Results 2,101-2,120 of 4,178 for speaker:Paul Gavan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019 (16 Feb 2021)

Paul Gavan: We came back to the issue of the €22,000. It is an extraordinarily low sum of money. I certainly could not live on that amount of money per week, yet the Department seems happy to sanction work permits at that rate for one of the most profitable industries in the country. There is something distinctly unfair about that. I will move on because I am conscious of time. The nice word...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019 (16 Feb 2021)

Paul Gavan: Clearly, Ms Ward is talking about agility in terms of employers having more options in hiring people, abusing the work permit process. In a point raised by Peter Rigney a couple of years ago, is there a danger that, despite having some fine people in the Department, it is really speaking for the sectors as opposed to the workers concerned? Is there a danger of regulatory capture? I do...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019 (16 Feb 2021)

Paul Gavan: We have not discussed the seasonal work permits yet. I am concerned because we will come into a period of mass unemployment at the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. I am concerned the Department still seems determined to have recourse to these work permits in that situation. The following point was made in a committee two years ago. If there is a case for seasonal workers, surely someone in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019 (16 Feb 2021)

Paul Gavan: It is also an outlier in not having the right to collective bargaining. Maybe we could balance that up.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019 (16 Feb 2021)

Paul Gavan: No problem.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019 (16 Feb 2021)

Paul Gavan: I again thank Ms Ward for her patience this afternoon. I want to follow up on the point raised by Deputy O'Reilly. As a union organiser, my personal experience with meat factories is that these people cannot translate their contracts. They have no one available to do it for them. They do not understand English in many cases so even finding the website is not practical for them. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019 (16 Feb 2021)

Paul Gavan: I would love to give Ms Ward a suggestion and I welcome the opportunity to do so. Why not ensure, before the Department issues work permits, that there is a collective bargaining agreement in place between the employer and the trade union of the workers' choice? That is a simple way to ensure there is a third party to protect the workers. To be frank, and we have gone through the numbers,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019 (16 Feb 2021)

Paul Gavan: I appreciate Ms Ward's patience but surely that balance should include a worker having a right to a living wage? Why is that not thought to be part of that balance in the Department?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019 (16 Feb 2021)

Paul Gavan: I thank Ms Ward.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Feb 2021)

Paul Gavan: I may quote Senator Mullen on that later.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Feb 2021)

Paul Gavan: Like several other Senators, I wish to raise the issue of Ulster Bank. It is particularly concerning that 2,400 good jobs may be lost. There may be significant implications for mortgage holders and small businesses across the State. I was not encouraged by listening to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, this morning. He seemed to be speaking in terms of a hands-off approach. I...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Feb 2021)

Paul Gavan: Well said.

Seanad: Report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation: Statements (Resumed) (19 Feb 2021)

Paul Gavan: I do not know how to deal with this matter in just six minutes, particularly as it involves such a history of evil collusion between church and State institutions. I want to begin by dealing with Manor House in Castlepollard because I am from a place just down the road from there. It is interesting to focus on how Manor House came into existence. It came into being because a local...

Seanad: Student Nurses (Pay) Bill 2021: Second Stage (19 Feb 2021)

Paul Gavan: I am sharing time with Senator Warfield.

Seanad: Student Nurses (Pay) Bill 2021: Second Stage (19 Feb 2021)

Paul Gavan: The Minister is very welcome to the House. I congratulate my colleagues in the Labour Party on introducing this excellent, simple and straightforward Bill. This issue really should not be occupying our time because it should have been sorted out long before now. It is about fair, reasonable and sustainable rates of pay and allowances. This issue was first raised with the Minister for...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Local Authority Housing (26 Feb 2021)

Paul Gavan: I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. I want to raise an issue which resonates right across the country. It concerns income thresholds for social housing. I have a simple request for the Minister of State.The Government must urgently raise the income limits for social housing. I was concerned by the reply of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to a parliamentary...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Local Authority Housing (26 Feb 2021)

Paul Gavan: I thank the Minister of State for his response. I have to say I am deeply disappointed with it. It is almost a carbon copy of a response given to my former colleague, Deputy Murnane O'Connor, in November. I say with all due respect that the response will mean absolutely nothing to those working families who are locked out of public housing and locked out of the mortgage market. As I said,...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (26 Feb 2021)

Paul Gavan: I raise the issue of workers in Rehab Enterprises in Raheen, 37 of whom have been told they are going to be made redundant shortly. This is truly concerning because these particular workers suffer from a range of disabilities. Some have visual impairments, some have learning difficulties and some have Down's syndrome. These people have given decades of service to Rehab Enterprises in...

Seanad: Covid-19 (Aviation): Statements (26 Feb 2021)

Paul Gavan: I thank the Minister of State for coming in this afternoon. She will not be surprised that I want to discuss Shannon Airport. We have had a number of conversations on the topic and I know she is well aware of the impact this crisis is having across all of the sectors. I want to acknowledge, in fairness, that supports have been put in place to date although, clearly, we will need to go...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (1 Mar 2021)

Paul Gavan: The Leader will know that some months ago I spoke about the far right when the fascists were outside the gates of Leinster House. I feel the need to raise the issue again this morning in the wake of what happened on Saturday. This is personal to me because when I grew up in London in the 1970s and was part of an Irish community, whenever we came out to march for the Birmingham Six or the...