Results 3,001-3,020 of 4,002 for speaker:Rose Conway Walsh

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Credit Union Advisory Committee: Discussion (31 Jan 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: I thank Mr. Corr for his presentation. How would he describe the relationship between the Central Bank and the credit union sector?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Credit Union Advisory Committee: Discussion (31 Jan 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: We are in a situation in which the credit unions have assets of more than €17 billion. Those assets are of no use to anyone if they are just sitting there. They can be used in several ways as identified in all the reports, in particular for housing and microloan provision. These involve two major societal problems, the first being homelessness and the right to own a home and the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Credit Union Advisory Committee: Discussion (31 Jan 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: I encourage Mr. Farrell to do that because if there are only two credit unions operating the scheme in a county the size of Mayo, it is impossible for some people to access it. Many of these people do not have transport to access a credit union. Obviously unions also have to operate within their own localities. More than 300,000 people are currently borrowing from reckless moneylenders and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Credit Union Advisory Committee: Discussion (31 Jan 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: Absolutely. I recognise that the Bill being proposed by Deputy Pearse Doherty is only to cap rates and that this is only part of the problem. The thing that really worries me is that many of these people are not paying their mortgages because of some of the pressures and practices about which Mr. Molan has talked. They are paying the moneylenders' extortionate rates instead of paying their...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Credit Union Advisory Committee: Discussion (31 Jan 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: How far are we from credit unions being able to facilitate mortgages?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Credit Union Advisory Committee: Discussion (31 Jan 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: Such lending needs to be progressed, particularly in light of vulture funds and everything else that is going on in the market.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Credit Union Advisory Committee: Discussion (31 Jan 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: Since the restricted bond is such a big issue it was surprising that the implementation body did not make any specific suggestions on what needed to be done. It was observed that it was restrictive but no recommendations were made. That is what the Chairman is seeking because it does represent a barrier and fails to put the consumer at the centre of things. It goes against the whole ethos...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Credit Union Advisory Committee: Discussion (31 Jan 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: We see the evolution but it is not fast enough and it is not pertinent enough. There are so many external factors such as Brexit, China, Italy, a trade war in America and the end of quantitative easing. In the context of the cumulative effect of all those factors, we need the credit unions to have as much flexibility as possible in order to adapt to the needs of their consumers who trust...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Credit Union Advisory Committee: Discussion (31 Jan 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: There are other jurisdictions which have successful models of public banking which sit alongside the credit union movement. The committee will continue to pursue this. While the Government is reluctant to examine it, I hope it will be implemented at some stage.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Feb 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: I send solidarity and our warm best wishes to the nurses-----

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Feb 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: -----out in the cold and the rain. It is scandalous that these nurses have to be out there rather than doing what they are trained to do. I look forward to joining them in the next couple of days. I also wish to speak about the national children's hospital and the overrun there. It is not just about the national children's hospital. People are so angry because we have had it all before....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach (5 Feb 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: I thank the Minister for his opening statement. First, how much are we losing per day with the nurses not working, the consultants idle and theatres lying idle because the nurses are not there? Deputy Donohoe would know as Minister for Finance.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach (5 Feb 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: The Minister said he is responsible for financial consequences. It is hugely important to all of us that we know the financial consequences of each day the nurses are out on strike because we are going to end up paying for those consequences.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach (5 Feb 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: I find it surprising that the Minister does not have the figure off the top of his head. The Minister talked about the public service stability agreement. Clause 3 of that agreement allows for Government action for specific purposes. There is a recruitment and retention crisis within the health service. Does this clause not allow the Minister to sit down with the nurses and at least...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach (5 Feb 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: Yes, and I do not want to go over those reasons.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach (5 Feb 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: The Minister has taken pay off the table, though. Nurses build up time in lieu because they cannot get out of work on time as there is not sufficient staffing for them to be released. As they end up having a number of hours each and every week that they cannot take, they are working for free. They are therefore subsidising the health service above and beyond their 39 hours. This is surely...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach (5 Feb 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: I will not spend further time on the matter, but the Minister knows it needs to be sorted sooner rather than later, and the committee really needs to know the daily figure for the financial consequences of the nurses' strike. Moving on to the situation of the children's hospital, I think the reason people are so angry is that it is one of a whole line of procurement failures. People have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach (5 Feb 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: Does the Minister think we are granting tenders to bodies and companies that are purposely understating the price? They go in with a much lower price, knowing they can do so because there do not seem to be sufficient management structures, and then continually add to that figure. Are we not leaving ourselves open to a challenge? Others who have tendered at another price could come back and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach (5 Feb 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: Does the Minister not think we are wasting money hand over fist with a lot of these projects? I take his point about value and price. We all know the difference between the two. There do not appear to be any controls in place. That is one of the biggest problems. The other problem is that companies can offer any price that they want, ensure it is the lowest price, and then add on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach (5 Feb 2019)

Rose Conway Walsh: I will finish with that. I do not think that the capacity to deliver the projects, or the will to deliver them with real value for money, is there. I refer to JobPath. The Minister may have been involved in that, or perhaps the Taoiseach was. The Taoiseach was the Minister in charge at the time. I raised JobPath and the waste of money involved in it with him before he was Taoiseach. The...