Results 421-440 of 4,168 for speaker:Susan O'Keeffe

Seanad: Address to Seanad Éireann by Ms Emer Costello, MEP (28 Feb 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I welcome Ms Costello to the House. Many Members, particularly Senator Colm Burke, and to lesser extent myself, have been calling for a closer alignment with the activities of the European Parliament. We have not succeeded with the legislative side but certainly having Ms Costello and her fellow MEPs appear before the Seanad is welcome because it means we are trying to reach out and bring...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Mar 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: Once again, I ask the Leader to invite the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to the House to talk about horsemeat. The issue has been with us for some weeks and we have not seen the Minister. I appreciate that he is busy and that, as Senator Pat O'Neill has pointed out, the CAP negotiations are exceptionally important. However, any number of questions arise from the horsemeat...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Mar 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I do not have a copy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Mar 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I thank the Secretary General for coming at such short notice. We appreciate it and recognise this is a matter of enormous importance to many people, and we are joined today by the very people who are affected. I would like to address the particular matter at this stage and come back to the wider matter later. Could we get more information on the calculation of €100 million and how...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Mar 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I seek two short clarifications. Clearly the Secretary General and his team do not have time to deal with the other matters we have not reached. Will we have the opportunity to invite the Secretary General back? We have been unable to deal with an entire area, primarily because this is incredibly serious and very many members wanted to speak, which is entirely fine. However, I am...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Mar 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I have two queries. With regard to the motorised transport grant, I am sorry for the confusion earlier about the age. On the description of disability, is there an estimate that an additional 19,000 people would be applying for that grant? That is the information that was given to me by people with disability but perhaps the witness would clarify that. My other question relates to the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Mar 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I will have to leave for a vote in about two minutes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Mar 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I thank the Chairman and will be as quick as I can. I thank the witnesses for drawing so many issues to our attention. On the letter that the HSE sent to the Ombudsman in October 2012 that I mentioned earlier, the HSE speaks of an organised response. I wonder whether Mr. McCabe's organisation knew about that or whether that was the first he had heard that there was an implementation plan...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Mar 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: No. This is a-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Mar 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: This is a specific response to the motorised transport grant.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Mar 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: Please.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Mobility and Motorised Transport Allowances: Discussion (6 Mar 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I thank Mr. McCabe.

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Mar 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: Sligo Institute of Technology is having its innovation and enterprise week. I am pleased that tomorrow evening I will host an event for parents, one could call it career guidance for parents, specifically concentrating on the STEM subjects - science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This is an area of huge growth. The US council on science has recommended to President Obama that it...

Seanad: Employment Equality (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Mar 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I call Senator Bacik and she has ten minutes.

Seanad: Employment Equality (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Mar 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I understand white smoke has emerged from the Vatican.

Seanad: Employment Equality (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Mar 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I ask the Senator to conclude, please.

Seanad: Employment Equality (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Mar 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I am proud to be present with my Labour Party colleagues to support this Bill. We often thank people as a tradition of the House but this is a day to say "Thank you" to many people. I thank the Minister for Education and Skills for his efforts and his support in this area and Neil Ward in his office for helping to draft the legislation. I also thank Senators Bacik and Moran for leading the...

Seanad: Employment Equality (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Mar 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Mar 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: Like others, I welcome the initial movement on the CAP negotiations. I am sure the Minister, Deputy Coveney, has been working extremely hard to try to get countries to agree to anything at all. I would like to join with others to say "Well done" on that front, particularly in regard to the ending of the quota for sugar beet, which raises a very real opportunity for the Irish sugar industry....

Seanad: Restorative Justice Process: Motion (20 Mar 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I welcome the opportunity to agree with this motion and to thank Senator Conway for bringing it to the House. It was not my intention to speak but when others were speaking about restorative justice, I was minded about two visits I made to two young offenders' institutions in the UK when I was working as a journalist. I always remember the lingering sadness of those places where people were...