Results 1-20 of 850 for long speaker:Paddy Burke

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

Paddy Burke: ...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 students in 2016. In 2017, Marsh House, an old urban district council building, where meetings were held and...

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

Paddy Burke: ...they are finished with them. This issue with the Department of the environment should be dealt with straight away. It is not a big issue for them to make a decision on it but it is taking quite a long time. I ask the Leader to contact the Minister to move this along and bring it to a conclusion. We saw yesterday how a woman got rid of her bicycles because she could not house them. It...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Second Stage (7 Dec 2023)

Paddy Burke: ...not paid on days for which statutory sick pay is paid by a person's employer. The Bill also provides for certain reforms to the State contributory pension, provides in certain circumstances for long-term carers to qualify for the State contributory pension and introduces flexibility to the State contributory pension to allow a person to defer claiming the State contributory pension up to...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (22 Jun 2023)

Paddy Burke: ...Regulator and previously the Department. I found it most interesting. At some stage, we should invite him to come before the House for a question and answer session. As someone who spent quite a long time on a local authority, there are many things I did not realise could be done and stipulated in county development plan or an area plan. In many cases where we have developments with a...

Seanad: Death of Former Member: Expressions of Sympathy (21 Jun 2023)

Paddy Burke: ..., to see how Bills were going, and to call votes when they were to be called. Mary Jackman was a pleasure to work with. She was a teacher, but apart from that she had great experience because of her long membership of Limerick County Council. She could speak on any subject. She was ideal. She could come into Seanad Éireann and speak on any subject from education to agriculture or...

Seanad: Government Commitments on Offshore Renewable Energy: Motion (31 May 2023)

Paddy Burke: ...offshore. There is huge potential there. At the last offshore wind auction, energy was €86 per MWh. That is the cheapest energy that can be produced in the world, and it can be produced along the west and north-west coast. However, we are losing out and will lose to the Scottish. Senator Chambers pointed out where we need the grid. We absolutely need more grid capacity....

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó (Atógáil) - Order of Business (Resumed) (24 May 2023)

Paddy Burke: ...the details with the result that the person had to do jury service, lost a week's wages from the new employer and did not get any social welfare even though they paid their PAYE and PRSI for a long number of years. I seek a debate in this House on transport hubs and transport within towns such as Castlebar and similar-sized towns throughout the country. There is no doubt but that...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (10 May 2023)

Paddy Burke: ...accident and emergency and cancer services in the west and north west.These issues are putting massive pressure on the west region and in particular on our area. It is difficult enough to go a long distance from rural Ireland, particularly along the west coast, to get to Galway University Hospital for any service. To be going there on a continual basis for cancer services and to be...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (4 May 2023)

Paddy Burke: .... She is an equal Member of this House. I also congratulate my colleague from Mayo, Senator Chambers, on her recent marriage to Councillor Jarleth Munnelly. I wish them well and hope they have a long, happy life together. I would like to raise an issue regarding the €50,000 grant and the €20,000 top-up grant. There is some ambiguity about the draw-down of the...

Seanad: Inland Fisheries Ireland: Statements (29 Mar 2023)

Paddy Burke: ...have seen brought to my attention. A State body has never been reported to me in the fashion that this has been reported to me. Senator Kyne has ploughed a lone furrow on this matter for quite a long time, nearly 12 months now. I feel very sorry for the board as well. The board members were exonerated by the Bradley report but, in the decision the Minister made, he felt he had no...

Seanad: Death of Former Member: Expressions of Sympathy (7 Dec 2022)

Paddy Burke: ..., competitor, Councillor Peter Savage, and it is great to see him here today. Peter must be a real god in that part of the world because Terry would always say "Peter Savage said" and that went a long way not only with Terry but also to whoever he was telling. I happened to be the leader of the delegation to Japan that Senator O'Sullivan mentioned. I did not realise at the time that...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (7 Dec 2022)

Paddy Burke: I welcome this initiative and the Minister's commitment. I am a long-time advocate of this measure as well. There is nothing better than to see people living in the centre of towns and cities, and villages for that matter. When people start to move out, everybody moves out. Nobody wants to live in the centre of a town on their own. I can well see when people move in now, more and more...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2022: Committee Stage (7 Dec 2022)

Paddy Burke: ...to get people into all forms of electricity or energy generation, whether offshore or onshore, wind or photovoltaic. However, where farmers give over their farms, whether or not they rent them long-term to companies, for solar farms - not turbine farms but solar photovoltaic farms - they lose their basic payments. That is a disincentive to farmers going down that route. I ask that the...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2022: Second Stage (7 Dec 2022)

Paddy Burke: ...the issues. We can see that from the beginning of the Minister's speech where she outlined the various payments, including the autumn double paymen; the €500 lump sum paid to all people receiving a long-term disability payment; the €200 lump sum payment to people receiving the living alone allowance; the €400 lump sum payment to all households in receipt of fuel...

Seanad: VAT Rate for Tourism and Hospitality Sectors: Statements (19 Oct 2022)

Paddy Burke: ...the food end of it from the accommodation sector, it would be a great help to those small businesses because they are suffering. I have been in the hospitality business for many years. There are long and unsociable shifts and hours on Saturdays and Sundays and to cover all of those shifts is difficult. That extra 4.5% makes an enormous difference. While it might seem small, at the end...

Seanad: Poverty and Social Exclusion: Motion (19 Oct 2022)

Paddy Burke: ...that it made on increasing social welfare payments, as well as paying one-off payments, so that there is not a recurring cost to the Exchequer and provision does not have to be made in the long term. When one goes through all of those issues, one would wonder where we go. As rightly said by the previous speakers, housing and education are a huge drain on the taxpayer. It is very...

Seanad: Annual Transition Statement: Statements (22 Jun 2022)

Paddy Burke: .... There are many such opportunities throughout the length and breadth of the country that could be looked at but the Departments, the local authority and the OPW all act too slowly. It has been a long time since Pat Rabbitte was the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. He was in the same Department as the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, whom I welcome to the House, is...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (15 Jun 2022)

Paddy Burke: ...not addressed.I ask that the Deputy Leader bring to the attention of the Minister the poor levels of service, particularly with Eir, with which there are great problems. People are waiting quite a long time to get an answer from it and are left hanging on the phone. What is happening is not adequate at all.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (29 Mar 2022)

Paddy Burke: ...are saying you do need a battery. We need the Minister to come in here as a matter of urgency to deal with all of those issues. We are in a great position here to produce energy. We will have long days from now until September. The domestic input can be quite sizable, as well as the main production, whether it is onshore or offshore, or whether it is the ESB or Coillte, or the ESB and...

Seanad: Animal Health and Welfare and Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2021: Report Stage (29 Mar 2022)

Paddy Burke: ...their own points and their own cases. The debate on this Bill is just one example of that happening. Likewise, I did not agree with Senator Higgins when she stated that the grants should be for long-term projects only. There has to be a balance between long-term projects and the need for the harvesting of timber. It is more than likely that modular housing will be coming downstream,...