Results 1-20 of 48 for going forward speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Parental Leave (30 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...breastfeeding supports, but by God I think anybody who takes on that job of work deserves every bit of support they can get. It is an absolutely fabulous piece of work. There have been huge steps forward with all of these forms of leave, in particular parental leave. With paternal leave I think there is a cultural barrier we need to get over. There are the financial pressures and I...

Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...that supplemental pension coverage. That word "supplemental" is important. Deputy Duncan Smith alluded to it but I do not believe it is within our compass to make any promises about future governments, however. The system is designed to be supplemental and it does not in any way, shape or form reduce the responsibility of the State. What we are talking about here is providing a minimum...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (29 Feb 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...change, reducing food miles, biodiversity benefits and most importantly the social cohesion element that community gardens provide. The Top of the City Garden is a case in point. Many people go there to grow vegetables but many more people go there to meet members of their community. The vegetables, fruits and flowers provide an excuse for people to come together. I welcome the...

Recent Developments in Northern Ireland: Statements (14 Feb 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ..., the sense I got from people I encountered on the doorsteps was clear and palpable. What they were looking for was for politicians to get on with it. They were looking for a politics that was going to work for the people. It is a straightforward demand from people who elect their Parliament or their representatives, that said Parliament or Assembly gets on with the work of governing in...

Research and Innovation Bill 2023: Second Stage (31 Jan 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...to college were handwritten. It is hard to think, even at this remove, that we would have been at that kind of analogue stage. It is difficult to visualise what our research environment is going to look like 25 or 30 years from now, particularly when we look at the pace of change we are seeing in areas where humans are now being assisted by technology. Artificial intelligence and those...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Housing Provision (21 Nov 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: It is critical that people express an interest. Waterford City and County Council has been driving forward the developments the Minister of State referenced and many of them are in the city. They are closer to where I am based rather than in the west of the county. I know there can be a difficulty in making provision for smaller schemes and attracting people into that area but it is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Report on Participation Income for Family Carers: Discussion (11 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I second that. It is a positive move. It is great to see forward progress because Family Carers Ireland have had to fight a long time for what seems to everybody at this committee to be the right thing. I found the presentations really interesting and I apologise that I am going to be a little bit all over the map, because I have noted points along the way. I found a lot of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Key Issues in Higher and Further Education: Discussion (21 Jun 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...a need for it and while they have travelled very far down the road to becoming one single, combined institution, they are not fully there, and the transformational funding will still be important, going forward. What are the Minister's thoughts on that matter?

European Year of Skills: Statements (10 May 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...a valuable debate to have, especially at the start of the European Year of Skills and in light of the launch of the OECD report yesterday, which, I have to admit, somewhat passed me by. I had to go back and have the executive summary printed off to have a look at it before speaking. I attended a lecture at the then Coláiste Mhuire in 2004 or 2005, when I was engaged in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Pay-related Jobseeker's Benefit Scheme: Discussion (19 Apr 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...is mention of the working-age payment. As I understand it, this is coming into view because the technology is there in Revenue and the Department to enable it. If a working-age payment is brought forward would it ultimately supersede what we are speaking about? I understand it would be a much bigger piece of work. What time horizon are we speaking about for either of these schemes?...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Autism: Autism Policy: Discussion (Resumed) (18 Apr 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I was putting forward a devil's advocate position to allow Dr. Matthews the space to unpack the issue. I want to direct a couple of questions to the TUS representatives. The university has 128 students who identify as autistic. I realise the representatives might be a little too close to the start of the process to answer a question on the longitudinal tracking of what becomes of...

Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023: Second Stage (Resumed) (2 Mar 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...the Higher Education Authority Bill, which was a mammoth Bill. In this case, even the explanatory memorandum runs to 58 pages so the Minister is to be commended on it and there is a great deal of good in this Bill. Deputies across the House, while maybe speaking to things they would like to see improved, are in favour of it. Unfortunately it is not a short period since I was a philosophy...

Report on the Summer Programme 2023: Motion [Private Members] (2 Feb 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...but they are tired. I can well understand it. The original purpose of this programme had that respite element in it. It is important. I am an educationalist by training and background and I am going to talk a little bit about how we should be focusing on the curriculum of what we want to achieve in the summer programme. That respite element is so important and should not be...

Interim Report on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services: Statements (26 Jan 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...;il a famous line from the 1916 Proclamation which commits us to cherish “all the children of the nation equally”. Are we living up to the standard of that foundational document set out over a century ago? We are seeing in this report that children with mental health difficulties are essentially prisoners of geography unless their parents have the means to transcend that...

Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022: Second Stage (Resumed) (13 Oct 2022)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I am not one bit ashamed of the achievements of this Government in terms of progressing workers’ rights - not one bit. I am proud to stand over it. I am proud to stand over those new things that we have brought during the lifetime of this Government. We spoke about some of them earlier, for example, the extension of parental leave being one of those important things and it is now...

Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill 2022: Second Stage (21 Sep 2022)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...on the Seanad Stages. I know the committee has been extremely active in that space and that the Minister has been very responsive in respect of the amendments that have been suggested and put forward. I was thinking about smartphones like the yoke I am holding in the context of this debate. The iPhone only went on sale first in 2007. It is difficult to conceive of a technology that has...

Screening of Third Country Transactions Bill 2022: Second Stage (21 Sep 2022)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...' Questions today, but across Europe where the energy crisis and the weaponisation of energy are being used as weapons of war by a malign state actor. Increasingly as the climate crisis intensifies and deepens we are going to see resource wars waged across the western world, be that in terms of energy or water. We will see information wars waged as well. I think we would all welcome...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Autism: Autism Policy in Education: Discussion (5 Jul 2022)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...to be brief where others have failed and see whether I can stick to the two-minute limit. My questions are closely related to those of Deputy Harkin. My first is about vision as distinct from forward planning. If we want to know the steps we need to take we need to know where we are going. It strikes me there is tension, even in the Minister of State's opening statement, between the...