Results 5,521-5,540 of 8,015 for speaker:Jonathan O'Brien

Gateway Scheme: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (12 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: It is true.

Gateway Scheme: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (12 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: If Deputy Creed wants to have a debate on the facts, I suggest he should visit the Department of Social Protection's website.

Gateway Scheme: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (12 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: He should download the exact criteria for the scheme. The question and answer document that comes with the criteria, which provides answers to 33 questions, states categorically that one cannot avail of part-time work if it interferes with one's participation in a Gateway scheme. This is not a case of the Opposition making something up. I am referring to what the Department of Social...

Gateway Scheme: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (12 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: The Deputy asked for some clarity.

Gateway Scheme: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (12 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: There is no confusion. If the debate on this issue is being confused, I suggest the Department of Social Protection is responsible for that. I am getting my information from the Department, just as anyone who is asked to participate in this scheme will do. One of the questions in the question and answer document to which I referred relates to whether participants have to adhere to the work...

Gateway Scheme: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (12 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: I propose to share time with Deputies Brian Stanley, Sandra McLellan, Pearse Doherty and Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin.

Gateway Scheme: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (12 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: Like Deputy Creed, I have people coming into my constituency office looking to extend their participation in community employment schemes and so on. However, the difference between Gateway and the CE schemes is that participants in the latter are doing things like child care which allow them to obtain a qualification at the end of it. In other words, they are upskilling.

Gateway Scheme: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (12 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: In most cases-----

Gateway Scheme: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (12 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: In most cases there is a training and educational aspect and a qualification at the end of it. That is why people find value in those particular labour activation schemes. In the case of Gateway, on the other hand, there is no training element.

Gateway Scheme: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (12 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: There is no training budget.

Gateway Scheme: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (12 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: There is no training budget for this scheme. As I understand it, a sum of €200 or so will be given towards health and safety aspects for anyone who is participating in the scheme, but there is no training and education budget and participants will not receive any qualification at the end of it. The website of the Department of Social Protection includes the following statement in...

Gateway Scheme: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (12 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: Deputy Catherine Byrne said she welcomes the scheme because it will give encouragement to people to go back to work. I do not know who she has been talking to but any long-term unemployed person to whom I have spoken does not need any encouragement to go back to work. People in that situation wake up every day dreading the bills the postman will drop through the door and worrying about how...

Social Housing and Homelessness Policy: Statements (12 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: It is possible to argue whether there is a housing crisis. I contend that such a crisis exists. No one can argue, however, that there are individual families who are in complete crisis. There is no doubt that Government policy is partly to blame in this regard. At least 80% of those who visit my constituency office in Cork want to discuss housing.

Social Housing and Homelessness Policy: Statements (12 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: That figure is increasing all the time. I only have five minutes available to me but in all honesty I could speak for five hours in respect of this issue. In any event, I wish to use my time to focus on three areas, the first of which relates to the changes to rent allowance. Those changes are pushing more and more people into poverty and onto the streets. That is a fact. Deputies will...

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Criminal Justice (Forensic Evidence and DNA Database System) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: I understand what the Minister has said. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn would like to focus on the ten year rule. The Minister has said the amendment will create an unequal situation between prisoners, but is it also the case that by not excluding prisoners who are out on licence as a result of the Good Friday Agreement, he is saying it is likely most of these individuals will be covered...

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Criminal Justice (Forensic Evidence and DNA Database System) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: The Minister said the ten year rule applied from when somebody left prison. Is it ten years since somebody was released from prison or, as the Bill states, ten years since the sentence expired?

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Criminal Justice (Forensic Evidence and DNA Database System) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: I move amendment No. 1: In page 52, between lines 21 and 22, to insert the following:"(2) Any conviction covered by the terms of the Good Friday Agreement 1998 is excluded for consideration under this section.".I am deputising for Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn who cannot make the meeting. I believe this issue which relates to political prisoners who come under the terms of the Good...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Broadband Services Provision (12 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: 110. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will review broadband provision in the Clogheen-Kerry Pike area in County Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12253/14]

Topical Issues Debate: Maternity Services (11 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: I thank the Minister of State for her reply. I take the Minister of State at her word that there is no embargo on the recruitment of front-line staff in maternity hospitals in particular. If that is the case, I ask if she will enlighten us as to the reason for the log-jam. None of the 19 maternity hospitals has the best practice standard of the ratio of midwives to births, which is one...

Topical Issues Debate: Maternity Services (11 Mar 2014)

Jonathan O'Brien: The Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, may have seen the article on the front page of the Evening Echo yesterday, which was very worrying for any expectant mothers in the southern region. I do not propose to indulge in scare-mongering about a crisis or safety issues in our maternity hospitals. I tabled this Topical Issue matter to allow the Government to outline its plans in the wake...