Results 21-40 of 89 for going forward speaker:Gerald Nash

Community and Voluntary Sector Workers: Motion [Private Members] (12 Oct 2022)

Gerald Nash: ...on which we all rely. I was reflecting earlier on my own personal experience this week before attempting to prepare some remarks. My family spent much of Monday morning helping a family member go to a service that is operated by community employment, CE, supervisors and funded by various agencies. I spent most of my day on Monday dealing not with the HSE, the local authority, the...

Defective Concrete Products Levy: Motion [Private Members] (4 Oct 2022)

Gerald Nash: I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion on behalf of the Labour Party. For the record, our amendment states: "further calls on the Government to: - replace the Defective Concrete Products Levy with a levy on profits derived from construction; and - commit to the introduction in the Finance Bill 2022 of retrospective tax relief for those already carrying out remediation works on...

Housing for All Update: Statements (4 Oct 2022)

Gerald Nash: ...Residential property prices have risen 8% in the last year alone. Prices are now at similar levels to their Celtic tiger peak in 2007. We know to our cost what happened next. It is incredible the Government would have us believe the strategy that has performed so poorly in bringing about secure and affordable housing is the only viable strategy and the only show in town. Today I am...

Financial Resolutions 2022 - Budget Statement 2023 (27 Sep 2022)

Gerald Nash: ...in 1922. We are now richer than we have ever been in our history. We are more liberal, open, diverse, welcoming and confident as a society then anyone could have imagined even half a century ago. Ireland, though, is unfinished business. The idea of Ireland is a work in progress. By standard international measurements, Ireland appears to be doing well. It is the third most...

National Retrofit Plan: Motion [Private Members] (20 Sep 2022)

Gerald Nash: .... There are bits and pieces here and there - a piecemeal approach - but no indication of a national town-by-town and street-by-street effort. The lack of such an effort was baffling a year ago and it is even more puzzling now, given what energy-impoverished households are facing into this winter. We need a national effort and campaign. Aside from the urgent need to retrofit homes...

Remediation of Dwellings Damaged By the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Bill 2022: Second Stage (30 Jun 2022)

Gerald Nash: ...that. It is about getting it right and we believe that we can get it right. While I am not a member of the committee, I speak as someone who attends the Oireachtas Select Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The amendments the Labour Party will bring forward will be tabled in my name, and those in the Seanad will be in the name of my colleague Senator Rebecca Moynihan,...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Electoral Reform Bill 2022: Committee Stage (31 May 2022)

Gerald Nash: ...must be conscious of that and, to be fair, successive boundary commissions have been. The idea of consistency over a period of elections is now hardwired into the work the electoral commission is going to do into the future. Deputy Ó Snodaigh is right. Parts of Dublin, in particular, have been taken in and out of constituencies. There is no affiliation with any particular Deputy,...

Passport Services: Statements (26 May 2022)

Gerald Nash: ...always encourage constituents to do, but it does not mean that there are no problems. There are problems with the online process, as we have all experienced, especially in recent months. I will go into that in more detail. There is no way to describe this other than to call it an utter mess. Deputies are referencing experiences from our constituency offices and from interactions...

Financial Resolution No. 2: Mineral Oils Tax (27 Apr 2022)

Gerald Nash: ...some time now. We see this is an opportunity to help to drive down the ever-rising cost of living for hard-pressed families across the country. This is just one tool or weapon in the armoury of Government to address this unprecedented problem, the extent of which we have not experienced for a long number of years. To say that there was a sluggishness about the Government's response...

Finance (Covid-19 and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022: Second Stage (9 Mar 2022)

Gerald Nash: ...obviously for the people of Ukraine who are the victims of Vladimir Putin's illegal war and occupation of that sovereign nation. That should be our first concern, but Ireland and the Irish people are going to face very significant economic impacts and we need to be mindful of that. We already have an enormous challenge in respect of the cost of living, especially for low and...

Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2022: Second Stage (Resumed) (15 Feb 2022)

Gerald Nash: ...people who have taken courage in their own hands to identify wrongdoing in organisations in which they work and we all want to have the best possible system in place to protect them when they go about that important business. Such business is really intrinsic to our democracy and the functioning of same and to be fair to the Minister, he acknowledged that in the earlier part of his...

Cost of Living: Motion [Private Members] (26 Jan 2022)

Gerald Nash: ...in the third-quarter of 2021, while rents in Dublin are now more than 40 per cent above pre-crisis levels; — the average Irish mortgage interest rate of 2.79 per cent is more than twice the EU average of 1.31 per cent, costing households over €2,000 a year, with no action to date from Government to bring this down; — Ireland has the second highest Organisation for...

Regulation of Providers of Building Works Bill 2022: Second Stage (20 Jan 2022)

Gerald Nash: Sometimes you do not know when you take off where you will land. That is the case, I think, with most Members of this House, and that is meant with all due respect. Deputy Gould is absolutely right about the preventative maintenance budgets of our local authorities. If we do not address that issue, we store up more trouble, ensuring that maintenance, building control and so on become bigger...

Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Second Stage (3 Dec 2021)

Gerald Nash: I welcome the opportunity to speak on this legislation. As I think the Minister of State pointed out, it is one of several interventions this Government and the previous one have sought to introduce to address issues we raise consistently, in this House and beyond, in respect of the enormous difficulties facing our society and our economy in the area of housing provision due to a lack of...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development (Amendment) (Large-scale Residential Development) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (1 Dec 2021)

Gerald Nash: ...using the SHD process to have significant developments fast-tracked through the planning process and then sitting on the sites or flipping them and making considerable gains on them while they go undeveloped. The intention of the amendment was to address the use it or lose it issue that the Minister, along with the Minister for Finance, appears to be confident will be addressed through...

National Standards Authority of Ireland (Carbon Footprint Labelling) Bill 2021: Second Stage [Private Members] (17 Nov 2021)

Gerald Nash: ...I am pleased Government will not be opposing this Bill. That is very progressive. We are prepared to work with Government on improving this Bill if that is required and we are aware that there is work going on at EU level on the standardisation and harmonisation of this process. I doubt we would have been made aware this week, or indeed earlier, of the Government’s plans or the...

Finance (European Stability Mechanism and Single Resolution Fund) Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Second Stage (10 Nov 2021)

Gerald Nash: ...glossary of the Bill. It is complex and technical legislation but an extremely important Bill nonetheless. The Labour Party will support its passage on Second Stage on a qualified basis. We look forward to going into the legislation in more detail when it comes before the committee. The Minister of State and the Ceann Comhairle will be pleased to learn that I do not intend to use all...

Finance Bill 2021: Second Stage (Resumed) (3 Nov 2021)

Gerald Nash: ...Minister to the House. We are debating the Finance Bill at a very challenging and, indeed, dangerous time for our country and our citizens. Even since we debated budget 2022, a few short weeks ago, the situation regarding Covid-19 has worsened considerably. We are far from out of the woods yet and we must proceed with caution and care. The role that the institutions of the State,...

Financial Resolutions 2021 - Budget Statement 2022 (12 Oct 2021)

Gerald Nash: ...of the State, and that in itself gives us cause for reflection. Coming out of this phase of the pandemic, the need for a deep assessment of where we are, where we have come from and where we are going to is even more acute. What should our priorities be? How can we do things better? What kind of country should we strive to be? The pandemic has exposed some stark and uncomfortable...