Results 801-820 of 2,735 for speaker:Marie Louise O'Donnell
- Seanad: Order of Business (15 Jul 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: I commend the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, on the coming into law of the long-awaited legislation to protect whistleblowers. He described the new Act as comprehensive and setting a new standard in international best practice in this area. It sends a clear message that whistleblowers' concerns must be listened to and acted upon and that those who make...
- Seanad: Order of Business (15 Jul 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: We did so as individuals - some of us within this Technical Group would not necessarily vote together under normal circumstances. I opposed the provision in question as serving to restrict criticism of the health service, Health Service Executive and Department of Health. The requirement that general practitioners must give notice and seek approval before voicing any such criticism is...
- Seanad: Order of Business (15 Jul 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: Will the Leader ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform or the Minister for Education and Skills to come to the House to discuss the plans by Quality and Qualifications Ireland to charge fees of €5,000 to community educational programmes in Dublin's inner city and elsewhere in the country simply to continue doing what they have been doing?
- Seanad: Order of Business (15 Jul 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: I accept that.
- Seanad: Situation in Gaza and Ukraine: Statements (31 Jul 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: I congratulate the Minister on his new appointment and I wish him luck in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. I welcome the ambassador for the State of Palestine and our other guests. All of us here in the Upper House of the Oireachtas are supposed to be parliamentarians. That is why we are here and why I had the privilege of being appointed here. We are supposed to uphold, create...
- Seanad: Appointments to Board of Irish Museum of Modern Art: Statements (23 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: What is it about?
- Seanad: Appointments to Board of Irish Museum of Modern Art: Statements (23 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: It is sport.
- Seanad: Appointments to Board of Irish Museum of Modern Art: Statements (23 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: I would like to extend my congratulations to the Minister on her new appointment to arts, culture, the islands, heritage and whatever else. I appreciate her coming here. She has been very open, honest, clear and concise in what she has said. When I think of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, I personally would not like to appointed to the board because I do not truck with modern art. I am not...
- Seanad: Appointments to Board of Irish Museum of Modern Art: Statements (23 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: I thank the Senator. It is very important to speak about the arts. I am delighted we are doing so even though we are speaking about them controversially. We rarely get to speak about them here in the House and it is nice to speak about them regardless of what manner. I will follow with great interest Mr. McNulty's contribution to the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Can I tell Senators when...
- Seanad: Appointments to Board of Irish Museum of Modern Art: Statements (23 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: I know. It is a given that he is going to be appointed to the Seanad.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: I congratulate the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan and the Minister of State with responsibility for skills, research and innovation, Deputy Damien English, on their appointments. How many people are in education on any one day in Ireland? How many of our citizens attend education from pre-school to adult education? How much money has been spent on the literacy and...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: That is an incredibly positive answer, when one thinks of a country that has 4.6 million people. It is a major factor in why we are around this table. It is something that we should talk about more readily. I know we have many problems, but it is huge, how we take education so magnificently seriously.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: It might be something that the Minister could use when she is batting. But the other two are more serious, dig-down questions.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: I would like to see both of those - the cost and the evaluation - in whatever form is possible.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: I would like to see the evaluation and how the strategy is being evaluated.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: How much is the NCCA costing? It is costing millions, is it not?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: This is very serious, because I am getting generalised answers, which the Minister may be right in giving me, but there is an impasse around this. A lot of money was put into the NCCA. There were many votes against it at local level, and I think that a national curriculum-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: Commencing is one way of putting it, because a lot of people are not commencing; they are refusing to do it. I wonder how great the commencement is.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: Fair enough, but I would really appreciate the outline of those figures in relation to the number of people in education.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Vote 26 - Update on Pre-Budget and Policy Issues: Minister for Education and Skills (24 Sep 2014)
Marie Louise O'Donnell: Exactly what the NCCA is paid is here in the documentation somewhere. It is a huge amount of money.