Parliamentary questions

Invalidity Pension Applications Data

Michael Collins

669. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will release the 2015 figures for the number of applications made for invalidity pension and domiciliary care allowance and the number of applications refused. [1828/17]

Fish Quotas

Michael Collins

1372. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the position regarding the reported increase in fish quotas per tonne for 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41482/16]

Food Imports

Michael Collins

1373. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will confirm that the European Commissioner has lifted the ban on horses from outside the EU entering the human food chain, provided they have a six months' withdrawal period from medication prior to slaughter. [41483/16]

EU Directives

Michael Collins

1374. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to a parliamentary question of 6 December 2016, if it is correct that European Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/262, which was published on 17 February 2015, only came into effect when it was transposed into Irish law by way of SI 62 of 2016, as amended in February 2016. [41484/16]

Public Sector Pay

Michael Collins

367. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his plans with regard to the unwinding of FEMPI; and if he will provide a timeframe by which this legislation will no longer be in existence. [39396/16]

Mobile Telephony Services

Michael Collins

37. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the reason mobile phone coverage throughout west Cork has deteriorated in the past 12 months (details supplied); the reason this was allowed to happen; and the way in which phone companies can provide a service at this level in view of perceived evidence throughout the country of a collapse in service. [38864/16]

Inland Fisheries Stocks

Michael Collins

392. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his attention has been drawn to the damage to vulnerable stocks in inshore waters by the practice of pair trawling; his plans to ban the practice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38311/16]

Animal Identification Schemes

Michael Collins

393. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the reason horse breeders and other stakeholders were not made aware of a statutory instrument (details supplied) which came into being on 17 February 2015, until March 2016; and if the passports of horses that were registered within that period were excluded from the food chain. [38312/16]

Food Safety Standards

Michael Collins

394. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if the report carried out by a person (details supplied) proves that it is safe for horses to enter the food chain, providing the 28-day blood test prior to slaughter has been carried out with positive results; and if this blood test is adequate in this regard. [38313/16]

Fisheries Protection

Michael Collins

399. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps he is taking to ban super trawlers from Irish waters; and if he will put an emergency measure in place such as putting permanent observers on board super trawlers while in Irish waters. [38348/16]

Cereal Sector

Michael Collins

30. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps he has taken in assisting to procure emergency aid from Europe for tillage farmers badly effected by weather in 2016; if he supported farming organisations that have made a case to Brussels to press for EU aid packages; and if so, the details of same. [37662/16]

Company Law

Michael Collins

153. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if a person with an ongoing complaint with the ODCE who wishes to view their documents can request authorisation to be provided with them from the Minister for Finance under section 792 of the Companies Act 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36705/16]

Vaccination Programme

Michael Collins

202. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Health if he will clarify the position of vaccination contracts for general practitioners here (details supplied). [36756/16]

Departmental Funding

Michael Collins

372. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if she will reverse some of the cuts in funding to the Irish language and Gaeltacht authorities since 2018 (details supplied). [35821/16]

Health Insurance Regulation

Michael Collins

109. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Finance if he will investigate the cancellation of an insurance company's critical illness policy (details supplied); and if he will put supports in place for those who have lost their cover. [33650/16]

Tax Reliefs Eligibility

Michael Collins

118. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Finance if he will extend the incentives for first-time buyers announced in budget 2017 to apply to both the purchase of new and second-hand houses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33598/16]

Special Educational Needs Service Provision

Michael Collins

157. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will consider increasing the resource hours for children with Down's syndrome and a mild intellectual disability from 2.5 hours per week to five hours per week. [32965/16]

Liquor Licensing Laws

Michael Collins

150. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the measures currently being carried out in relation to reducing under-age drinking; if she will consider imposing a coding system whereby all alcohol sold would have a unique code and when sold the buyer would have to sign their details, therefore making consumers responsible for any alcohol they purchase. [31949/16]

Alternative Energy Projects

Michael Collins

268. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government when planning regulations on solar farms will be put in place. [31783/16]

Coastal Erosion

Michael Collins

367. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if there is any State aid available to remedy the effects of coastal erosion on private property (details supplied). [31893/16]

Leader Programmes

Michael Collins

4. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the position regarding the roll-out of the Leader programme in west Cork; the reason the West Cork Development Partnership, which has successfully delivered Leader funding over the past 20 years, is not allowed to roll out the new programme; the person or bodies involved in deciding this; the person or bodies involved in the appeals process; and the person or bodies that will now be involved in the Leader programme in west Cork. [31334/16]

Health Products Regulatory Authority

Michael Collins

390. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Health the reason the Health Products Regulatory Authority has banned the sale of apricot kernels here with no evidence that this product can be dangerous (details supplied); and his views on the matter [30224/16]

Nursing Home Services

Michael Collins

461. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Health if those in private nursing homes are entitled to free incontinence wear from the HSE (details supplied). [30532/16]

School Costs

Michael Collins

41. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Education and Skills the action he will take to address the huge disparity in school costs which exists from school to school throughout the country and the inequality faced by parents by providing funding for a free primary education system as costed by a charity (details supplied) at €103 million. [30027/16]

