Results 41-60 of 4,928 for speaker:Neale Richmond

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Water Services (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: Both our water and wastewater systems require substantial and sustained investment over a number of investment cycles to bring the systems up to the quality and resilience standards required of a modern service to provide for population growth and to build resilience in the face of climate change. The preferred long-term approach for Clonmel, as set out in Uisce Éireann's national water...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Wastewater Treatment (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: The updated rural housing guidelines in the form of a national planning statement will set out relevant planning criteria to be applied in the local authority development plans for rural housing on a consistent basis based on the high-level policy framework set out by the national planning framework and recognising that obligations under European directives and international agreements...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Wastewater Treatment (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. At the House's discretion, I think the Deputy would like to join me in a note of sympathy on the death of his former colleague in Kerry County Council and former mayor of Tralee, Jim Finucane, who was a good friend of mine and I know of the Deputy as well. I am taking this Topical Issue on behalf of...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: State Examinations (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: I am grateful to the Senator for raising this really important issue once again. I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for education. As the Senator is aware, the State Examinations Commission has responsibility for the reasonable accommodations at certificate examinations, RACE, scheme. A central tenet of the RACE scheme is to ensure equitable treatment for all candidates....

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: State Examinations (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: The point I would make is that more than one in four candidates at the 2025 certificate examinations were provided with some form of reasonable accommodation within the RACE scheme to support them in accessing the State examinations, underlining the importance of the scheme. In 2025, 36,000 candidates in 750 post-primary schools were accommodated in the scheme. I completely understand the...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Environmental Investigations (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: Let us call a spade a spade. I am quite constrained in what I can answer here. The Senator will understand why. I will go through the detail now. The EPA is an independent public body established under the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992. The purpose of the EPA is “to protect, improve and restore our environment through regulation, scientific knowledge and working with...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Environmental Investigations (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: The Department of Climate, Energy and Environment, on behalf of which I am taking matter, is responsible for setting the policy and legislative framework within which the key environmental regulators discharge their functions, including the agency with regard to the environmental licensing of large industrial installations. The Minister for Climate, Energy and Environment, Deputy...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: I thank the Senator for his extremely emotive and clear advocacy in his contribution. The telephone support allowance is a weekly payment of €2.50 for people on certain social welfare payments who are getting both the living alone increase and the fuel allowance. The primary objective of the telephone support allowance is to support access to critical communications infrastructure...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: I agree with the Senator that we need to ensure that older people are not left behind in an increasingly digital world. In this regard, I commit that the Government will not be found wanting. The Senator rightly cites and commends the volunteers of ALONE. It is a brilliant organisation to which we are all indebted. As previously outlined, the Department of Social Protection provides...

Committee on European Union Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals: Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: Go raibh maith agat, Leas-Chathaoirleach, and I am very grateful to him and the members of the committee for giving me the opportunity to engage with the joint committee on the implementation of the SDGs internationally. Ireland is proud of our long and ongoing commitment to the SDGs. The committee will be aware that, in 2015, together with Kenya, Ireland played a leading role in building...

Committee on European Union Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals: Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: Go raibh maith agat, Deputy Murphy. We were going to take questions in a row.

Committee on European Union Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals: Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: That is brilliant.

Committee on European Union Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals: Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: There are a couple of questions I am going to focus on, and they relate to each other. The first and most important question, from Deputy Murphy, was about why we spend money on ODA. ODA is, crucially, an investment from the Irish Government. In this budget, we have managed to agree on an allocation of €840.3 million, the highest it has ever been since Irish Aid was created by the...

Committee on European Union Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals: Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: When it comes to Sudan in particular, let us not beat around the bush. This is the worst humanitarian situation in the world at the moment. The level of forced displacement is beyond comprehension. The level of deprivation and the level of violence is absolutely vicious. We saw that just ten days ago when the siege of El Fasher was completed, with very deadly consequences. Ireland is...

Committee on European Union Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals: Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: I am grateful to all members for their questions. I will group some of them, but I would like to start, if I may, by responding to Deputy Crowe's specific points because they are apt and follow on succinctly from the points made by Deputy Michael Murphy. It is clear. First and foremost, the work of Irish Aid is subject to a series of external and internal independent audits and we make...

Committee on European Union Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals: Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: I am sorry.

Committee on European Union Affairs: Sustainable Development Goals: Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: Go raibh maith agat. I compliment the members of the committee because all of the issues that have been raised are European issues. Let us not forget that. We may be talking about matters in Sudan, Afghanistan or Gaza but there is an EU lens to all of this. That is crucial ahead of Ireland taking up the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. In relation to Deputy Gogarty's...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Humanitarian Aid (5 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: Sudan is now the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with nearly 12 million people forcibly displaced and over 20 million people facing crisis levels of hunger, in what is a preventable crisis. Ireland has provided substantial amounts of humanitarian assistance in responding to the crisis. In 2025, we have provided €14.3 million through UN agencies, and Irish and...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Referendum Campaigns (4 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: A Private Members Bill on Extending Voting Rights in Presidential Elections to citizens in Northern Ireland and the diaspora was debated in Dáil Éireann on 24 May. The Government did not oppose the motion. As was noted during the debate, extending voting rights to citizens outside this jurisdiction would require a referendum and the Government continues to reflect on the matter.

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Departmental Funding (4 Nov 2025)

Neale Richmond: The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade provides funding to a range of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) through a series of grant schemes dedicated to delivering on the Government's priorities at home and abroad. These include supports for international development, development education in Ireland, reconciliation on the island of Ireland, emigrant support, disseminating information...