Results 54,101-54,120 of 74,100 for speaker:Bernard Durkan

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Unemployment Data (19 Dec 2018)

Bernard Durkan: 556. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the extent of long-term unemployment here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53838/18]

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Welfare Services (19 Dec 2018)

Bernard Durkan: 557. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the extent to which community welfare services remain readily accessible in all areas throughout County Kildare with particular reference to meeting out-of-hours and emergency needs in circumstances in which it is necessary; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53839/18]

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Applications (19 Dec 2018)

Bernard Durkan: 558. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the extent to which due process and natural justice remains paramount in the context of dealing with social welfare recipients whose cases come under review; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53840/18]

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Widow's Pension Eligibility (19 Dec 2018)

Bernard Durkan: 559. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the grounds on which non-recognition of foreign divorce can be used to refuse entitlement to widow's and widower's pension when it is clear that such a person could not have remarried here unless their divorce was recognised; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53841/18]

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Operation (19 Dec 2018)

Bernard Durkan: 560. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her Department will facilitate an extension of employment for participants in community employment schemes in which sponsors are anxious that they continue; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53842/18]

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Youth Unemployment Measures (19 Dec 2018)

Bernard Durkan: 561. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the extent to which youth unemployment continues to be specifically targeted by way of ensuring the availability of maximum number of training places, internships, apprenticeships or temporary employment opportunities; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53844/18]

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Overpayments (19 Dec 2018)

Bernard Durkan: 562. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the steps she continues to take to ensure against the occurrence of overpayments that result in recovery and consequent hardship with particular reference to cases in which the overpayment was not as a result of an oversight or negligence on the part of the applicant; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53845/18]

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Working Family Payment Data (19 Dec 2018)

Bernard Durkan: 563. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the extent to which the number of persons in receipt of family income supplement has fluctuated in each of the past five years to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53846/18]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of Assisted Human Reproduction Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Bernard Durkan: I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their contributions. It has been very interesting. Since we discussed this issue previously at the initial stages, the witnesses seem to have firmed up their conclusions. Professor Madden referred to comparisons with the UK. Its legal system is different from ours. It has a different constitution which goes back centuries to the Magna Carta. We...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of Assisted Human Reproduction Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Bernard Durkan: In the professor's opinion, is it possible to craft the Bill in such a way as to circumnavigate the legal difficulties that have arisen in other jurisdictions and at the same time, have due regard for the fundamental rights of the child and for human rights legislation nationally and internationally?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of Assisted Human Reproduction Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Bernard Durkan: I raise the question of anonymity again. We have read about a number of cases in the past so I ask for the professor's point of view from a legal and a medical perspective on the implications of anonymity or precise donor identification.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of Assisted Human Reproduction Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Bernard Durkan: Suppose that they do not wish it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of Assisted Human Reproduction Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Bernard Durkan: What about the medical point of view?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of Assisted Human Reproduction Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Bernard Durkan: Given the yearning of childless couples to have a child and recognising what already has been said about the associated costs that must be taken into account, we are aware that it cannot be an endless chain of increasing costs and we cannot allow that to happen. Are the witnesses satisfied from a medical, legal and ethical point of view that it is possible to construct a Bill in such a way...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of Assisted Human Reproduction Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Bernard Durkan: We need to establish some things. This is a very emotionally charged subject, as we know from previous discussions, from what we have read and what we see from the legal cases that have taken place. Professor Madden made an interesting comment regarding judicial oversight at the initial stages, and it is something that is probably vital. I am not so sure how it will operate smoothly and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of Assisted Human Reproduction Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Bernard Durkan: On a point of order, Senator Mullen seemed to be making the point that, depending on one's personal preference, one should take a particular attitude in raising questions with the witnesses, but that is not how it is supposed to be happen. We are supposed to ask all questions, even questions the answer to which we might not agree with ourselves. We must ask the questions because the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of Assisted Human Reproduction Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Bernard Durkan: I want to correct something Senator Mullen said. Although I am at pains not to put words into somebody's mouth, I would not want the committee's mouth to be loaded either. To clarify the point, it did deal with a cannabis Bill and we came to conclusions based on medical evidence which had been strongly presented and on the basis that it was a gateway drug, the taking of which required...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of Assisted Human Reproduction Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Bernard Durkan: I do not want to go down that road either, as it has been travelled.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of Assisted Human Reproduction Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (19 Dec 2018)

Bernard Durkan: There is one other issue. It is a common reference that hard cases make bad law, but sometimes the lack of law leads to desperate cases. In the annals of our history there are sufficient desperate cases to assure us that we should investigate insofar as we can and that we should legislate to the best of our ability, having received and learned from all of the evidence. There is no way we...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (15 Jan 2019)

Bernard Durkan: No.