Senator Mary Seery-Kearney

To ask the Minister for Finance the extent to which lending institutions are encouraged to offer facilities to small and medium enterprises...

To ask the Minister for Finance the extent, if any, to which sympathetic consideration and accommodation continues to be extended to small businesses...

To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will consider setting up a Government committee to prevent the loss of national treasures, similar to a committee operating in the UK, that can place temporary export bans on the most culturally important works following auction to allow local benefactors or museums to match the offers of foreign buyers; and if she will make a statement on the matter?

I want to thank Mr. Watters for his work on this report, which was considerable, given the range and complexity of the issues to be investigated. I also want to acknowledge the willingness and openness of the Hungarian authorities to engage with the Secretary General, with the Venice Commission and others in their efforts to implement the resolution of the Assembly in 2013.

When we planned this strategy- this launch- we could hardly have anticipated that in the preceding Misdsummer days and the Pacific nights we would be given a masterclass in exactly what it might mean and how it should be done.

The long term remediation of former Irish Tanners site at Portlaw Co. Waterford is a step closer now following a commitment from Minister Paudie Coffey, T.D., to support a phased action plan by Waterford City and County Council to assess the environmental condition of the site and inform the investigation of the longer-term options for use of the site and to initiate remediation and reuse of the site.

Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, and Fine Gael TD for Dublin Central, Paschal Donohoe TD, has today (Tuesday) welcomed the signing of revised event licensing regulations by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Alan Kelly TD, and Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Paudie Coffey TD, saying the new structures will ensure that the confusion and conflict that arose last summer in respect of the scheduling of certain outdoor events is not repeated again in the future.

“New licensing regulations will help to protect the residents around Marley Park by tightening the requirements for holding concerts,” says Fine Gael TD for Dublin Rathdown, Olivia Mitchell.

“Legislation providing for the introduction of new Healthy Workplace policies for the public sector shows that this Government is serious about making Ireland healthier”, says Dan Neville, Fine Gael Party Chairperson and TD for Limerick.