Results 8,221-8,240 of 12,387 for speaker:Paul Murphy

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (20 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: 1219. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if a pandemic unemployment payment will be backdated for a person (details supplied). [5916/20]

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (20 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: 1244. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the State could pay maintenance payments that are not being made on the basis that the State could recoup these costs after the Covid-19 crisis. [6196/20]

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (20 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: 1350. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if amendments to planning regulations will be introduced to facilitate small businesses that are no longer able to work out of their business premises as a result of the Covid-19 health measures and therefore need to operate from their home. [6197/20]

Written Answers — Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Commemorative Events (20 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: 1404. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the reason the National Famine Commemoration Day is being marked on the fourth Sunday of May for 2020, when the third Sunday in May is formally designated as the National Famine Commemoration Day. [6165/20]

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Briefing by ICTU, HSA and CIF Representatives on the Reopening of the Construction Industry (19 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: The issue of workers returning to work confident that they will be safe at work is vital and the State has a crucial role to play in that. I have questions for Dr. McGuinness from the HSA on this issue. The first relates to the question of the 200 complaints. I received a letter from the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, on 13 May, which said there had been 200 complaints about non-adherence to...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Briefing by ICTU, HSA and CIF Representatives on the Reopening of the Construction Industry (19 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: Therefore, Dr. McGuinness is saying that the HSA did not do the on-site investigation because no protocol was in place.

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Briefing by ICTU, HSA and CIF Representatives on the Reopening of the Construction Industry (19 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: Dr. McGuinness mentioned that about 80 inspections were done yesterday, is that right?

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Briefing by ICTU, HSA and CIF Representatives on the Reopening of the Construction Industry (19 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: How were 80 done yesterday and zero done prior to a week ago? How is that explainable? Surely that is some policy choice or decision? How can it be that all of a sudden there is a requirement to have 80 in one day, which I welcome - although I suspect that it is not enough - but up until last week there were zero, despite the HSA having received complaints?

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Briefing by ICTU, HSA and CIF Representatives on the Reopening of the Construction Industry (19 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: It seems to me that there was a problem and that the complaints were not being treated appropriately previously, if the authority had 80 such complaints yesterday. In early April, the HSA was advising workers and those who complained that it "did not have the powers to enforce the public health guidelines". It said it could not do anything about this. This was said repeatedly to many...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Briefing by ICTU, HSA and CIF Representatives on the Reopening of the Construction Industry (19 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: Dr. McGuinness is saying that the protocol was key in giving the HSA the powers. It did not previously have the powers and the protocol gave it these powers.

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Briefing by ICTU, HSA and CIF Representatives on the Reopening of the Construction Industry (19 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: Finally, hundreds of thousands of employees were in work before this week and before the protocol. Dr. McGuinness is saying that if a protocol had been in place previously, the HSA would have been able to act more effectively, and could have, for example, been doing on-site inspections before the last week.

Covid-19 (Health) - Statements (14 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: I will quickly ask a separate question. Has the Minister considered the request by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties not to expand the Garda powers beyond 18 May? Rather than using these restrictions on civil liberties, the Garda should rely on the things that have an overwhelming impact, such as education, persuasion, etc.

Covid-19 (Health) - Statements (14 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: I have a very simple question and I would like a clear answer to it. According to the agreement with the private hospitals, last week they were to produce a full cost statement detailing the costs for the month of April. I asked last week if that would be published but I did not receive a response to that question. Will the Minister make this detailed breakdown of costs available to...

Covid-19 (Health) - Statements (14 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: This is the fourth time I have raised this question and got various answers but on the essence of publishing the information about the costs so we can establish why we are paying so much for the private hospitals, I am not getting an answer. I raised it once with the Taoiseach and three times with the Minister and, repeatedly, the phrase "open book" is used to explain it but I do not...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (14 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: Does the Taoiseach think it is acceptable that 200 workers or groups of workers have complained about not being safe in their workplaces to the HSA, the body to which we eventually found out they are supposed to complain, and it has not inspected their workplaces? Are workers who are asked to return to work next week expected to have confidence in the system when those who have complained...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (14 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: In that case, does the Taoiseach agree that workers and unions will have to take action themselves to protect health and safety? The HSA is not intervening or doing the job it is meant to do. I have it in black and white from the Minister that there have been more than 200 complaints and zero on-site inspections related to Covid-19. As such, unions need to prepare and stand alongside their...

Covid-19 (Taoiseach): Statements (14 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: Yesterday, I received a letter from the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, which confirmed that there have been over 200 complaints about breaches of the Covid-19 guidelines in workplaces and there has not been a single on-site inspection of one of those workplaces. That is 200 groups of workers potentially working in unsafe conditions and 200 appeals to the Health and Safety Authority, HSA,...

Covid-19 (Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht): Statements (14 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: I have several questions for the Minister, so I will ask a question followed by an answer and the same again, if possible. It is a bit frustrating listening to the Minister and some of the other Fine Gael Deputies, whose contributions have involved giving lip service to the idea of the importance of the arts, combined with a certain supposed realism about what can be done in terms of...

Covid-19 (Transport): Statements (13 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: I want to focus on the question of airline vouchers, which was mentioned previously. Tens of thousands of people are legally entitled to a cash refund within seven days for flights that have been cancelled. They are being obstructed by airlines, including Ryanair, which are trying everything to avoid people availing of their legal rights. Even the vouchers that are being offered to them...

Covid-19 (Transport): Statements (13 May 2020)

Paul Murphy: What the Minister is clearly responsible for is the joint statement with other European states. That is the simple question I am asking. Is it the case that the statement, which called for consumer rights to be suspended in favour of the airlines, emerged from a meeting and that the Minister signed up to it? The Taoiseach said to me in the House that the Government had made no decision...