Results 481-500 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Order of Business. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: Can he make them pay for their own transport?

Order of Business. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: We will be finalising the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill shortly. When will the regulations to improve safety standards at construction sites be introduced under existing health and safety legislation passed by this House? They are overdue by 18 months. I raise the matter in the light of a 40% increase in fatalities in the first four months of this year.

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: This is just a standard gagging provision that Ministers put into legislation. It is healthy that a robust parliamentary scrutiny scheme has been developed through the committees of the Oireachtas, where a CEO can answer truthfully on policy issues. The robustness of a particular view may be tested in this way. The Minister of State should accept the amendment, remove the gag and allow...

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: The Minister of State could be a pathfinder.

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 36: In page 56, after line 43, to insert the following: "(2) Regulations for the purposes of section 13(1)(c) shall not be made unless a draft thereof has been approved by both Houses of the Oireachtas.".

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 37: In page 58, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following: "(10) Regulations under this section may not create an indictable offence.". There was some discussion on this matter on Committee Stage. Amendment No. 37 simply states that regulations under this section may not create an indictable offence. Amendment No. 56 is related. The purpose of the amendment, as I...

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: The Minister of State is making my case. He is undermining the principle enunciated in the 1972 Act, which is not to create indictable offences by way of regulation or secondary legislation. I have no argument with the creation of such offences, but it should be done in statue law by bringing a Bill before the Houses in the normal way. It should not be open to the Minister to create...

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: I am not satisfied. I now understand the Minister of State's explanation, but I do not agree with the approach as a matter of general policy.

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 39: In page 63, between lines 31 and 32, to insert the following: "(2) Documents subject to legal professional privilege shall not be liable to production under this section.". When I put this to the Minister of State on Committee Stage, he undertook to consider it further for Report Stage. Subsequent to that, he sent me a briefing note, which, I must confess, is rather...

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 40: In page 68, line 36, after "the" where it secondly occurs to insert "Circuit Court or". The idea of this amendment and the related amendments is to confer a jurisdiction on the Circuit Court to these proceedings to save legal costs.

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: The Minister of State again sent me a briefing note subsequent to the debate on Committee Stage and I am very grateful to him for it. I am less convinced by his detailed arguments this time than I was for the last amendment. He is of the view that the hierarchical scheme for enforcement, set out in the Bill, requires the High Court to be the appropriate judicial authority for these...

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 46: In page 70, between lines 21 and 22, to insert the following: "(2) Information subject to legal professional privilege shall not be liable to production under this section.". This deals with the issue of legal professional privilege. In his briefing note, the Minister of State made a reasonable case so I will withdraw the amendment.

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 48: In page 75, between lines 12 and 13, to insert the following: "(9) Where the affairs or activities of an undertaking are managed or organised in a way that fails to ensure that the health and safety of persons liable to be affected (including employees) is not thereby threatened, and where such failure amounts to conduct falling far below the standard of care and...

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: We know the view of the Law Reform Commission from its first report, which recommended the creation of such an offence. What we are waiting for now is the detail. We have a responsibility as legislators to legislate. Since the Law Reform Commission is of the view that we should have such an offence, the trade union movement is strongly of that view and most citizens would agree that...

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: There is no point in dividing the House on it. Will the Minister of State give me an assurance that once the details of the Law Reform Commission's proposals are known, he will come back speedily to the House with legislative proposals in that regard?

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 49: In page 75, to delete lines 25 to 27. This proposal to delete lines 25 to 27 is related to the amendment with which we have just dealt. The Bill creates a new offence of causing personal injury, including death, through contravening the Act. That is welcome because the wording of the existing legislation, the 1989 Act, is defective. However, section 77(9)(b)(ii)...

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: I disagree with the Minister of State. I think it weakens the provision. However, there is no point in taking up time fighting it. I press the amendment.

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: I move amendment No. 50: In page 75, after line 53, to insert the following: "(11) A person who— (a) contravenes any of the relevant statutory provisions by doing otherwise than under the authority of a licence issued by the Authority or, a person prescribed under section 33, something for the doing of which, such a licence is necessary under the relevant statutory provisions, or (b)...

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: I am not convinced. I think it is a case of the parliamentary draftsmen deciding to stick with what they have. My proposal would improve the Bill, but the Minister of State is not of a mind to accept it.

Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill 2004: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage. (4 May 2005)

Brendan Howlin: May I ask that the amendments be taken seriatim?