Results 681-700 of 5,754 for speaker:Gerard Craughwell

Seanad: Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Report and Final Stages (21 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: Senator Gilroy has missed the point entirely.

Seanad: Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Report and Final Stages (21 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: On a point of order, this is not about the €100 grant; it is about the database.

Seanad: Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Report and Final Stages (21 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: Another amendment to the Bill.

Seanad: Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Report and Final Stages (21 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I am baffled by what I have heard from the Minister of State and Government Senators. I have some expertise in database systems, having taught the subject for the best part of 20 years. Perhaps I might respond to Senator Cáit Keane's offer to take me outside later but not now. She spoke about insulation grants. Is it not the case if I seek such a grant that I must demonstrate that...

Seanad: Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Report and Final Stages (21 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: If Senators do not mind-----

Seanad: Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Report and Final Stages (21 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I asked what the database is for. If all the Government wants to do is to pay the €100 grant, all it needs to know is the name and address of the person and whether it is the person's principal private residence. That is all the Government needs to know - nothing else. What is all this other stuff for? Why is the Government looking for this information? Now the Minister of State...

Seanad: Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Report and Final Stages (21 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: Regrettably, yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank the Tánaiste for her presentation. As I look at almost everything relating to government, there is now a preoccupation with measuring outputs and statistics; there are statistical measures for everything. We can finish up working towards the examination and statistics that make us look good, or bad as the case may be, but sometimes discrete information is lost. The function...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: The one that comes to mind is in the area of social protection. It concerns class K PRSI. Those who pay it do not benefit from it, although they pay at the rate of 4%. The same applies to educational supports. The Minister mentioned persons who moved into the education sector where one moved from one set of statistics into another. Heretofore, we have not measured the success of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: Since 2015 they are by anybody with what is called unearned income.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: It seems to be anathema to the notion of social insurance that one would make insurance contributions from which one could never draw down.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: In support of Deputy Butler, I went bust in 1983 and went through exactly what the Deputy is talking about and had to be practically destitute before I could get a penny anywhere. It is simply not on. We are talking about 1983, which is nearly 40 years ago. It is really time that we caught this nettle and did something proper with it. That is from a dedicated trade unionist, supporting...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I wish to make three points, the first of which is about people who were made redundant recently. This concerns the general social welfare category. There seems to be a discrepancy in how long people have to wait before they can draw down payments. I am aware of somebody who was told he would have to wait for weeks. When he challenged the decision, he had to wait only one week. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: Before the budget.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: It is something I will bring to the committee if that is agreeable.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank the Minister.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: It was amended in 2014.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Estimates for Public Services 2015 - Vote 37: Minister for Social Protection (22 Sep 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: It was amended in 2014 to broaden it to all unearned income. We will bring something to the Minister on it - specifically relating to local authority representatives.

Seanad: Order of Business (23 Sep 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: Well done.

Seanad: Order of Business (29 Sep 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: This morning I heard on the news that foreign citizens who are in this country on visas of one sort or another for education or training purposes are queueing around the block waiting for access to the Department of Justice and Equality to renew their visas. I cannot for the life of me understand, particularly in the context of students, the reason the international office in each college...