Results 421-440 of 8,245 for speaker:Bríd Smith

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Departmental Schemes (21 Jul 2016)

Bríd Smith: 15. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs to expand the qualifying criteria for community child care scheme to allow families who are not in receipt of Social Protection but are on low incomes to be included in the scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22964/16]

Government Appeal of European Commission Decision on State Aid to Apple: Motion (7 Sep 2016)

Bríd Smith: I will quote from the speech this morning of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan. He stated: "We should not see ourselves through the eyes of our detractors - those who would paint a cartoonish and negative image of Ireland." I have repeatedly stated in this House that I object to Ireland being referred to as one big homogeneous and happy family; we are not. There are very many...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (21 Sep 2016)

Bríd Smith: They have to be in Mountjoy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (21 Sep 2016)

Bríd Smith: They are ordinary people.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (21 Sep 2016)

Bríd Smith: I want to link something we already discussed to this section. When the Minister was effectively arguing to privatise the national broadband plan, he stated that he could not justify spending taxpayers' money on nationalising the broadband plan when there were more important things, such as climate change, to be dealt with. Given that we are discussing the Estimates, I ask the Minister to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (21 Sep 2016)

Bríd Smith: When I get those answers I will have to leave. I am sorry.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (21 Sep 2016)

Bríd Smith: Why? Does the Minister think I am a long distance driver?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (21 Sep 2016)

Bríd Smith: Will the Minister comment on the proposal for a third runway and the impact that might have on our CO2 emissions target?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (21 Sep 2016)

Bríd Smith: It says in one of the documents, which I do not have in front of me now, there is a report due from the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, on the question of fracking and natural gas. Will the Minister of State give me some idea when that report is due?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 29 - Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (21 Sep 2016)

Bríd Smith: The end of the year.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Bríd Smith: I thank the Minister. I want to ask a few questions under subhead A5 on the job announcements in IDA Ireland-supported client companies. The one that jumps out is Uber. If people do not know, Uber is a very large, smart company that provides an application for people to perform taxi business. As I understand it, 100 jobs were initially created, mainly in the Limerick area. My research...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Bríd Smith: The other companies include Credit Suisse, Amazon and, in particular, Uber. I will come back later to the wider points I wanted to raise about microfinance and how we do not seem to support local small and medium-sized enterprises as much. I want to ask some questions about this in terms of making a comparison. Those are all the questions I have on subhead 5.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Bríd Smith: It is an employment rights issue and that is why I am querying it. Is the Minister aware of Uber’s record in our neighbouring country, Brexit and all? Our neighbouring country has many cases going before the courts of abuse of employment rights by Uber. We have many complaints coming to us as well. We will bring them to the Minister’s attention.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Bríd Smith: I understand. Gabh mo leithscéal, a Chathaoirligh. I am not asking the Minister to tackle workers’ rights issues today. I am asking her to justify how public money is being spent on companies such as Uber, Coca Cola, Amazon and Credit Suisse. Why are we supporting global companies with poor records on workers’ rights? What money are we spending on them? Surely, that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Bríd Smith: I thank the Minister but I am afraid this Deputy is concerned about the status of employment, the level of decent jobs and the pay workers receive. They may not be among the 187,000 but there are a significant number of them.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Bríd Smith: No, my question was not-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Bríd Smith: I think my question is being mis-read or misunderstood, whether it is deliberate. Why are we supporting global companies which need support least when we have local enterprises that need support? One of the reasons for my query-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Bríd Smith: I think the Minister wants to respond to my question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Bríd Smith: My question relates to the briefing we received and access to finance. The briefing, on page 33, shows us that Microfinance Ireland, MFI, since it was set up in late 2012, approved €14.1 million in loans to 944 businesses supporting just over 2,000 jobs across all sectors and every county, and in 2015 approximately two thirds of approved loans went to support start-up companies....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for Public Services 2016: Vote 32 - Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (22 Sep 2016)

Bríd Smith: So it says here.