Results 4,101-4,120 of 4,168 for speaker:Susan O'Keeffe

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: And then finally-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: Sorry.

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: And, finally, in evidence ... in written evidence, Kevin Cardiff talked about the additional €24 billion State injection into the banks in March 2011 - this would have been just after you came into office - and he talked about the horse-trading that went on in order to achieve that figure and he says, really, it was an increase on what the Central Bank would have been comfortable with...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Nexus Phase (10 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: Thank you very much.

Seanad: Ireland 2016 Schools Programme: Statements (29 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: I welcome the Minister to the House. The year 2016 will be a great year to be a schoolchild due to the extraordinary range and depth of programmes that the Minister and her officials and committees have conjured up. Of course it has been more than conjuring and it is the result of much hard work, but there is imagination at work also in trying to reach out. The programme offers certain...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Office of the Ombudsman Reports: Mr. Peter Tyndall (30 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: I thank the Ombudsman. The fact this is the first own initiative, so-called, taken in 30 years is worthy of recommendation. Mr. Tyndall made a number of recommendations which were accepted in full by the HSE, and he asked its officials to put the complaints procedure in place. What timeline has he sought? Given the Ombudsman is the last resort rather than the first, if the HSE starts to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Office of the Ombudsman Reports: Mr. Peter Tyndall (30 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: I asked about the timeline. Mr. Tyndall believes the HSE will put a robust complaints system in place, but that will take a long time and he referred to the need to professionalise it. Will it take a year or five years?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Office of the Ombudsman Reports: Mr. Peter Tyndall (30 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: Twelve months is reasonable. My fear is the lack of professionalisation and the fact it is a part-time job for some people. They do not see complaints as a priority and if anything else comes in, it will always have priority over sorting out the complaints system, which will then fall to the bottom. We will never get a robust system established on that basis.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Office of the Ombudsman Reports: Mr. Peter Tyndall (30 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: Professional complaints handler is a new job title.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Office of the Ombudsman Reports: Mr. Peter Tyndall (30 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: It is.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Office of the Ombudsman Reports: Mr. Peter Tyndall (30 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: I wish to add to that. If we are to write in that manner, we should also mention direct provision and prisons.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Office of the Ombudsman Reports: Mr. Peter Tyndall (30 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: Encourage a positive outcome.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Office of the Ombudsman Reports: Mr. Peter Tyndall (30 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: I thank the Ombudsman again for his presentation, particularly in relation to the Learning to Get Better report. Not only is it a good report, but it is clearly laid out, easy to read and I am heartened by the fact that the bright spots are also given notice because the Ombudsman's job is all about people complaining, so it is good for us to see that he can see where the progress is and that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Office of the Ombudsman Reports: Mr. Peter Tyndall (30 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: Except that I am arguing that because the Ombudsman is specifically looking to extend his jurisdiction in areas that are exclusively to do with health, assuming that he gets that jurisdiction, the forecast would be that he would double the workload in that area and that the level of work would be very diverse. That is the only reason I ask, not because I am trying to dilute his office.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Office of the Ombudsman Reports: Mr. Peter Tyndall (30 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: The Ombudsman can only take recent complaints.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Office of the Ombudsman Reports: Mr. Peter Tyndall (30 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Office of the Ombudsman Reports: Mr. Peter Tyndall (30 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: In other words, it will take some time to be resolved.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Office of the Ombudsman Reports: Mr. Peter Tyndall (30 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: There is a financial constraint.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Office of the Ombudsman Reports: Mr. Peter Tyndall (30 Sep 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: I thank Mr. Tyndall.

Seanad: Order of Business (1 Oct 2015)

Susan O'Keeffe: Before we proceed, I want to pay tribute to Senator Jimmy Harte, as I have not been in the House since he announced his retirement. I want to give him my personal best wishes and thank him for his work as a Senator and as a councillor and for what he has done in his local area in Donegal, and I wish him the very best in the future. I join others in welcoming the Building on Recovery...