffic (No. 2) Bill 2014: Second Stage (16 Dec 2014)

John Kelly: I welcome the Minister to the House. Senator O'Neill explained very clearly the technicalities of what this Bill seeks to achieve. I have concerns regarding the retrospective aspect of the legislation. I hope it works, but we will not know that until such time as we see whether there is a legal challenge to it. Perhaps the way around this problem would have been to wipe any penalty points...

Seanad: Order of Business (16 Dec 2014)

John Kelly: I wish to raise the issue of the nursing home support scheme. There are outrageous delays in securing funding for elderly people discharged from hospitals to nursing homes. In my own county there are 15 week delays in securing funding for a nursing home. Whereas the hospital funds the first four weeks, the person has to wait for 11 weeks without funding and when it is granted, there is no...

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Dec 2014)

John Kelly: On O'Connell Street there was havoc. Was that very peaceful?

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Dec 2014)

John Kelly: Unlike Senator Norris, I was on O'Connell Street yesterday and saw the thugs who wanted nothing other than to cause anarchy in this country.

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Dec 2014)

John Kelly: In the past few days we have heard in the media about people's right to protest. I compliment those who protested on Merrion Square, where the protest seemed to be more like a concert. The peaceful nature of the protest resembled protesters who were more or less welcoming water charges. However, on O'Connell Bridge at 2.30 p.m., a few hundred people decided to bring the entire city to a...

Seanad: Intellectual Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Second Stage (9 Dec 2014)

John Kelly: I welcome the Minister of State. I will be brief, because previous contributions have covered every issue that I could have raised. The Bill makes unrelated changes to current intellectual property legislation in regard to patents and trade marks. It aims to ensure Ireland remains an attractive location for the pharmaceutical sector, which makes an important contribution to the Irish...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2014: Second Stage (4 Dec 2014)

John Kelly: I welcome the Minister of State to the House. The budget was a good one and did not get the media attention it deserved. It lost out to the water issue. People will start to feel the budget in their pockets from the beginning of the year. Maybe then we will see an appreciation of what the budget contained. I recognise the moves that have been made in the budget to tackle USC this year....