Results 6,581-6,600 of 12,637 for speaker:Willie O'Dea

Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill: Second Stage (Resumed) (22 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: The Minister of State can merely add it to the list and the mountain keeps growing.

Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill: Second Stage (Resumed) (22 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: The point is-----

Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill: Second Stage (Resumed) (22 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: The Acting Chairman should tell that to the Minister of State. She would want to watch her blood pressure. It is rising.

Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill: Second Stage (Resumed) (22 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: Failure has obviously gone to her head.

Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill: Second Stage (Resumed) (22 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: The promise was that all this would change on 1 January. We are now told, shock horror, in a revelation here on the floor of the Dáil, that it will not change at all on 1 January.

Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill: Second Stage (Resumed) (22 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: It will be changed to some extent. I suppose there will be a pilot scheme. There are enough pilots in the Government to equip the Israeli air force. This is rubbish.

Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill: Second Stage (Resumed) (22 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: This Bill consists of juggling. It is tinkering with the problems. As I stated, it is a combination of the mundane and the minuscule. There is no change to reflect the deficiencies which practice has shown in the 2004 Act and, more importantly, the dramatic changes since.

Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill: Second Stage (Resumed) (22 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: There is no change in the rules which are needlessly complex and intricate. There are no extra resources for the new problems that have been brought within the PRTB's ambit.

Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill: Second Stage (Resumed) (22 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: There are no new imaginative provisions on anti-social behaviour and there is nothing about compliance. We are now being told that the much vaunted changeover, which was sold as a fundamental policy plank and which attracted a lot of votes, will not take place as promised on 1 January. It is a pity.

Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill: Second Stage (Resumed) (22 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: I have documentation from the Department of Social Protection, which I am sorry I did not bring with me.

Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill: Second Stage (Resumed) (22 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: When one is dealing with the Labour Party one must bring the written evidence. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, tried to tell me last week that expenditure on child benefit had actually risen and that she had failed to support private landlords. One must have written evidence when one is dealing with them now. I have documentation, which I will publish after this debate,...

Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill: Second Stage (Resumed) (22 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: I am not opposing it because there is little or nothing to oppose.

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Enterprise Ireland Investments (22 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the progress that has been made on the women in business startup drive since the end of the application period in September; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51862/12]

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Industrial Development (22 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the mechanisms that have been developed to promote and deliver early stage investment by the Irish diaspora in new indigenous and inward startups as promised in the Action Plan for Jobs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51857/12]

Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Bill 2012: Second Stage (Resumed) (27 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: Fianna Fáil supports the Bill. The boundary commission has been a feature of the system since before I was elected a Member of this House, which was not today or yesterday. It is fair to say no Government of any persuasion has ever sought to interfere with the recommendations of a boundary commission, which is good. With all due respect to all sides of the House, if politicians were...

Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Bill 2012: Second Stage (Resumed) (27 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: I recognise that but the Government made promises and was elected on the basis of those promises. The centrepiece or jewel in the crown of the Government's proposed constitutional reforms was the abolition of the Seanad. The programme for Government states that the Government will "prioritise" this measure but the Government's understanding of "prioritise" is a bit funny, given that two...

Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Bill 2012: Second Stage (Resumed) (27 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: Another difficulty arises as we go further into the life of this Government. I canvassed for the recent children's referendum and was one of very few Deputies who did so. I went out and knocked on doors because I strongly believed in it. Towards the end of the campaign, however, I was seriously worried that the referendum would not be passed because so many people told me they would be...

Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Bill 2012: Second Stage (Resumed) (27 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: I am not referring to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government but to the Minister for Justice and Equality. Where are we with these powerful committees that were supposed to solve the problem of the imbalance in power between the Executive and the Oireachtas? We now have fewer committees than before and they are more starved of cash than ever. In reality, nothing...

Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Bill 2012: Second Stage (Resumed) (27 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: We did this, and we were wrong to do so, but the Government was elected on a promise of reform. Every time there is a vacancy anybody with a hint of a connection to anybody other than Fine Gael or the Labour Party might as well go home. We heard a lot about judicial appointments. Six of the last seven judicial appointments were closely associated with a certain political party.

Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Bill 2012: Second Stage (Resumed) (27 Nov 2012)

Willie O'Dea: I could rehearse their names and connections but I do not like to embarrass people who are not here to defend themselves. Sometimes doing nothing at all is better than box ticking or making a pretence at fulfilling electoral promises. In my naivety I was taken in by some of these promises.