Results 1-20 of 12,658 for and speaker:Paddy Burke

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (29 May 2024)

Paddy Burke: I would like to raise an issue in relation to the rail services. I compliment Iarnród Éireann on a tremendous service throughout the length and breadth of the country which is improving daily. I call for an extra service for the western line, from Heuston Station to Westport and Ballina, in the morning. There is no service, between 7 a.m. and 12.45 p.m., from Dublin to Westport...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: School Staff (28 May 2024)

Paddy Burke: I thank the Cathaoirleach and welcome Minister of State, Deputy Anne Rabbitte to the House. I raise this issue as it has been brought up with me on a number of occasions in the last couple of weeks. It relates to the permanency of primary school teachers the length and breadth of the country. I understand from a number of those teachers that the vast majority of them are employed on a...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: School Staff (28 May 2024)

Paddy Burke: ...young people. As the Minister of State said, those in the last year of a contract in particular have no chance of getting a loan. We all know about the Central Bank rules on accessing finance and drawing down loans and mortgages. I appreciate that the Minister of State is au fait with the problem we have here and that she will bring this back to the senior Minister. I hope the Minister...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (28 May 2024)

Paddy Burke: I also welcome our visitor from Maine and hope she has a successful trip in Ireland. It will not be long until the preparations for budget 2025 have been made. I raise the issue of holding the VAT rate at 9% and having a distinction between food and accommodation. Small restaurants, bars and pubs provide a great service not just to our economy but also to the tourism industry. They...

Seanad: Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Second Stage (28 May 2024)

Paddy Burke: ...the Minister to the House. This is probably one of the most important pieces of legislation we will pass in this House for many years. We are dealing with ordinary people's money going forward and we are going to make provision for people who will be retiring in the next 30 to 40 years and way beyond. This is, therefore, hugely important. The preamble in the explanatory memorandum...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (22 May 2024)

Paddy Burke: ...the House. I also welcome a group from Castlebar. I raise the issue of providing an extra respite bed at the Sacred Heart Hospital in Castlebar. There is only one respite bed in the hospital and there is huge demand for respite. We all know the great work that carers carry out. When a respite appointment is cancelled it causes huge disappointment for the people who were going to get...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (16 May 2024)

Paddy Burke: ...the attack on their Prime Minister. We wish him a speedy recovery. I wish to raise an issue related to school transport. I have a situation where a student only qualifies to go to one school and there are two schools in the town. The schools are very close to each other and a person can walk from one to the other in about five minutes. We have a farcical situation where these...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (15 May 2024)

Paddy Burke: ...but starts the work before applying for a council loan from Mayo County Council then he or she will not get the loan, which I think is crazy. If people have a certain amount of work completed and then decide they do not have enough of their own money to complete the work then they will not get a council loan. I have checked this matter with the relevant Department which says that this is...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (9 May 2024)

Paddy Burke: I support Senator O'Loughlin with regard to the Garda pension. I have raised this issue previously and I fully support her on it. I want to raise an issue regarding potholes and side subsidence of roads. With the constant rain we have had over the past six months, there is a considerable number of potholes. There is also subsidence along the sides of the roads. More and more people are...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Recycling Policy (8 May 2024)

Paddy Burke: ...a sé, from County Meath to the House as well. I welcome my colleague from Mayo, the Minister of State, Deputy Alan Dillon. As I think this is first session in the Seanad, I wish him a very long and bright future as a Minister of State, and that he would be back many times to this House. I first put this issue to the Department of enterprise.This is where it should be. I do not...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Recycling Policy (8 May 2024)

Paddy Burke: ...great light at the end of the tunnel in this. It seems that the Department does not mind what is thrown into the skip. The value of all this is that parts are recycled. For parts to be recycled and a carbon footprint to be attached to them, they have to be physically taken out of the car that is being recycled. That costs money and labour. The Minister of State has to bring back to...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (8 May 2024)

Paddy Burke: I welcome our guests from Kenya as well and I hope they have a very successful trip to Ireland. I will join with the Cathaoirleach and other Members in proposing a vote of sympathy to the late Michael D'Arcy Snr., who was a former Member of this House and the Dáil, a Minister of State, and a county and town councillor. He had a distinguished political career over a very long period....

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (2 May 2024)

Paddy Burke: I would also like to be associated with the welcome for the Polish ambassador and his distinguished guests to the Distinguished Visitors Gallery. They are welcome. I propose a vote of sympathy to the D'Arcy family on the death of Michael D'Arcy Snr., who was a Member of both this House and the Dáil. He was Minister of State, a TD and a Senator. I served in this House with him for a...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: School Accommodation (21 Mar 2024)

Paddy Burke: ...School was started by a group of people in 2015. They organised an old national school, the Burren National School, but the parents rejected this. It was not suitable. It was outside Castlebar and did not have what was required for a school. The school was established in 2016, which is not that long ago, and opened in temporary accommodation in Cavendish Lane, Castlebar, with 12...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: School Accommodation (21 Mar 2024)

Paddy Burke: ...that there is some fundraising that the school will have to do as well. It needs to be able to get on with that work, so it needs certainty. I urge the Department to identify a site immediately and get this in train. I hope the Minister of State will take this issue back to his senior colleague.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (21 Mar 2024)

Paddy Burke: I also express my thanks and good wishes to the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, a man who has experience at Cabinet as Minister, Tánaiste and Taoiseach over a 13-year period. He has been an excellent ambassador for the country, a great Taoiseach and a great Minister over the past 13 years. I wish him well and thank him for his public role for the country over those years. I support also...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Feb 2024)

Paddy Burke: ...start with planning guidelines with regard to Gaeltacht areas. Planning guidelines should be weighted in favour of people living in Gaeltacht areas, whether they are from the area or from outside and want to move into the Gaeltacht areas. The language is dying in some areas and this could be a way to revive it to keep people in those areas. In the Gaeltacht area in Tuar Mhic...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Energy Poverty: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Paddy Burke: I thank the Cathaoirleach. I have a couple of brief questions to follow what Deputy Ó Laoghaire about the fabric and how that ties in with the heat pump. Heat pumps are very complicated to use. They are very complicated machines. It is not like turning on or off the gas or oil boiler. They have to be set and people have to use the best rate they can, whether it is the day rate or...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (13 Feb 2024)

Paddy Burke: I ask the Leader to contact the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan. The Department has acquired quite a number of houses throughout the country for road construction and so forth. We have a number of them in our own county. These houses are lying idle and we have a housing shortage. There is a desperate need for housing on many fronts. There is also a need for housing for people...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Second Stage (13 Feb 2024)

Paddy Burke: I welcome the Minister to the House, and I wish her well with this Bill. It is a short, small Bill, but it is very important and it covers quite a considerable amount, given its size. I welcome the amendment the Minister will table relating to 18-year-olds. As she has rightly pointed out, many kids do not now start national school until they are five years of age and are still going to...