Results 2,501-2,520 of 14,388 for speaker:Clare Daly

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: The legislation is probably clear in the case of double insolvencies, but this is to deal with cases in which a company is still viable and the scheme runs into difficulties or there is a dispute. The legislation is deficient in the protection it gives to workers compared with those in other countries. It lets the employers off the hook somewhat. We should try to copperfasten the...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: The Minister has not sufficiently addressed the issue we are seeking to address in our amendment. The legislation clearly defines the State's responsibility in cases of double insolvency and guarantees certain benefits to scheme members in such cases. The guarantee in this regard is not adequate, but that is an issue for discussion under later amendments. Our amendment No. 3 is seeking to...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: I wish to make a couple of brief points. The ESB scheme was always a defined benefit scheme. The IASS scheme was also a defined benefit scheme, but that did not prevent ten years of argument as efforts were made to undermine the benefits to the members of that scheme. The measures undertaken by the company were the subject of years of adjudication in front of the Pensions Board. The...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: I move amendment No. 3: In page 9, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following:“9. The Principal Act is amended by inserting the following new section after section 47:"47A.Where the company is solvent the discharge of the liabilities of a relevant scheme under section 48(1AB), the resources of the relevant scheme are not sufficient to discharge, in whole or in part, the...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: I will be supporting Deputy Ó Snodaigh's amendments as my own were ruled out of order. In essence we are trying to improve the situation for the lowest-paid pensioners in particular. The Bill is concerned with securing benefits but that needs to be tilted in favour of the lower paid. We must view this against the frightening backdrop of the fact that 80% of our pensioners depend on...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: Deferred scheme members, however, up to a number of years ago, had the same protection as existing pensioners. I know that situation is complicated by the fact that it is the existing pensioners who are now taking a hit in this legislation and they were not exposed previously. It is a case of balancing interests, particularly in situations where schemes unravel, as with the IASS scheme,...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: The position of active and deferred members is being improved by this legislation because at the moment there is nothing there. That is not really the issue, which is whether this is being improved enough and if the process is fair. These are the issues we are grappling with, particularly as the work is being done at the expense of existing pensioners who, as of today, cannot have benefits...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: I apologise to the Chairman as I was double-booked for meetings. However, I wish to put on record that I will revert on Report Stage to the issues that could not be dealt with in my absence here. These are the issues concerning the amount at which the cut can come in when a scheme is a difficulty, as I consider it to be too low. As this issue must be addressed, I will return to this matter...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: Yes.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Adoption Records Provision (17 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: 73. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs in view of the state apologies in Australia, Spain and Britain, to children who were the victims of forced and often illegal adoptions; and her views on whether the Irish State should make a similar apology to Irish children who were forcibly adopted and exported from the State. [54123/13]

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Adoption Records Provision (17 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: This question relates to the shoddy way in which the Irish State has treated adopted persons. This issue has come to prominence recently with the release of the film "Philomena", and the producers of that film have been inundated with requests from Irish people to seek assistance in getting their identity traced. Appalling crimes of identity theft have been committed against people. Other...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Adoption Records Provision (17 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: This is obviously a very important issue, which has devastating consequences on people throughout their lives. There is a certain irony in the fact that we are rushing through legislation later in the week to facilitate intercountry adoptions, since some of the people I am talking about here were the intercountry adoptees of their day, leaving these shores - sometimes in illegal...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Adoption Records Provision (17 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: The official apologies made to the victims of the Magdalen laundries and industrial schools made a huge difference to the people concerned and this issue will not go away. It meant a huge amount to the people concerned in Australia to have the state officially acknowledged the issue. In 2010 Gordon Brown apologised for Britain's role in some of these activities in disrupting the identity of...

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Adoption Services Provision (17 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: 85. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the percentage of cases where the Adoption Authority of Ireland has overturned negative assessments of couples as being unsuitable parents; the circumstances in which these decisions are made; and if she has any plans to reform this system. [53811/13]

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Proposed Legislation (17 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: 103. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the reasons for the delay in bringing forward the adoption and tracing legislation; and if she will specify the obstacles that she has previously referred to in relation to implementing full tracing rights and retrospection. [53812/13]

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Pyrite Remediation Programme Implementation (17 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: 382. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government when the pyrite resolution board will process applications for remediation and expedite the claims in view of the urgency and very serious deteriorating condition of a number of dwellings. [53685/13]

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Planning Issues (17 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: 389. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will undertake a study on the way the excessive numbers of take-away and fast food outlets operating in many urban and suburban areas can be curtailed. [53838/13]

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Local Authorities Management (17 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: 407. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the fact that members of Sligo Borough Council served a notice on the temporary county manager (detail supplied) under section 140 of the Local Government Act 2001, directing her to have a special meeting of the borough council convened on 16 December 2013; if his attention has been...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Local Authority Expenditure (17 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: 408. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the most recent local government auditor's report indicates that the overall debt of Sligo County Council has increased from €85 million to €94 million; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the auditor has again expressed concern in respect of the...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Garda Investigations (17 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: 443. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if he is satisfied that the terms of reference of the consideration of the Fr. Niall Molloy case have been published even though no consultation had taken place with those who handed over the evidence of a cover-up. [54150/13]