Results 6,921-6,940 of 11,695 for speaker:Ivana Bacik

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Jan 2015)

Ivana Bacik: I also welcome the extensive legislative programme for the spring and summer session until the end of July. I note there are 41 Bills on the A list. I very much welcome publication of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill and the fact that the Gender Recognition Bill will commence in this House tomorrow. Some very important legislation is on the agenda. Could the Leader make...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Courts Service (20 Jan 2015)

Ivana Bacik: I thank the Minister of State for his full response. I am delighted to note that the proportion of women in the Judiciary has increased to 33%. I was conscious that there had been increases since we did our last survey in December 2013. While this increase is welcome, it must be noted that over 50% of those entering the Law Society as trainee solicitors are women. Indeed, two thirds of...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Courts Service (20 Jan 2015)

Ivana Bacik: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, to the House, and I welcome the fact that my matter on the Commencement was one of those chosen on the first day of this new procedure. I very much welcome the change we have made, which will streamline Seanad procedures and make them more effective. I am grateful to the Minister of State for coming in to answer the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Report on Crime Investigation 2014: Garda Inspectorate (14 Jan 2015)

Ivana Bacik: I join with others in welcoming all three witnesses and commend them on this excellent and really comprehensive report. It contains a great deal that members cannot hope to cover today but the joint committee will try to cover some parts of it. I noted throughout the report a theme of good practices locally but inconsistency with regard to overall adherence to appropriate standards,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Report on Crime Investigation 2014: Garda Inspectorate (14 Jan 2015)

Ivana Bacik: My second question relates to the addendum regarding the Guerin report. The inspectorate makes the point that this was something it was asked to do pursuant to a request from the Minister. It does not make any additional recommendations, following this additional inquiry, on the basis that its recommendations cover the issues in the Guerin report. From my reading of the Guerin report, it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Report on Crime Investigation 2014: Garda Inspectorate (14 Jan 2015)

Ivana Bacik: I wish to ask questions about Part V which deals with crime management. Everything is related but one thing that struck me is the fact that the Garda Síochána has no electronic crime management system which is a major obstacle to consistency. The reclassification of offences has been mentioned in the study which found that only 13% of reclassifications were correct and often no...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Report on Crime Investigation 2014: Garda Inspectorate (14 Jan 2015)

Ivana Bacik: I have one follow-up question which relates to something the witnesses had addressed earlier in terms of the implementation of recommendations, which is always the critical issue. Deputy Mac Lochlainn asked about the working group to oversee the implementation of recommendations, and the witnesses answered that. In part 11 of the recommendations, at recommendation No. 21, the inspectorate...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Report on Crime Investigation 2014: Garda Inspectorate (14 Jan 2015)

Ivana Bacik: Is that an entity within the Garda Síochána?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Report on Crime Investigation 2014: Garda Inspectorate (14 Jan 2015)

Ivana Bacik: Within the Department.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Report on Crime Investigation 2014: Garda Inspectorate (14 Jan 2015)

Ivana Bacik: Thank you.

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)

Ivana Bacik: Subsection (17) provides a little more detail and points out that "the customer" does include a former customer to whom the subsection applies, but the sort of complaints relating to customers are clearly spelt out in the other subsections. The commission has to keep an annual report, records of the number and types of complaints received and so on, but these are narrowly drawn complaints by...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)

Ivana Bacik: I believe we should take a more forensic reading of the section. Section 8 deals with customer dispute resolution. Section 8(1) states: "the Commission shall provide a dispute resolution service to any customer of Irish Water having an unresolved complaint...". As I read it, this is a narrowly focused section dealing with complaints specifically of customers of Irish Water.

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)

Ivana Bacik: Let me finish. Section 8(4) provides for how a person becomes entitled to make a complaint under the dispute resolution mechanism.

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)

Ivana Bacik: As I read it, this is a limited dispute resolution service, in line with or similar to the service operated by the commission for customers in the energy sector. It is narrowly focused. Clearly, people with broader complaints who may not be customers but who have complaints about other aspects of Irish Water should go to the forum. Section 7 indicates that the public water forum is for...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)

Ivana Bacik: No, let us be careful about this.

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)

Ivana Bacik: Let us be careful about it.

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)

Ivana Bacik: One has to be careful and read carefully the text of both sections to see that they are very different things. The customer consultative forum is about the broader policy issues. Of course anyone who has a complaint about aspects of Irish Water that comes under that section should go there. The customer dispute resolution is a narrower issue for people who have issues or a dispute with the...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)

Ivana Bacik: Section 8(1) provides-----

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)

Ivana Bacik: I thought we had a constructive debate on section 7. It would be a pity if our debate descends into name-calling and heckling and so on for section 8. We need to be careful about our reading of section 8. The Senators who have tabled amendment No. 25 seem to ignore the fact that section 8(1) refers to a dispute resolution service for customers of Irish Water. Section 8(4) must be read in...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)

Ivana Bacik: We have debated amendments to section 7 at some length, but the debate has been quite constructive. As I said earlier, section 7 is generally welcome. The concept of the public water forum is very much welcome in that it is vital that we see some body or forum that will represent the interests of the customers of Irish Water. I listened to Senator Cullinane speaking on the section just...