Results 881-900 of 1,947 for speaker:Marie Sherlock

Seanad: Situation in Palestine: Motion (21 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber and the Civil Engagement Group for its detailed motion. I thank Senator Black for all her advocacy and for continually raising in the House the plight of Palestinians through many years. As Senator Garvey said, this is not just about 7 October and life after that. It is obviously over many years. I also thank Senator Higgins for her...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: I thank the Chair and thank everybody who has made the effort to be here today. We often hear the slogan, on both radio and television, about RTÉ supporting the arts and I suppose the question has to be asked today. Does RTÉ accept that serious harm was done to the reputations and indeed the livelihoods of the people involved in Toy Show The Musicalin terms of how it was managed?...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: But Mr. Bakhurst is trying to repair the mess that has been made.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: Looking ahead, Mr. Lynch referred to the strategy set out for RTÉ to look at future live events and other ventures in order to generate funds for RTÉ. Ultimately, Toy Show The Musicalwas obviously a corporate governance failure. It was a financial failure and, arguably, an artistic failure because it was so undercooked. The question in my head is about something like that...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: I thank Mr. Bakhurst. I have a question for Ms Cusack. There has been a lot said about the voluntary exit package. There is a question that keeps coming up in my mind. Ms Cusack was assured that the required savings would be made and that gave her a degree of comfort with regard to the deal that was ultimately done, but it was Ms Cusack's department that ultimately would have processed...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: The culture within the HR department is to apply a fine-tooth comb to managing contracts and payments to workers of RTÉ. Why did Ms Cusack not act when she did not see the required savings?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: That is the exit, but I refer to the incoming CEO. The savings were not there. Ms Cusack's task was to administer the scheme. There was a breach of the scheme. I suppose the other side of it is that we have a package here worth €400,000 or more. I do not know what Ms Breda O'Keeffe's package was, but obviously it was a significant package. Surely that should have been weighing on...

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: I think it points to a culture in this regard. To my mind, if people are at the executive director level, they are paid to ask questions of others. That did not happen, but it should have happened.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: I refer to the form of the executive, however, in front of the director general. This is the key point. The conversations took place outside the room and there was no degree of transparency.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: I just want to ask another question. The Resolve report was furnished to Ms Cusack on 2 March 2022.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: It took more than a year and freedom of information requests and all sorts of other efforts to get that report published. For everybody's benefit, this report examined the culture in certain parts of RTÉ because there had been allegations of bullying, etc. Why did Ms Cusack sit on that report for a year?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: When were the changes made? To my knowledge, they were not made before the publication of this report. The reason the trade unions in RTÉ had to force the publication of this report was so that action would then be taken.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: I refer to moving the individual in question sideways.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: Is Ms Cusack comfortable that a report, which was ultimately designed to try to improve the culture and the attitude manifested towards female workers in particular and to try to stamp out allegations of bullying, was suppressed for so long?

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: The trade union group was not given this report. Surely all the dealings go through the trade union group when it comes to HR matters. They were not given the report-----

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: This was a systemic issue. It was not just a once-off. There was a systemic issue within current affairs.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: Okay.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: If issues like this present again, I do not think it an appropriate approach to move people sideways. If there is wrongdoing, then there has to be a process where people are dealt with accordingly, as opposed to a culture of moving people sideways. I hope that never happens again in the context of what did happen in respect of the manner in which those issues were addressed at the time.

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media: Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: Yes. I appreciate that. I thank Mr. Bakhurst.

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Special Educational Needs (8 Feb 2024)

Marie Sherlock: Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. I thank the Minister of State for taking this on behalf of the Minister for Education today. I am very conscious that there has been a lot of attention this week on the Department of Education's failure to properly plan for secondary school places in certain areas, in greater Dublin, Kildare, and Wicklow. We have a long-running issue regarding the...