Results 121-140 of 925,922 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' speaker:Áine Collins

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (19 May 2022)

Leo Varadkar: As measured by the survey on income and living conditions, the official Central Statistics Office statistics indicate much progress in recent years. Living standards have improved, median incomes have gone up, rates of poverty and deprivation are down. Inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, has narrowed. That may not be the prevailing narrative but those are the facts. There is...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (19 May 2022)

Michael Collins: West Cork Connect is a commercial bus company. It operates in and out of west Cork 16 times daily, carrying approximately 800 customers daily on its buses. It receives no Government subsidy as it takes people every hour on the hour from Skibbereen and Bantry to Cork and back daily. The recent 20% to 50% reductions in travel prices, mainly for youths in Dublin, has been of no benefit to any...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (19 May 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The Deputy might send me the details. If I understand him correctly, the company is seeking a licence for a commercial service and is not looking for a subsidy. I do not see why the NTA would refuse a licence. If it works, it works and if it does not, it does not. If the Deputy sends the details I will see if I can look into it.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (19 May 2022)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill: The treatment benefit scheme in the Department of Social Protection provides important dental, optical and oral services to a range of different people. We heard from Amber Women's Refuge service and Safe Ireland in Leinster House 2000 this morning. One of the matters they raised relates to the practical effect of having to get consent for a qualified adult in order to get those treatments...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (19 May 2022)

Leo Varadkar: The treatment benefit scheme is great. People pay their PRSI and get benefits in return, including optical and dental benefits. It is linked to PRSI, as the Deputy knows. I have not heard of qualified adults needing consent. There must be a way around that. I am sure it is not necessary because the Department of Social Protection should have the data already. I can certainly see how...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (19 May 2022)

Brian Leddin: One of the great success stories of the past ten years has been the level of job creation in Limerick and the mid west. Credit is due to the previous two Governments for getting that level of job creation going. This Government is certainly reinforcing that and will accelerate it. There are 6,000 people employed at the Raheen industrial estate. There is a disused rail line there. It is...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 May 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Danny Healy-Rae for raising this important issue. As he will be aware, the Government, the party I lead, and, indeed, the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, who is responsible for planning in this area, support the right of people to build rural housing on land that they own in order that they can live in their communities or live near their parents, as the case may be....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 May 2022)

Danny Healy-Rae: I am grateful for the Tánaiste's reply. That is the point that I am trying to make. Where there is an existing exit, where it is safe and where it meets all the sight distance regulations, I am asking that we review the regulations that are in place because there is a complete blanket ban in place all the way from Rathmore, west of Killarney, around Killarney itself and from Fossa back...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 May 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank the Deputy again for raising the issue. I will take it up with the Minister for Transport and TII. Blanket bans on national secondary roads are too extreme. I am a former Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. National roads are variable. Some are big dual carriageways. Others are quite small and would be classed as regional roads in other countries. Blanket banks are too...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (19 May 2022)

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (19 May 2022)

Pearse Doherty: The Government's lack of forward planning in respect of special education school places is holding children back from achieving their full potential. The Government has had plenty of warning about this. The Milne family first appeared on "Prime Time" three years ago when the Tánaiste held the post of Taoiseach. The Government knows the number of children with special educational needs...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (19 May 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I am deeply conscious of the anxiety experienced by many families where there are no appropriate school place available to them. Indeed, this is a hot issue in Dublin 15 in my own constituency, where we need approximately three additional special classes. There was a hot-and-heavy public meeting about the matter this week. The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, the Ministers of State, Deputies...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (19 May 2022)

Ivana Bacik: My Labour Party colleagues and I were glad to stand in support of the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association on picket lines outside hospitals around the country yesterday. I was glad to join members of the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association in hospitals in my constituency. We are all conscious that there are long-running issues that had driven the medical laboratory scientists to...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (19 May 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I thank Deputy Bacik. I acknowledge that medical scientists are essential to the health service. Patients and members of the public often do not see what they do because they work in laboratories rather than in patient-facing areas. As a medical doctor, I know what they do and I know how important they are to the health service. I would certainly like to see this dispute resolved. My...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (19 May 2022)

Cian O'Callaghan: I want to ask the Tánaiste about the Government's plan to give €450 million in subsidies to developers to build apartments. Analysis from the Business Postshows that these apartments will be sold at prices that only people on the top 14% of incomes would be able to afford. They will be sold at full market prices; they will not be affordable. Yesterday, I put three questions to...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (19 May 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I will answer them as best I can. I would not have been involved directly in this; it would have been dealt with by the Ministers, Deputies Donohoe, Michael McGrath and Darragh O'Brien. Speaking to some construction companies and developers in recent weeks, I am aware that they are not happy with this. This is not the scheme that they would have organised or arranged. They would have...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 May 2022)

Leo Varadkar: I do not know whether the Secretary of State, Liz Truss, made those remarks or not. It is obviously for her to confirm or deny them. However we all know that Brexit, even with the deal that we have had, has affected people. It has affected businesses adversely with many consequences, although I think without the deal we have it would have been much worse. In respect of legacy, the Irish...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 May 2022)

Peadar Tóibín: On the legacy issue, Aontú published a Bill last week, the commission of investigation (collusion by British state forces) Bill 2022, which would constitute a commission investigation into British collusion into the murders of Irish people North and South. With the mounting evidence that exists we believe it is important that a commission investigation be held. There has never been a...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 May 2022)

Leo Varadkar: There has been the Smithwick tribunal of which Deputy Tóibín will be aware. I have not seen the Bill on the commission of investigation so we will certainly examine that when we have had a chance to see it. There are a number of files and investigations still open, as the Deputy knows, in regard to offences that occurred in the past, as well as collusion.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 May 2022)

Danny Healy-Rae: I wish to raise the restriction by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, which prevents many people who wish to exit onto national secondary roads from getting planning permission. This is adversely affecting applicants especially along the N72 from Rathmore to Killarney and from Killarney to Killorglin. We are talking about 22 of the 25 miles. In 2012 the Department authorised the...