Results 41-60 of 84 for going forward speaker:Willie O'Dea

Civil Registration (Amendment) Bill 2014 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Oct 2014)

Willie O'Dea: It is true to say that occasionally every Government does something good on which we can all agree - something which is intrinsically correct, very necessary and, if anything, overdue. This Bill, in principle, falls into that category and, therefore, we will not oppose it. The Civil Registration Act 2004 can be described as landmark legislation but despite that, it did not deal with a...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Jun 2014)

Willie O'Dea: ...Bill last week and I received a communication from the Bills Office to ask me to hurry in submitting amendments. That is despite the fact that there is a specific commitment in the programme for Government to allow at least two weeks for reflection and consideration between Second and Committee Stages of a Bill. I asked the Taoiseach about it recently and he told me this was a question...

Report on the General Scheme of the Gender Recognition Bill 2013: Motion (9 May 2014)

Willie O'Dea: ...sex, from the point of view of the law, his or her union could be described as a same-sex marriage. It is rather bizarre that the Constitution protects the institution of marriage and that we are going to introduce legislation which is going to force happily married people - some of whom will want to remain married - to divorce or separate in order that one member of the couple can obtain...

Gateway Scheme: Motion [Private Members] (11 Mar 2014)

Willie O'Dea: ...scheme, which everyone knows is a very different scheme from the community employment scheme. While I am not trying to be partisan or unduly critical, I never thought I would see the day when a Government, one third of which is made up of Labour Party members and which could not continue in office but for their support, would even contemplate something like this, let alone implement it....

Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed) (26 Jun 2013)

Willie O'Dea: I can understand why the Government concluded that it was required to legislate in this area. I have studied the reports of the hearings of the Joint Committee on Health and Children, during the course of which a range of principles and arguments were expounded. The arguments ranged from the sound and sensible to the truly bizarre. I apologise if I single anybody out but I was particularly...

Social Welfare (Amnesty) Bill 2012: Second Stage [Private Members] (18 Jan 2013)

Willie O'Dea: I welcome the initiative which enables Members to introduce Private Members' Bills. It is certainly a major improvement, although I question why the Government continues to operate the new system so timidly. The Order Paper sets out dozens of Bills dealing with important issues which will never see the light of day. It is like somebody who issues an open invitation to a party only to slam...

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: ...no job and they wish to get one. Moreover, many of them are taking with them skills expensively acquired at the expense of the Irish taxpayer, that is, those very skills needed to get the country going again. If one measures this in another way, the Government published a stability programme update in April 2011, which is fair enough. It projected that the numbers at work would grow by...

Leaders' Questions (29 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: ...accidents in the area of childbirth in hospitals last year? The total number of accidents and near accidents is 86,000 which cost the health service €81 million in claims last year. Is the Government going to take action on this research? Will it, at a minimum, organise risk assessments of all staffing levels, or is its concern for the safety of those using hospital services...

Statutory Sick Pay: Motion [Private Members] (23 Oct 2012)

Willie O'Dea: In congratulating Deputy Calleary for bringing forward this motion I am bound to say that given the circumstances the country is in where we are ravaged by unemployment and drained by emigration it is surreal that the Opposition has to come into this House and use Private Members' time to plead with the Government not to engage in yet another act of wanton job destruction. I picked out at...

Credit Guarantee Bill 2012: Second Stage (16 May 2012)

Willie O'Dea: ...they employ more than 655,000 people. Small business is the backbone of the economy but it is being starved of credit. The Minister need not take my word for that. No less an authority than the Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Patrick Honohan, has stated that for small businesses, Ireland is the most difficult country in the eurozone in which to access credit. That is some...

Private Members' Business. Protection of Employees (Amendment) Bill 2012: Second Stage (1 May 2012)

Willie O'Dea: ...rights bodies. I heard people talk about a period of weeks, but 52 or 75 weeks could still be defind as a matter of weeks. The latest figures available to me suggest that if someone wants to go to the Employment Appeals Tribunal, he or she will be waiting for a year and a half. That is a disgrace. If someone wants to go to the Labour Court and happens to live outside Dublin, it will...

Order of Business (7 Mar 2012)

Willie O'Dea: I wish to ask about two items of legislation. When can we expect the valuation (amendment) Bill? There is a commitment in the programme for Government to establish a strategic investment bank, which would require legislation. I notice there is nothing current or for further contemplation in the legislative programme about a strategic investment bank. Is it the Government's intention to go...

Action Plan for Jobs 2012: Statements (16 Feb 2012)

Willie O'Dea: The Government has announced a new set of retail guidelines, apparently at the behest of the troika. Does the troika understand what is going on here? Has it considered what the net result of this will be? Major operators will come here to buy greenfield sites at rock bottom prices. They will be able to provide plenty of parking facilities, etc., at a time when we are trying to reverse a...

Job Creation (25 Jan 2012)

Willie O'Dea: ...reply. I heard the Minister talk about the past but we are in the present now and he is a member of a Government which has been given an overwhelming majority by the people as a result of putting forward a policy, the centrepiece of which was to create jobs. The average rate of unemployment in the past 12 months during which the Government has been in office is 14.2%, as opposed to 13.7%...

Industrial Relations (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2011: Second Stage (17 Jan 2012)

Willie O'Dea: ...that the average wage in the JLC sector is €300 per week. These are the people at the bottom of the heap. Last week we debated the issue of agency workers, who constitute a very different category to those affected by the Bill before us. We all agree that the JLC system needs reform if it is to be made more efficient but some of the arguments for reform have relied on the myth that...

Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011: Second Stage (11 Jan 2012)

Willie O'Dea: I am extremely relieved with regard to the final statement by the Minister, namely, that he intends to bring forward amendments on Committee Stage. Unfortunately, the Bill bears all the hallmarks of being hastily drafted. Essentially, what we are doing here - albeit we are being compelled to take action on foot of an EU directive - is adding to the difficulties faced by employers in the...

Debt Settlement and Mortgage Resolution Office Bill 2011: Second Stage (Resumed) (19 Oct 2011)

Willie O'Dea: ...the permission of the House I wish to share time with Deputies Timmy Dooley, Brendan Smith and Michael Healy-Rae. I congratulate my colleague, Deputy Michael McGrath, on his initiative in bringing forward this urgent and necessary legislation and on the energy, time and effort he has undoubtedly put into it. In so far as I can I will approach the matter in an non-partisan way but I am...

Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill 2011: Second Stage (19 Jul 2011)

Willie O'Dea: ...else and the difficulty is that there is a serious danger that they, by their actions, may drag their counterparts into a race to the bottom. I asked the Minister last week at the committee why the Government did not simply appeal the decision of the High Court and use that request to ask for a stay of execution. He gave me two explanations. First, the advice from the Attorney General...

Jobs Initiative 2011: Statements (10 May 2011)

Willie O'Dea: .... As a result of this change, people who now provide such investment will, in almost every case, be able to claim full credit for the investment they provide. That is a very substantial step forward. We must remember there is very substantial tax competition at present in regard to the tax treatment of intellectual property. Other countries have taken various initiatives in this...

Macro-Economic and Fiscal Outlook: Statements (27 Oct 2010)

Willie O'Dea: ...to be in the higher range projected in the recent ESRI report then it may be possible not only to stabilise the deficit to 3% by 2014 but to do so for much less than the €15 billion figure put forward. The point is that we have committed not only to the EU Commission but also to the European Central Bank that we will achieve this target in the timescale we have agreed, which is 2014. It...