Results 2,121-2,140 of 6,435 for speaker:Gerald Nash

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Joint Labour Committees Agreements (4 Jul 2017)

Gerald Nash: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Breen. In the past two weeks alone, I have been contacted by many security workers from around the country who are not receiving from their employers the hourly rate of pay for the job they do. This practice must stop. As Senators are aware, as part of the most significant enhancement of workers' rights legislation anywhere in the world in recent...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Joint Labour Committees Agreements (4 Jul 2017)

Gerald Nash: I am very encouraged by the increased level of inspections by the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, inspectorate. It is important that the message goes out that rogue security firms will not be allowed to continue not to comply with employment regulation orders, EROs. They are the law of the land. I have evidence of security firms which in recent weeks were not paying the new rate. I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Atypical Work Permit Scheme: Discussion (4 Jul 2017)

Gerald Nash: I thank Mr. Fleming for his very powerful testimony. I can confirm that he is not a fantasist because I know the work he has done. Mr. Fleming and I have worked hand in glove to improve this situation for quite some time. In many respects, he is a dissident voice but a distant one in terms of trying to improve the worst excesses of some practices in this industry. I support the call by...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Atypical Work Permit Scheme: Discussion (4 Jul 2017)

Gerald Nash: Yes. Only two fishermen out of 42 had permits just one year after the introduction of the permits scheme. I would like to see the whites of the eyes of some of the employers involved. In late 2015 and early 2016, I personally had to drag people to sign a memorandum of understanding that would enforce the employment rights of this scheme. There was a problem, there is a problem and there...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Atypical Work Permit Scheme: Discussion (4 Jul 2017)

Gerald Nash: I hope I will be able to provide some helpful insight. I agree with Deputy Neville and others that we should not break down on party lines in discerning a solution to this. It is an issue of our common humanity and we must unite around that in our quest for solutions. However, political responsibility must be taken at senior ministerial level. No ministerial responsibility has been taken...

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Jul 2017)

Gerald Nash: Like Senator Craughwell and others, I am sometimes ashamed at the way we treat members of the Defence Forces in this country.On countless occasions in recent years, in some cases predating the recession, I have met family members of Defence Forces personnel who are on the breadline, do not earn enough to make ends meet and believe they are not supported by the State. At a public meeting I...

Seanad: Equality of Access to Education: Motion (12 Jul 2017)

Gerald Nash: I will be in contact later with my colleague and good friend Ruairí Quinn. I will tell him that Senator David Norris was asking for him.

Seanad: Equality of Access to Education: Motion (12 Jul 2017)

Gerald Nash: He will be amused by that message, but he will be even more amused to learn that Fianna Fáil Senators delivered their criticism of him with a straight face.

Seanad: Equality of Access to Education: Motion (12 Jul 2017)

Gerald Nash: They did so without any sense of irony or appreciation of the circumstances in which they left the country in 2010 and 2011. Like the Minister of State, I am extremely passionate about education and convinced that the third level sector needs more State aid, not less. I was the first member of my immediate and wider family to have the privilege to attend university. My father was a factory...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Atypical Work Permit Scheme: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Sep 2017)

Gerald Nash: We are here because there is a problem, and I am pleased that the witnesses are here to respond to some of the claims that were made just before the summer recess. I can assure Ms McIntyre that where the ITF or SIPTU has any evidence whatsoever in relation to suspected breaches or, indeed, any unlawful activity that that has been, to the best of my knowledge, passed on to the authorities, as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Atypical Work Permit Scheme: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Sep 2017)

Gerald Nash: Which has happened in some cases? That may be the-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Atypical Work Permit Scheme: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Sep 2017)

Gerald Nash: I say that to agree with Mr. O'Donnell in that that may be one of the flaws in the scheme if somebody is in difficulty with his or her employer, that things happen.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Atypical Work Permit Scheme: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Sep 2017)

Gerald Nash: It concerns a minor point made by Mr. Conway but is important nonetheless. I do not think the WRC or anybody else would expect the witnesses to hold the entirety of the paperwork they are required to have on a vessel. I may stand corrected on this but certainly the WRC would not expect individual permit holders to hold their permits on the vessel at all times. I know those matters are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Atypical Work Permit Scheme: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Sep 2017)

Gerald Nash: So it seems that the WRC, which can clarify this later, has concluded that, at least in terms of its own inspections and investigations, 12 individuals had no permission to work and not 29, as I stated earlier.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Atypical Work Permit Scheme: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Sep 2017)

Gerald Nash: I have some questions for Mr. Hogan. Does the Marine Survey Office, MSO, have a problem sharing information with other State agencies? It seems to me from my experience that it does. What Mr. Hogan neglected to tell us in his contribution is that, apart from general issues to do with safety at sea and on vessels, the organisation is responsible for the monitoring, regulation and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Atypical Work Permit Scheme: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Sep 2017)

Gerald Nash: The MSO signed a revised MOU that was, in a sense, diluted. It did not accept the responsibilities that were originally considered to apply to it and was less than helpful at the time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Atypical Work Permit Scheme: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Sep 2017)

Gerald Nash: I thank the representatives from the WRC and the Health and Safety Authority for their commitment to this process and scheme from the get go. Of course this is a relatively new scheme, and it is fair to say they were both early adopters and very committed to making the scheme work, notwithstanding some of the major challenges that were apparent from the outset. I was going to ask the...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Oct 2017)

Gerald Nash: Following from Senator Higgins's remarks, we in this House must send a strong message to the Government of Spain that the actions of its police force last weekend were entirely unacceptable in a modern European democracy or indeed in any democracy entitled to bear that name. Regardless of where one stands on the question of Catalan independence, I acknowledge there will be a variety of views...

Seanad: Budget 2018: Statements (10 Oct 2017)

Gerald Nash: Earlier today, Fergus Finlay remarked that this budget can be compared to a bag of dolly mixtures, and I do not think he was referring to the introduction of the sugar tax. The impression has been given quite deliberately that there is, as Senator Burke said, a little bit of something for everyone in this package. However, when the Government tries to do something small for everyone to keep...

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Oct 2017)

Gerald Nash: This time last week, the Chamber passed the sectoral employment order for the construction industry without debate. The order emanated from a Labour Court process, which was undertaken over the past few months and involved the Construction Industry Federation and construction trades unions coming together to engage on a proposed sectoral employment order that would introduce basic minimum...