Results 701-720 of 991 for speaker:Aidan Davitt

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Maternity Leave (9 Dec 2020)

Aidan Davitt: The Minister of State could do without reading the rest of it.

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Maternity Leave (9 Dec 2020)

Aidan Davitt: To be fair, we have a very proactive Minister of State with responsibility for local government and he has some cutting-edge legislation on councillors coming very soon, I hope. We are all very hopeful. This needs to be addressed, and the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, has shown he has the ability to deal with it. I ask him to be brave and grasp this nettle and deal with the matter...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Aidan Davitt: Senator Gavan makes quite a lot of good, commonsense points in this House but the way he is looking at this scheme is flawed. Second-hand house prices are rising more dramatically than new house prices. This scheme tries to put extra stock into circulation. There have been huge complications in Dublin where some funds have bought large numbers of units. Perhaps the Minister of State can...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Aidan Davitt: They are not benefiting from this scheme.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Aidan Davitt: I have to disagree with Senator Higgins.The fundamental point we were talking about and which this section speaks to is the first-time buyers grant which, if memory serves me correctly, is up to €30,000. In rural Ireland if that was not there, houses would not be built at present. That is a fact. I have gone through pricing models and can stand over that and can have that argument...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Committee Stage (11 Dec 2020)

Aidan Davitt: While this is a noble and good idea, unfortunately I do not know how practical it would be, as I am sure the Minister of State will lead us to understand. Wealth is highly mobile nowadays, which is why gold has doubled its value in the past three years and this has fed into a significant increase in the value in minerals, gold and stocks of that sort this year in the face of the Covid-19...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (15 Dec 2020)

Aidan Davitt: I am sure the Cathaoirleach is a happy man today following the formal ratification of the election of Joe Biden yesterday. As he said, it is a good day for democracy. I congratulate him and welcome that, as the Cathaoirleach has. The Cathaoirleach has been a great advocate for democracy in this House and long may that continue. I would like the Minister with responsibility for planning to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Banking Issues in Ireland: Central Bank (15 Dec 2020)

Aidan Davitt: I thank the delegation for coming here. The Central Bank is in the unenviable place of defending the indefensible. We have heard about some Irish banking practice and, unfortunately, at best the banks seem to use the Central Bank like a mudflap. The threat of fines that the Central Bank has sanctioned, and the threat in other cases, have not had a great bearing on the behaviour of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Banking Issues in Ireland: Central Bank (15 Dec 2020)

Aidan Davitt: I believe that the least a bank should do is inform the person concerned about the value the loan has been sold at. Does Mr. Sibley think that is a possibility? Online fraud and the variety of such fraud has become a massive issue in Ireland. As banking increasingly moves towards online banking and faceless banking, online fraud will become an even bigger problem. One of the major...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Banking Issues in Ireland: Central Bank (15 Dec 2020)

Aidan Davitt: Are the purchasers obliged to write and provide notification?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Banking Issues in Ireland: Central Bank (15 Dec 2020)

Aidan Davitt: Which they do, that is fine.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Banking Issues in Ireland: Central Bank (15 Dec 2020)

Aidan Davitt: Yes, to notify who is buying the loan. When the buyers are going to that bother, at that stage, to write and provide notification, I think the moving price at which the loan is being sold should also be included in that notification. I have no doubt that the purchasers will have an idea of that information, because they will be on the phone the next day to the people whose loans they have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Banking Issues in Ireland: Central Bank (15 Dec 2020)

Aidan Davitt: I am sure it is legislation in the context of the Central Bank which is ensuring that these new purchasers must write and inform the people whose loans they now own of the details. These institutions are not doing it for the good of their health, but because of legislation.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Banking Issues in Ireland: Central Bank (15 Dec 2020)

Aidan Davitt: Yes, and when these companies are doing that, I suggest that it should also be a requirement to include the moving value, the net or book value, at the time the loan is being sold, or the sale value.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Banking Issues in Ireland: Central Bank (15 Dec 2020)

Aidan Davitt: I am sorry, but before we go off the point, do the witnesses from the Central Bank think that my suggestion is a good idea? People would then at least have an idea where their loan is and what is going on with it. We hear of customers quite often, whom Deputy Doherty speaks of every day of the week, who seem to be in the dark all the time in respect of their loans. In this regard, if my...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Banking Issues in Ireland: Central Bank (15 Dec 2020)

Aidan Davitt: We have crossed that bridge. That is fine.

Seanad: Appropriation Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Dec 2020)

Aidan Davitt: I agree with my fellow Senators. The commitment Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party gave was one of the few things in the programme for Government to which a time limit applied. It will happen. I have no doubt about that. I look forward to that. I also appreciate the good work done by the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, on this...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Driver Test (19 Feb 2021)

Aidan Davitt: I thank the Cathaoirleach and I appreciate that he has selected this matter today. I welcome the Minister to the House. I know he has a busy portfolio and is very active in it. I wish him well in all his endeavours. I am sure the Minister is aware that there is quite a large backlog in relation to the theory test. This has been flagged to me by several councillors nationwide....

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Driver Test (19 Feb 2021)

Aidan Davitt: I am delighted to hear the scheme the Minister had introduced on a pilot basis has been a success. However, we are more than a year into this pandemic. There will probably be changes for another year. It would be a step forward to have the theory test online and to have an adequate system so that people could do it online. It would make more sense going forward. I question the...

Seanad: Ábhair Ghnó an tSeanaid – Matters on the Business of the Seanad (22 Feb 2021)

Aidan Davitt: I wish to raise today the "pause", which is the word that is being used, in respect of the issuing of passports by the Passport Office. When our Covid-19 crisis is behind us, there will be a tremendous backlog of passports to be administered at that stage.The Passport Office is telling people on its website that when we get to level 4, they will have their passports and their information...