Results 5,821-5,840 of 34,779 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Leaders' Questions (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: How many parties was the Tánaiste in? How many parties did he change from? Was it five or six?

Order of Business (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: In view of the call by many members of both Government parties to give legislative effect to the planning rules for wind turbines and the document issued by the Minister, is there a timescale for legislation to give effect to those guidelines for wind turbines? There has been much comment about proposals by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in regard to renting national...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments)(Amendment) Bill 2013: Instruction to Committee (resumed) (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: I accept that.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: I look forward to working our way through this hybrid of Committee Stage and Report Stage. I hope the Chair will bear with us as it is a little confusing. First, we have the Bill which has been passed by the Seanad. Then there are the proposed amendments to the Bill, and the green sheet of paper is what would normally be in front of us. Subsequently, however, we received the first...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: I am trying to multi-task. The substantive amendment on sick leave runs to approximately six pages and I had to go through that to find the single paragraph which is different in the Minister's substitute amendment from the Minister's amendment on the green list. It inserts a new subsection (9) which deals with making the regulations. I had tabled an amendment providing that these matters...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: I presume that if the Minister had taken action and commenced some procedure on the basis of the presumption that the statutory instrument would not be annulled by the Houses and it happened to be annulled, this means that what was done will not be undone. I think that is what it means in English, so we will not argue about it. It is unlikely to happen anyway. We come now to the...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: I will explain. The reason I raise this is the complicated cases I encounter in my constituency clinic, and I am speaking from personal experience of dealing with those cases. Where I believe this measure discriminates against women is at the jump from full pay after three months to half pay. The Minister has a mechanism in place for people who are going onto the rehabilitative arrangement...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: It will require employers to liaise with the Department of Social Protection in regard to each individual's entitlement. I accept that currently when a person goes onto half pay this is automatically calculated on a computer and that as no two situations will be the same, depending on the family situation, this will be difficult to deal with. However, as I stated earlier this measure will...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: I asked about social welfare payments.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: I will make a few points just to conclude this line of approach. As a highly practical person, I will make two real and practical suggestions that I ask the Minister and the Department to take on board. On the issue of pregnancy-related illness, a system is in place at present whereby a person who is on half pay and has a pregnancy-related illness will not drop to a rehabilitative rate....

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: No, the Minister should bear with me. At present, my understanding is that in the case of a person on half pay who is ill during pregnancy, whose illness is related to the pregnancy and who, under the current regime, exhausts her full 12 months, there is an arrangement in place whereby she will not drop below that rate during her pregnancy. I believe the arrangement is that-----

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: Exactly. In other words, a person who is on half pay during her pregnancy and the clock runs out on her, she will not drop below that. The cost of doing this would not be all that much, that is, someone who commences her pregnancy-related illness on full pay should not be dropped to the half-pay rate during that particular specific illness. It might be for only two or three months or a...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: Okay.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: I would like to pick up on the Minister's final point. I hope someone in the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel is listening. I think it is bad practice to bury definitions at the end of Bills.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: I ask the officials in the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to ensure all the definitions are set out at the beginning of each Bill. That will ensure a person who is looking at a Bill can see how the subject of the Bill is defined. It should be easy to specify in the opening section of a Bill the definitions that are of relevance to the various sections of that Bill. Such an approach...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: The next amendment does the exact same thing in another section of the Bill. Amendment No. 5, in my name, seeks to require the Minister to "publish a list of such bodies referred to in paragraphs (a)(vi) and (b)(vi)".

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: Perhaps that might be done "within 30 days of the enactment of this Act" or within some other reasonable period.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: If the Minister does not get a chance to put those details on the record, perhaps he might send them to us. It would be useful for Deputies on this side of the House to have the list. I am not sure what is on it. I have no issue with any of those amendments. I will let the Minister speak on amendments Nos. 8 to 11, inclusive, which are in his name and move on to amendments Nos. 18 to 20,...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: Can the Leas-Cheann Comhairle advise me in this regard?

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: We were in Committee Stage a moment ago.