Results 1-18 of 18 for rural transport speaker:Barry Cowen

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Work Permits (10 Feb 2022)

Barry Cowen: ...issue with the processing of work permits is going to delay us hugely. We need these workers urgently, Barry, and we cannot afford to be let down again. A haulage company contacted me. It stated: Like every transport and logistics company in Ireland, we have been operating during Covid-19 to keep open the supply chain links that are vitally necessary of course for the economic...

Financial Resolutions - Budget Statement 2020 (8 Oct 2019)

Barry Cowen: Somewhere under the Minister’s couch, lodged between Greystones Tidy Towns submission and Fine Gael’s plans for rural Ireland, are the missing millions in his Department. On childcare, we remain deeply concerned about the roll-out of the national childcare scheme. The Government's obsession with announcements before planning and publicity before resources risks undoing a...

Financial Resolutions - Budget Statement 2020 (8 Oct 2019)

Barry Cowen: ...was not a mention of it in today's speech. The national broadband plan has exploded to some €3 billion and is already mired in challenges. The digital divide is becoming a digital wall and, unfortunately, rural Ireland is on the wrong side of it. All we have to show for years of promises and escalating costs is an unused pen on an unsigned contract. The Fine Gael record of...

Rural and Community Development: Statements (Resumed) (29 May 2019)

Barry Cowen: ...has been stated here and that he will act upon it rather than mouthing the type of platitudes I have heard in recent times. This is a relatively new Department. We were promised that it would assist in rural-proofing other Departments in order to ensure that rural Ireland would be at the centre when it comes to the delivery of policies and initiatives by Government. I am not sure that...

Financial Resolutions 2019 - Budget Statement 2019 (9 Oct 2018)

Barry Cowen: ..., is having enough gardaí on the street. For this reason increasing Garda numbers to 15,000 was a fundamental part of our 2016 manifesto and subsequently the confidence and supply arrangement. With 800 new gardaí in 2019 on the streets and in rural areas the force will be better placed to serve the public and tackle crime. The current strain on our Defence Forces is not only...

Project Ireland 2040: Statements (20 Feb 2018)

Barry Cowen: ...in order for them to extend or exaggerate the natural pull on their regions, which they should drive. Anyone would expect that when one seeks to achieve this, it would not be at the expense or neglect of rural Ireland or other regions which do not have that natural critical mass in a city within its region. However, this is exactly what was done, and this was plainly evident in the draft...

National Planning Framework: Statements (26 Oct 2017)

Barry Cowen: ...be published together, but the Minister said that the national planning framework will be backed up by the infrastructural plan. There have to be ambitious targets for roads, rail and public transport. There has to be provision for broadband, education, further education, lifetime education and apprenticeships, public and civic services, hospital infrastructure and primary care...

Topical Issue Debate: Roads Maintenance (14 Jan 2016)

Barry Cowen: ...in the condition of the roads in the vicinity. We heard various speakers from those in attendance who were informed in the preceding days by schools in the areas of Birr and Roscrea that school transport providers and bus companies were seriously considering withdrawing their services because of the terrible state of the roads in the area. We also heard from many business owners in the...

Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2015: Second Stage (10 Dec 2015)

Barry Cowen: ...planning regulator it established has an advisory role to the Minister and is not a check on ministerial power, as the Mahon tribunal called for. The Mahon tribunal's recommendation that the National Transport Authority be appointed by an independent appointments board rather than directly by the Minister has also been set aside and ignored. The Government has perpetuated political...

Government's Priorities for the Year Ahead: Statements (Resumed) (6 Mar 2014)

Barry Cowen: ...of the previous administration. It has inflicted more pain, whether it likes it or acknowledges it, on the less well off, the underprivileged, the elderly, the sick and disabled, students and on rural Ireland, where my constituency is based. The Government tells us it has not touched core social welfare rates. Will it tell this to pensioners who have lost their phone allowance, fuel...

Special Educational Needs: Motion [Private Members] (25 Jun 2013)

Barry Cowen: ...mobility grants followed this week by the SNAs and resource teaching. The most common thread and theme in the most common, callous, concerted and targeted cuts is that they have been directed at rural services and at the disability sector. We all know that Labour's heartland is in the cities and the major towns; its identification with rural affairs is minimal. The party has no history...

Agriculture: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (10 Oct 2012)

Barry Cowen: In addition, this Government has hit rural communities in other ways by virtue of last year's budget which affected rural schools and transport. Under the auspices of this motion, I call on the Minister to rubbish and banish the proposals mooted by the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, to include farm buildings in assessments for educational grants. Leaving these failings...

Ambulance Service (23 Feb 2012)

Barry Cowen: ...carried out 650 call-outs covering an area of north Offaly, parts of Kildare and Meath. It is particularly important to have this service and we want to have a quality service there given its rural nature. The ambulance bay was sought after a long number of years. Following numerous representations and lobbying, the bay was put in place about two years ago. Accommodation was provided in...

Primary Schools: Motion (Resumed) (1 Feb 2012)

Barry Cowen: I thank Deputy Brendan Smith for tabling this motion. I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. As the Deputy of a predominantly rural constituency, with 14 schools with four teachers or fewer in Offaly, I support the ethos, dedication, commitment and quality of education in these schools. They are vital cogs in, and an integral part of, our communities. They have been...

School Staffing (19 Jan 2012)

Barry Cowen: ...in these schools over the last number of years was wrong, ill-advised and a waste of money? Some of these schools have been hit with this cut in the pupil-teacher ratio, DEIS cuts, higher transport costs and cuts in back to school allowances. Is it death by a thousand cuts? Can the Minister bring forward specific proposals relating to minority faith schools? The Minister has referred...

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Barry Cowen: ...to seek to appease its supporters by putting it out that social welfare rates have not been cut but have been maintained, when, in fact, what it has done is targeted vulnerable and poor families, rural dwellers, the disabled, the elderly, students - primary, secondary and even third level - employers, SMEs and community employment schemes. It could be argued that last year's rate cuts, as...

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Barry Cowen: The entitlement for certain new claimants to a concurrent half-rate of jobseeker's benefit or illness benefit will be discontinued. The Bill is not only anti-family and anti-women but also anti-rural. The means test for farm assist will be changed, school transport charges will be increased and REPS and disadvantaged area payments will be reduced by 10%. The community employment schemes...

National Tourism Development Authority (Amendment) Bill 2011: Second Stage (22 Sep 2011)

Barry Cowen: ...from the industry. Significant sums of money have been invested in the infrastructure of regions and population centres that depend on tourism. Basic infrastructure like water, sewerage and transport facilities needed to be upgraded and put on a footing that would serve these local areas well into the future. We hoped these improvements would benefit the sector and bring more visitors...