Results 761-780 of 873 for speaker:Averil Power

Seanad: Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (28 Apr 2015)

Averil Power: It is the only one that qualifies.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: ICT in Primary Schools: Discussion (6 May 2015)

Averil Power: I thank the witnesses for their presentations. I requested that the committee discuss this topic because there was a wide gap between aspiration and reality. The witnesses are speaking from the same page in respect of what can be done with ICT but the reality on the ground is very different. As the INTO representatives pointed out, implementation is patchy and varies between schools. The...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Harbours and Piers (30 Jun 2015)

Averil Power: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Hayes, to the House. As he is aware, last week the Committee of Public Accounts published a report into the six fishery harbour centres. On reading the report, I share the committee's concern that the harbours are managed properly and that the employment potential of our fishing, seafood processing, boat repair and other industries are maximised. The...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Harbours and Piers (30 Jun 2015)

Averil Power: I welcome the Minister of State's acknowledgement that Howth is more than just a fishing harbour, and he listed some of the major events held there that help to attract people to the area, including the prawn festival, the Asgard celebrations and major leisure events, but I cannot stress strongly enough how central the availability of free parking is to the success of such events. Howth...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Harbours and Piers (30 Jun 2015)

Averil Power: -----and the Comptroller and Auditor General. I ask him to reiterate to the Minister that the issue needs to be considered from a broader perspective and not just from a fishing point of view, which was the approach taken by the Committee of Public Accounts. That approach is deeply flawed. We need a proper cost-benefit analysis to show that the proposal stands up, and I am fully confident...

Seanad: Employment Equality (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2015)

Averil Power: I also welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, to the House. He is the fourth Minister to deal with legislation in this area in the House. The former Ministers, Deputies Quinn and Shatter, dealt with it when I tabled a Bill in 2012. The Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, dealt with Senator Bacik's Bill in 2013 and the Minister of State is taking it. It has...

Seanad: Employment Equality (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2015)

Averil Power: I thank the Minister for outlining his intentions for Report Stage. I also acknowledge the additional criteria he has set out, the new test, in requiring that actions taken are rational, proportionate and are responses to actual conduct and not to a person's individual characteristics, as I had called for. It is a significant improvement in the Bill and I welcome that. I believe the...

Seanad: Employment Equality (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2015)

Averil Power: It is very unusual for me to disagree with Senator Norris. On religion teachers, I think the purpose of Senator Zappone's amendment is that even on the religion ground, it should be a genuine occupational requirement. In a second level school, obviously somebody opts to teach religion as a core subject. In a primary school, every teacher has to teach religion - it is part of the job. I do...

Seanad: Employment Equality (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2015)

Averil Power: Yes. All of our primary teachers have to teach religion. I know that is a broader issue in terms of patronage of schools. We can have that debate another time but until we have that debate, I support the sentiments behind this amendment. When hiring a primary school teacher being a particular faith is not a genuine occupational requirement because the protections are already there that if...

Seanad: Employment Equality (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2015)

Averil Power: I move amendment No. 6: In page 4, lines 5 to 8, to delete all words from and including “where” in line 5 down to and including “funds—” in line 8 and substitute the following: “where the institution is an educational or medical institution—”.This amendment would mean that paragraph (b) would apply to all educational and medical...

Seanad: Employment Equality (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2015)

Averil Power: We will be looking at completely different wording and a range of other issues not related to section 37, such rent supplement. It is an unusual situation. Senator Zappone and I have not pushed amendments today and instead will seek to resubmit them. This will be somewhat complicated by the fact that if we do not have sight of the actual wording of the Government amendments prior to Report...

Seanad: Employment Equality (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2015)

Averil Power: There is usually a deadline for submitting Report Stage amendments and if the Government did not submit its amendments until an hour before the deadline, we would only get them at that time, yet we would have to respond. I ask that the Government submit the amendments straight away so that they can be circulated now.

Seanad: Employment Equality (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2015)

Averil Power: Thank you.

Seanad: Employment Equality (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2015)

Averil Power: Guidelines could be helpful. I understand that the Minister says the Attorney General would prefer to have a more specific three-part test because guidelines without tests are problematic under Article 15 of the Constitution, which states it is for the Oireachtas to set out principles and policies in legislation and the courts to decide within that. There needs to be more clarity. I accept...

Seanad: Employment Equality (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2015)

Averil Power: I move amendment No. 9: In page 4, line 34, to delete “paragraph (b)” and substitute “paragraphs (a) or (b)”.Amendment No. 9 is similar to an earlier amendment that I tabled. It seeks to ensure that the presumption arriving in paragraph (d) would apply equally to publicly and privately funded institutions, and not just to publicly funded ones. Amendment No. 10...

Seanad: Employment Equality (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2015)

Averil Power: Exactly. Paragraph (h) is designed to safeguard the right to privacy. It emphasises that the private life of an employee, or a prospective employee, is not the business of a person's employer. I have not been fully reassured that these two issues are dealt with in Report Stage amendments, that the Minister of State has indicated. I accept that there is now a restriction in terms of the...

Seanad: Employment Equality (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Jul 2015)

Averil Power: I was very optimistic before the referendum.

Seanad: Conditions of Work: Motion (8 Jul 2015)

Averil Power: I move: That Seanad Éireann: - supports the key elements of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions' Charter for Fair Conditions at Work as an important contribution to the ongoing work with representatives of employers on developments in industrial relations and the Government’s agenda of reform in this area, including the following elements: - a living wage that affords an...

Seanad: Conditions of Work: Motion (8 Jul 2015)

Averil Power: I thank everybody, on all sides of the House, who has contributed to the debate. In particular, I thank Senator Jillian van Turnhout, from the Independent group, for seconding the motion, for which I am glad that we have secured all-party agreement. As a group, we deliberately drafted it in such a way that it would be achievable. We did not seek to score points, throw petty criticisms at...

Seanad: Employment Equality (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (9 Jul 2015)

Averil Power: I agree that we should take amendment No. 14 first because it is an alternative.