Parliamentary questions

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]