Results 61-80 of 23,052 for speaker:Paddy Burke
- Seanad: Protection of the Environment Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (25 Feb 2003)
Paddy Burke: Will the Minister answer my question on the waiver?
- Seanad: Protection of the Environment Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (25 Feb 2003)
Paddy Burke: Operators will be obliged to notify the agency annually of the charges and cost of running a landfill for the previous 12 months. In the majority of cases, the local authority will operate the landfill. How will this be scrutinised? The Minister is transferring powers for waste management to county managers, who can provide whatever figures they like on the operation of a landfill. They can...
- Seanad: Protection of the Environment Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (25 Feb 2003)
Paddy Burke: I understand what the Minister is saying and fully appreciate that the EPA will be responsible for licensing. Let us consider Sligo County Council, which has no landfill and takes its waste to landfills in County Mayo. It is possible that running a landfill will become so expensive that Sligo County Council could easily be compelled to bring its waste to an incineration facility. The Minister...
- Seanad: Protection of the Environment Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (25 Feb 2003)
Paddy Burke: In County Mayo recently a waste collection operator who was segregating waste applied to extend and modernise his premises. Permission was granted by Mayo County Council but was subsequently refused by An Bord Pleanála on the grounds that the plant was four and a half miles from Castlebar. That is the ludicrous position in which this man found himself. The plant is located in a rural area...
- Seanad: Local Government Bill 2003: Second Stage (Resumed). (5 Mar 2003)
Paddy Burke: I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on the Bill. While I regret that the Minister is not present, I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Deputy McDaid.
- Seanad: Local Government Bill 2003: Second Stage (Resumed). (5 Mar 2003)
Paddy Burke: Local government reform deserves a much wider debate than we are having in regard to the Bill before the House. There are two Bills from the Department of the Environment and Local Government on the Order Paper of the House; the Protection of the Environment Bill 2003 and the Local Government Bill 2003, which is currently being discussed. One takes away the power of local authority members...
- Seanad: Local Government Bill 2003: Second Stage (Resumed). (5 Mar 2003)
Paddy Burke: Was the Minister of State listening to what I said at the beginning of my speech? I am talking about a much wider debate on total reform of local government which we do not find in the Bill. Can the Minister of State show me local government reform? While the Bill speaks about reform of local government, there is nothing in it about reform. The Minister says he wants to make local authority...
- Seanad: Local Government Bill 2003: Second Stage (Resumed). (5 Mar 2003)
Paddy Burke: Of course it is. We are moving one step forward and two back. We have seen U-turns on most of the proposals of the previous Minister for the Environment and Local Government. We have passed legislation after legislation to change what Deputy Dempsey did as Minister. He wanted to have directly elected mayors. That proposal has been discarded. There were huge changes to his planning measures. I...
- Seanad: Protection of the Environment Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (5 Mar 2003)
Paddy Burke: This section is a retrograde step for local democracy. To hand over this power to county managers and take it away from locally elected representatives is a retrograde step. I do not know how the Minister will implement these proposals. He said on Second Stage that he will decide the charge commensurate with what people can pay. This leads me to believe that when the Bill is passed he will...
- Seanad: Protection of the Environment Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (5 Mar 2003)
Paddy Burke: That is correct. The Minister has grant-aided local authorities to the tune of â¬15 million, which works out at less than â¬500,000 per local authority, which is buttons.
- Seanad: Protection of the Environment Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (5 Mar 2003)
Paddy Burke: We have a few bottle banks here and there in towns throughout the country.
- Seanad: Protection of the Environment Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (5 Mar 2003)
Paddy Burke: Some local authorities have advanced more than others by using their own resources and by borrowing. They have received no help from the Department of the Environment and Local Government. The Minister's predecessor levied a charge of â¬25 per tonne of waste dumped at landfill sites, which has gone into the State's coffers.
- Seanad: Protection of the Environment Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (5 Mar 2003)
Paddy Burke: Only a small amount of it has come back out. The 15 cent levy on plastic bags has been very successful. All this money should have been channelled out, including extra funding. Local authorities are strapped for cash and cannot make progress, yet the Minister had the audacity on Second Stage to blame public representatives for a lack of recycling facilities and a proper waste management...
- Seanad: Protection of the Environment Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (5 Mar 2003)
Paddy Burke: I have never heard such arrogance from any other Minister in this House. I would sympathise with his position if he had engaged with members of the local authorities.
- Seanad: Protection of the Environment Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (5 Mar 2003)
Paddy Burke: I withdraw the word. The Minister has contacted all 28 local authority managers in the country and has pestered them to spend â¬15 million when they have only spent â¬3 million. I sympathise with his position, but part of the fault could lie with his Department. Heretofore, the Estimates for the local authorities were agreed in November or December of every year, but this year the Minister...
- Seanad: Protection of the Environment Bill 2003: Committee Stage (Resumed). (5 Mar 2003)
Paddy Burke: The Minister said that local authorities had drawn down only â¬3 million out of â¬15 million provided. He now says he has another â¬50 million. It is ludicrous to blame the local authorities for this. The Minister has spoken rubbish because he has not a single proposal to put to any local authority. Yet he now proposes to give powers to the county managers to implement waste management...
- Seanad: Local Government Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Mar 2003)
Paddy Burke: No one said that.
- Seanad: Local Government Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Mar 2003)
Paddy Burke: The Minister is saying the dual mandate is holding us back.
- Seanad: Local Government Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Mar 2003)
Paddy Burke: The Minister is their boss.
- Seanad: Local Government Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (6 Mar 2003)
Paddy Burke: He has not said that.