Results 841-860 of 7,652 for speaker:Joanna Tuffy

Seanad: Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (9 Feb 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: The amendment does more than just require the employer to respond in a prescribed way. It places the onus on the employer to have a reason that he or she will not be flexible. In the current situation, it is very much dependent on the employer being flexible. The amendment seeks to require the employer to be flexible unless it is not possible for him or her to be so because of the nature of...

Seanad: Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (9 Feb 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: I move amendment No. 8: In page 6, to delete lines 14 to 26. This amendment makes similar provisions as the previous one. It proposes to delete section 7(b) of the principal Act. In amending section1(a), the Minister of State is prescribing inflexibility. However, section 1(b) allows for the employer and the employee concerned to agree a shorter period. It puts the ball back in the employer's...

Seanad: Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (9 Feb 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: I support this amendment. Amendment No. 10 in my name was similar. In both cases, one can argue a cost to the Exchequer would be involved. Amendment No. 10 sought to broaden those circumstances the provision covers. While it was more broadly worded than this amendment, it would have the same effect. Why was amendment No. 10 ruled out of order and not amendment No. 11?

Seanad: Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (9 Feb 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: I support the amendment. The point of this type of legislation is to support every type of family regardless of its make-up. We must support families. That is good for society and for the individuals involved. I understand from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions that a commitment was made as part of Sustaining Progress that steps would be taken to give effect to the issue of force majeure...

Seanad: Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2004: Report and Final Stages. (16 Feb 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: I support Senator Terry's amendment, the substance of which may serve to give some momentum to the efforts to introduce paid parental leave. If a report as envisaged in the amendment is produced, it should look not only at the costs, but also the benefits. These potential benefits relate not only to financial considerations but should include such issues as improved quality of life. There are...

Seanad: Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2004: Report and Final Stages. (16 Feb 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: I move amendment No. 5: In page 6, to delete lines 14 to 26. I also proposed this amendment on Committee Stage. My colleagues and I believe the rule that states that blocks of parental leave must be ten weeks apart is inflexible and unnecessary. This amendment proposes to delete section 3(b), which enshrines inflexibility in the legislation by providing that a second period of parental leave...

Seanad: Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2004: Report and Final Stages. (16 Feb 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: I move amendment No. 6: In page 7, between lines 9 and 10, to insert the following: "4.—The Minister shall by regulations provide that— (i) an employee shall have a right to request more flexible parental leave arrangements than those provided for under the Parental Leave Acts 1998 and 2005, (ii) the employer is obliged seriously to consider any such request, and (iii) refusal of the...

Seanad: Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2004: Report and Final Stages. (16 Feb 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: On Senator Jim Walsh's point, I do not see how it is a free-for-all in terms of employees. First, parental leave is not paid and it will be difficult to encourage people to take it in the first place. It is not only for the common good but also for the good of the economy because it encourages people to stay in the workforce. It probably discourages people from taking sick leave...

Seanad: Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2004: Report and Final Stages. (16 Feb 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: I am saying that the onus should be on the employer to say why he cannot provide the flexibility sought by the employee.

Seanad: Civil Partnership Bill 2004: Second Stage. (16 Feb 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: I support this Bill on behalf of the Labour Party and I thank Senator Norris for introducing it. In doing so, and in his previous work in the Seanad, the Senator promotes this House which is often ahead of the Dáil in introducing measures such as this. This Bill recognises social reality. Senator Kett mentioned the Taoiseach's referral of the issue to the All-Party Committee on the...

Seanad: Order of Business. (17 Feb 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: I want to make a couple of points regarding the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children, regarding the Health (Amendment)(No. 2) Bill, and the fact that the charges deducted from the pensions of nursing home patients were illegal. The Tánaiste likes to portray herself as an upright person and her party as a party of principle. She knew when she was putting forward the legisaltion that...

Seanad: Order of Business. (17 Feb 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: Did she or did she not know that what was being done in putting forward that legislation was the legalising of the illegal taking of money——

Seanad: Order of Business. (17 Feb 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: The most vulnerable people in our society are being treated unfairly. I do not believe the Tánaiste's party would treat the wealthy in the same way. I do not remember any law being put forward by the Tánaiste to take away money retrospectively from any other sector of society. The Progressive Democrats Party makes a virtue of the fact that it has cut income tax over the years. Those income...

Seanad: Order of Business. (17 Feb 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: She gives money back to the wealthy.

Seanad: Order of Business. (22 Feb 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: Senator Brian Hayes and others welcomed the enhanced co-operation between the Garda Síochána and the PSNI, which was marked yesterday by the signing of an agreement between the two police forces. There is a far more accountable police service in Northern Ireland thanks to the implementation of the Patten report. The Garda Síochána Bill 2004, currently before the Dáil, has taken account...

Seanad: Higher Education Review: Statements. (22 Feb 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: I wish to return to a section of the OECD report on page 30 which has already been cited by Senator Ulick Burke. In the context of part-time education, the report states that in many countries it is normally seen as an established route through tertiary education for students, often mature students from disadvantaged backgrounds. As Senator Ulick Burke stated, the report underlines that the...

Seanad: Order of Business. (2 Mar 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: Like the Government.

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed). (3 Mar 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: The Labour Party was the first to propose that a portion of the pensions reserve fund be used to invest in infrastructural projects and I am pleased to see that Fianna Fáil is coming round to our way of thinking.

Seanad: Industrial Relations Issues. (3 Mar 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: Under the relevant industrial relations legislation, will the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources intervene to ensure, as a prerequisite to any settlement between An Post and SDS workers that a commitment is made to pay increases due under Sustaining Progress and that arrears are paid as a matter of urgency, including payments to An Post pensioners? I have been contacted...

Seanad: Industrial Relations Issues. (3 Mar 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: I did not get a copy of the Minister of State's script.