Results 6,061-6,080 of 9,159 for speaker:Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Ireland's Skills Needs: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Nov 2018)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Cross sectoral.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Ireland's Skills Needs: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Nov 2018)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: There are a couple of questions I had asked SOLAS that I wanted to get a reply to.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Ireland's Skills Needs: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Nov 2018)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I am from Buncrana in County Donegal and the reason I say that to the witnesses is that I left school when I was 14 years old and that was actually the norm in my secondary school back then. When I returned from first year to second year, half of the girls in my class had not come back for second year. They had taken up work in the local factory which was Fruit of the Loom, a textile...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Ireland's Skills Needs: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Nov 2018)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Yes, they ended up doing the churn. My sense of this is that there is a lack of awareness, particularly around those who left school and went into trades. There is the famous stereotype about them not being academically intelligent and that the system was not suited to them but maybe they had vocational intelligence on the job. I strongly feel that our society does not value those skills...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Mica Redress Scheme (20 Dec 2018)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Thousands of families in the north Donegal area have been devastated by the issue of mica, a mineral in the concrete blocks in their homes. I have been in many of those homes and have spoken to the families, sometimes on a weekly and even a daily basis, in regard to what they have been enduring. It is heartbreaking. As the House knows, people's greatest ambition is to take out a mortgage...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Mica Redress Scheme (20 Dec 2018)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I understood these proposals were to be brought to Cabinet this week and that they were delayed until the new year, so I assume it will be mid-January before they are brought forward. I met the Minister of State, Deputy English, earlier this year. We had an extensive meeting and I believe him to be genuine in his efforts to resolve the issue. The members of the Mica Action Group are...

Seanad: Consumer Protection (Gift Vouchers) Bill 2018: Second Stage (23 Jan 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I welcome the Minister to the House to discuss this legislation. I note there have been some delays and difficulties in getting the Bill to this point and there have been many attempts to legislate on this issue before. It is important to listen to and understand the perspectives of businesses in regard to legislation that affects them. It is also important to properly resource businesses...

Seanad: Hallmarking (Amendment) Bill 2016: Second Stage (30 Jan 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: The Bill is technical in nature. However, hallmarking is a very important process and it has been very interesting to learn more about it. Hallmarking is one of the oldest forms of consumer protection, and has existed in Ireland since 1637. As we know, the current laws on hallmarking require all goods of gold, silver and platinum to bear a defined distinct mark, a pressed stamp on a piece...

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2019: Second and Subsequent Stages (30 Jan 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: This is a one-line Bill that seeks to change the words "28 days" to "56 days" in the Companies Act. The provision extends the period that a company will have to file its annual returns with the Companies Registration Office. We welcome this change as it will give SMEs more time to conduct their administrative business, which we know can sometimes be an additional pressure on them....

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (31 Jan 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I second the amendment to the Order of Business proposed by Senator Warfield. Today, my thoughts and prayers are with the Gaeltacht community of west Donegal as they bury four of their young people. It is a desperate tragedy. I wish to raise again a funding issue which I had not planned to raise. I refer to funding for the Inishowen Children's Autism Related Education, ICARE,...

Seanad: Property Services (Advertisement of Unfit Lettings) (Amendment) Bill 2019: First Stage (31 Jan 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I second the proposal.

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Services for People with Disabilities (5 Feb 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: The Minister will be familiar with this issue, which affects a number of organisations in Donegal. iCare, which is based on the Inishowen Peninsula and works with more than 100 families of children and young people with autism, provides an absolutely vital service not just for the Inishowen Peninsula but for the wider area of north Donegal.The Bluestack Special Needs Foundation based in...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Services for People with Disabilities (5 Feb 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I acknowledge the Minister of State's long campaign for families with loved ones with disabilities and for persons with disabilities. He has personal knowledge of being a carer so he will understand more than most just how frustrating the situation has been. I will again tell the story of iCare, which I know so well because it is based in my home town of Buncrana. It has been in operation...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018: Discussion (5 Feb 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: In its report last October, the Law Reform Commission recommended a corporate crime agency. I was my party's justice spokesperson and I remember at the time a key contribution was made by Remy Farrell, a senior counsel. He was heavily critical and stated it had never been a better time for white-collar crime. He referred to the dramatic under-resourcing of a range of agencies, including...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018: Discussion (5 Feb 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I presume the Department will proceed with the Bill. Does Ms Greene foresee the corporate enforcement authority coming under the umbrella of a corporate crime agency and being subsumed into a wider agency at some stage?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018: Discussion (5 Feb 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: The LRC report identifies and recommends six core powers for financial and economic regulators. I will not read them out as Ms Greene is familiar with them. Does she agree with its assessment? Are those six powers essential? I acknowledge her point that the heads of the Bill were published before the report. However, if she considers those powers essential, is she willing to make further...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018: Discussion (5 Feb 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Is Ms Greene satisfied with the current level of co-operation and interaction between the ODCE and the Garda and the DPP?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018: Discussion (5 Feb 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: On Brexit, last week, Barclays bank sought permission to transfer €190 billion in assets to its Dublin branch. There will be many such transfers in the coming months. Are such practices being closely observed? Obviously, this is a turbulent time for the economies of these islands and Europe itself and there will be significant transfers of assets. Is Ms Greene satisfied that the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018: Discussion (5 Feb 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Everything that I have heard in the responses of the witnesses points to the need for an umbrella agency to join all the dots. I acknowledge that they highlighted that, ultimately, the Minister and the Government may need to reflect on that. In their considerable collective experience, do they consider it likely that there would be resistance within the ODCE or the Department to a...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Feb 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: As colleagues in this House know, a very serious story has broken today regarding the fact that the PSNI has withheld huge volumes of information from the police ombudsman in the North. This information is pertinent to matters of the utmost importance, particularly to the families who have lost loved ones. I want to talk about the family of Councillor Eddie Fullerton from my hometown of...