Results 1-20 of 245 for speaker:Tony McCormack

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment: Briefing on Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of a Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill 2025: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: I thank the ladies - Ms McGuire, Ms O'Mahony, Ms De Saulles and Ms Ní Bhrolcháin - for their presentation this morning. The short-term letting and tourism Bill that is coming in will probably give us a picture of what exactly is going on in that whole area of accommodation. As they were saying, one in ten jobs is provided in the tourism industry, which makes the industry a huge...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment: Briefing on Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of a Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill 2025: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: Can I just come in there? I understand there are 220 properties. That is a lot of accommodation but unfortunately we have a very low hotel rate in County Offaly so they would be a huge part of our accommodation. While in other areas it might only be 3% to 34%, in County Offaly there might be a significant percentage of those being occupied a lot of the time. That is why I am wary of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment: Briefing on Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of a Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill 2025: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: I know. I understand where Ms McGuire is coming from but sometimes we throw the child out with the dishwater, unfortunately, when we quote figures like that. However, it must be remembered that weekends are the busiest periods where we have weddings and people coming for events. The weekdays are not so busy, so we cannot have a situation where we cut those off as well.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment: Briefing on Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of a Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill 2025: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: I know, but sometimes we can get lost in figures that do not show the true picture.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment: Briefing on Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of a Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill 2025: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: It is rural areas where we need those units, so we need to reflect on that more before we come in with a broad brush and a broad stroke. I thank Ms McGuire and I appreciate that. I will move on to the representatives from Fáilte Ireland and give them a chance to come in.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment: Briefing on Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of a Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill 2025: Discussion (15 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: Will the registration and compliance system Fáilte Ireland will have be user friendly? Ms De Saulles spoke about it being digitally integrated but how will the data be securely shared with Departments?

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (14 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: 5. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on the economy, trade and competitiveness will next meet. [46859/25]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (14 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: Our national success in enterprise depends on our competitiveness and our competitiveness depends on reliable energy infrastructure. In County Offaly we have a great energy infrastructure that is close to capacity. EirGrid is under real pressure to expand it. Offaly’s central location and long history in energy generation means it is ideally placed to help to meet that challenge....

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Business of Joint Committee (9 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: I would like to be associated with the Leas-Chathaoirleach's comments. What happened in Carrickmines was an awful tragedy. I am from Offaly and we have a very strong Offaly Travellers group there. I am delighted to see that a lot of work has been done on halting sites, official and unofficial, in order that this type of tragedy does not happen in the future. My thoughts and prayers go to...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Child Protection and Family Support: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: I thank the team from Tusla for coming in today and for the opening statement. It is disappointing the data we require is not being taken or the witnesses do not have it. Data is power, and when we are dealing with an ethnic minority group like Travellers, the more data we have, the more specific programmes we can put in place because we will know exactly where to target. I hear the...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Child Protection and Family Support: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: Just to intervene, we had representatives in from the National Traveller Women's Forum organisation last week. They spoke to us about the fact that it was very hard for them to have any trust in some cases, with child protection and what have you. What specific interventions is Tusla making in that regard or what processes or procedures are coming online that will actually make a difference?

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Child Protection and Family Support: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: Does Tusla have any Traveller people working in the organisation?

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Child Protection and Family Support: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: What I am getting from Mr. Brophy is that it is a low number.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Child Protection and Family Support: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: To be honest, to deal with this aspect and to make sure people begin to trust in the systems we have, in Tusla, other organisations and groups like it, we need to bring in more Travellers. We need to sit down with the Traveller organisations and say this is where we are going to have vacancies for jobs and we need Traveller people to do courses. Last week we were talking about courses...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Child Protection and Family Support: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: To add to that, has Tusla put a bursary in place or is there help and support available for people from the Traveller community who want to do that course?

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Child Protection and Family Support: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: Brilliant. What targeted early intervention and family support initiatives are being delivered specifically for Traveller families to prevent crises and reduce the need for child protection interventions?

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Child Protection and Family Support: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: I thank the witnesses.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment: Competitiveness and the Cost of Doing Business in Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: I thank the witnesses for their opening statements. I appreciate them. It is the day after the budget. The witnesses had their asks in a lot of cases. My questions would be on competitiveness and where the witnesses think we could go as a country. We all realise that the minimum wage has been increased. We all want to see workers getting paid more money and all the rest but at the same...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment: Competitiveness and the Cost of Doing Business in Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: The witnesses will find that the political will is there to do this. We obviously understand where we are with it. It was said that businesses did not get anything yesterday in the budget apart from the reduction in the VAT rate for the hospitality. We did, if we think about the extra money gone into infrastructure, power and Irish Water. That is a plus and something Ms Burke reiterated...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment: Competitiveness and the Cost of Doing Business in Ireland: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Oct 2025)

Tony McCormack: There is more work we need to do with regard to competitiveness. The witnesses talked about infrastructure and, as they said in their opening statements, housing. Housing is a vital one. In order for us to get people in here to do jobs that need to be done, we have to house them not just in housing but low-cost, value-for-money housing. That is something we are very cognisant of. There...