Sports Facilities Provision

Michael Collins

173. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport when the planned all-Ireland national indoor cycling velodrome construction will commence at the National Sports Campus, Abbotstown, Dublin. [30154/16]

White Paper on Energy

Michael Collins

548. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the position regarding the White Paper on renewable energy. [29420/16]

Electricity Generation

Michael Collins

549. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if the Government will encourage all the electricity providers to pay domestic producers of electricity either by solar or wind, as opposed to only one company (details supplied). [29421/16]

Strategy for Renewable Energy

Michael Collins

550. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if the current system and prices of microgeneration can be improved to encourage more persons to invest in renewables and the existing producers to recoup some of their investment. [29422/16]

Strategy for Renewable Energy

Michael Collins

551. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if the Government and the various Departments can come together to draw up new plans to update the renewables industry (details supplied). [29423/16]

Community Employment Schemes Review

Michael Collins

4. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Social Protection his views on the effectiveness of the re-entry provisions for the community employment schemes in rural areas and if he will consider implementing separate rural and urban work schemes; when the additional places in the rural social scheme promised in the programme for Government will be allocated; and if the future of the Tús schemes is secure. [29208/16]

Rural Social Scheme Eligibility

Michael Collins

24. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Social Protection if he intends to increase participation in the rural social scheme, RSS, to 4,000 participants given that when the rural social scheme was set up in 2004 it was designed for 4,000 participants but participation was capped at 2,600 participants, with 130 supervisors, and under the programme for Government it states there will be an increase in the numbers of RSS workers (details supplied); and if so, when. [20311/16]

Public Procurement Contracts

Michael Collins

495. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he has established the standard to enable other bovine tag suppliers to compete in the market for the benefit of farmers; and his views on same. [28088/16]

Public Procurement Contracts

Michael Collins

496. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on whether having only one supplier of bovine tags is not in keeping with the EU ethos of competition and free market. [28089/16]

Milk Prices

Michael Collins

509. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will issue a suggestion to all co-ops nationwide to pass on the recent increase in global dairy prices to dairy farmers and to ensure that this is reflected immediately in the prices paid for milk by co-ops; and his views in this regard. [28282/16]

Farmers Indebtedness

Michael Collins

510. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will request all co-ops to have more forbearance with farmers - dairy, suckler, beef and tillage - in their current plight caused by poor prices, bad weather and other circumstances outside their control; if he will request the co-ops to allow for more flexibility in their billing system in line with farmers income times; and his views in this regard. [28283/16]

Weight of Schoolbags

Michael Collins

390. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Education and Skills his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding school bags. [24524/16]

Third Level Staff

Michael Collins

472. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to replace retiring technical officers in the National University of Ireland, Galway (details supplied). [25863/16]

Leader Programmes Funding

Michael Collins

984. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if she will confirm the public funds originally allocated to each local action group, LAG, for the Leader 2007-2013 programme; the subsequent revisions to these amounts for each LAG in the period; the specific reasons for any such adjustments; the final spend achieved by each LAG, net of disallowances, penalties or ineligible expenditure; the respective disallowances, penalties or ineligible expenditure for the programme period, for each LAG; the details and the reasons for the penalties or disallowances that have occurred; the extent to which disallowances, penalties or ineligible expenditure have been recouped by her Department to date and the total amount that remains outstanding for each LAG; the other reasons a LAG may not have achieved full drawdown of the public funds available to it for the programme period; if penalties or disallowances have been levied on the programme by the EU Commission arising from its audits and inspections; and the reasons for, instances and LAGs that gave rise to same. [26167/16]

Telecommunications Infrastructure

Michael Collins

4. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to take action with regard to mobile telephone operators (details supplied). [21837/16]

Medical Card Eligibility

Michael Collins

513. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Health if those receiving a pension from the United Kingdom and living here will still be entitled to a non-means-tested medical card despite the United Kingdom no longer being part of the European Union, as in the case of a person (details supplied). [20750/16]

Arts Funding

Michael Collins

340. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to outline her views on the necessity to ensure that funding for the arts is distributed equally across the regions and whether specific areas (details supplied) are not receiving an adequate or equal supply of such funding. [17163/16]

Inland Fisheries

Michael Collins

498. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on an issue (details supplied) regarding fishing. [17160/16]

Community Employment Schemes Operation

Michael Collins

339. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Social Protection to immediately review provisions of community employment scheme workers. [15009/16]

Employment Support Services

Michael Collins

185. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Social Protection to release the Indecon report that was commissioned by his Department over a year ago (details supplied). [12006/16]

TAMS Applications

Michael Collins

329. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to confirm that an application under the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme will be approved within the next month as farmers need to commence works during the summer period (details supplied). [12128/16]

Trade Agreements

Michael Collins

91. Deputy Michael Collins asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will oppose the proposed deal between the European Union and the South American Mercosur trade bloc to allow thousands of tons of cheap South American beef into the European Union; his views on the effectiveness of the regulations governing traceability and inspections regarding health and safety over the past 30 years; on the system in place in South America; if he will assure the public that public health and safety will not be put at risk because of the importation of this beef; if the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Phil Hogan, will be of help in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9069/16]