Results 281-300 of 787 for speaker:Catherine Ardagh

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Feb 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: I also welcome members of the Air Corps to the House and commend them on their public service. I raise the HPV cervical cancer vaccine and the reluctance of some people to immunise their children against cervical cancer. I agree with the sentiments expressed by Dr. Ciara Kelly in an article she wrote in the Irish Independentin which she stated we should celebrate on the streets that we have...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Feb 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: I also welcome our esteemed guests to the House. I wish to draw attention to the daft.iereport, which was published this morning and which shows an increase in rents throughout the city. Rents in Dublin alone have gone up by an average of €380 a month. Let us be clear, wages are not going up as fast as rents and people in receipt of the housing assistance payment, HAP, are struggling...

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Feb 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: I wish everyone a happy St. Valentine's Day. Holidays like this tend to make those who are alone feel a little more isolated and vulnerable. I commend Senator Swanick's calls to set up a task force on loneliness and encourage all Members of this House to call on elderly neighbours or those living alone to wish them a happy St. Valentine's Day. Some people receive very little communication...

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Feb 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: I wish to raise three items today so I beg the Cathaoirleach's indulgence. I wish to express my genuine disappointment at the collapse of the power-sharing talks in the North yesterday. I concur with the statements my party leader, Deputy Micheál Martin, made when he expressed his bitter disappointment at the lack of an agreement to restore devolved government. As he said, politics is...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Feb 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: There are three items I wish to raise today. I raised the first of these last week, the prospective sale by Permanent TSB of €4 billion of a non-performing loan book to unregulated vulture funds. I put on record my objection to this prospective sale. I note the Taoiseach's comments during Leaders' Questions in the Dáil, when he intimated the sale may not be to vulture funds but...

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Feb 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: I would like to raise three items. The first relates to the new national children's hospital and it is a good news story. It relates to the benefits which have stemmed from the community benefit programme, which was knitted into the construction of that project. The community benefit programme facilitates the employment of locals in the area in order that they gain some meaningful...

Seanad: Order of Business (27 Feb 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: I wish to raise the abysmal delivery of apprenticeships by the Government. Last week, a well choreographed national development plan, NDP, was rolled out in Sligo with a promise of large-scale capital projects being rolled out nationwide. The truth is, however, that these will never be delivered because there is a huge shortage of labour in the country not just in the construction industry,...

Seanad: Order of Business (27 Feb 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: Five hundred houses a year since Fine Gael has been in government.

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Mar 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: I raise the issue of inpatient beds for mental health services, in particular, for people who are suffering from anorexia nervosa. We have learned by way of the reply to a parliamentary question tabled by the leader of the Fianna Fáil Party, Deputy Micheál Martin, that the State provides a mere three specialist beds at St. Vincent's Hospital, Dublin for adults with this condition...

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Mar 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: In the aftermath of Storm Emma we have been left with considerable chaos with respect to two topics I wish to raise today. Both relate to shortages, the first a shortage of water and the second a shortage of blood. Regarding water shortages, we have learned from the Kennedy analysis that we have a 57% leakage rate in Dublin. We know that Dublin's pipes are ancient, corroded, full of holes...

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Mar 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: Irish Water did not need to be set up to do such work. A local authority could have fixed the pipes.

Seanad: Seachtain na Gaeilge: Statements (7 Mar 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit agus cuirim fáilte go dtí an Seanad roimhe arís. Tá rath mór tagtha ar Sheachtain na Gaeilge ón am agus a raibh mé i mo ghasúr. Caithfimid iarracht a dhéanamh sa Seanad agus i dTeach Laighean an tseachtain a choimeád mar sheachtain gur fiú í a chéiliúradh. Ba chóir...

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Mar 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: I wish to start by congratulating the Irish rugby team on its grand slam victory in the Six Nations Championship. In the wake of Brexit and the talk of a hard border, our rugby team gives us hope and promise of what we can do when we work together on an all-Ireland basis.We were able to celebrate this amazing achievement thanks to the sacrifices made by the members of the team, their support...

Seanad: Address to Seanad Éireann by Mr. Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh (21 Mar 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: Ar dtús báire, cuirim fáilte mhór roimh an Uasal Ó Muircheartaigh agus a chlann sa Ghailearaí uaimse féin agus ó Ghrúpa Fhianna Fáil sa Seanad. Tógadh mé ag éisteacht leis an Uasal Ó Muircheartaigh ar an raidió gach Domhnach. Tá guth álainn suaimhneach aige agus lean a ghuth gach clann, mo chlann fein san...

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Mar 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: I rise to commend the Trojan work and bravery of the Dublin Fire Brigade who spent all last night and this morning extinguishing a fire at the Metro Hotel in Ballymun. Thanks to their swift action, nobody has been harmed and there are no reports of casualties thus far. On behalf of the Fianna Fáil Party and Fianna Fáil group, we are in awe and we are thankful to Dublin Fire...

Seanad: Order of Business (27 Mar 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: I would like to raise two issues, both of which relate to education. The first relates to DEIS status allocation and the second relates to home school liaison teachers. We learned from the Department of Education and Skills that the process for DEIS identification uses data from the DEIS primary online database, the post-primary online databases and the CSO data, when measuring disadvantage...

Seanad: Order of Business (27 Mar 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: The hidden homeless, in particular.

Seanad: An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Mar 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: Ar dtús báire gabhaim buíochas le gach ball den chomhcoiste um an ochtú leasú ar an mBunreacht, go háirithe, an Seanadóir Ned O'Sullivan, an Seanadóir Noone mar Chathaoirleach, an Seanadóir Ruane, an Seanadóir Buttimer, agus an Seanadóir Mullen, agus mo comhghleacaithe sa Dáil, go háirithe na Teachtaí Lisa Chambers,...

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Mar 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: Today I raise again the escalating problem of recruitment and retention of staff in schools. I have met many principals in Dublin 8 and Dublin 12 recently and the common theme I hear is that unless this issue is tackled head-on many schools will have to close. They have particular difficulty obtaining language and home economics teachers. I have heard anecdotally teachers in training are...

Seanad: Order of Business (24 Apr 2018)

Catherine Ardagh: I send my personal condolences and those of the Fianna Fáil group to the people of Toronto, especially the families of the ten people who were killed and the 15 people who were injured when a man drove a van into a crowd of pedestrians yesterday. I have family members in Toronto, which I visited last summer. It is an ethnically diverse and very safe city. One of the victims has been...