Results 8,581-8,600 of 21,498 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (12 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: I spoke to you, Chairman, and the Clerk of the Committee, about the revelations regarding HSBC and 350 deposit holders with deposits of in excess of €3 billion. We understand that the Revenue Commissioners have recovered €4.55 million by way of tax settlement. I am anxious that we contact the Revenue Commissioners to ask them for a detailed briefing on these matters and that...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (12 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: I wish to raise another matter relating to the work programme. On a previous occasion I raised the issue of economic and social rights and building them into the budgetary and forecasting procedures and value-for-money assessments. It is something Amnesty International and other organisations are pressing for and it increasingly has currency internationally. In fact, the Constitutional...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (12 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: It would be a good exercise for us.

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
IDA Ireland - Financial Statement 2013
Enterprise Ireland - Financial Statement 2013 (12 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: I will discipline myself. I apologise but I had other business in the Chamber. Mr. Shanahan is something of a superstar. I saw him when he appeared on CNBC and I trust our American cousins now know we use the euro. I have to admire his grace during that extraordinarily strange interview. I congratulate both Mr. Shanahan and MsSinnamon on their appointments as chief executives. In his...

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
IDA Ireland - Financial Statement 2013
Enterprise Ireland - Financial Statement 2013 (12 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Excuse my ignorance but what does Mr. Shanahan mean by “ease of doing business”?

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
IDA Ireland - Financial Statement 2013
Enterprise Ireland - Financial Statement 2013 (12 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: When Mr. Shanahan says the cost base came down very significantly and talks about demand for human resources, I presume he means that wages came down significantly in that period. Is that what he is saying?

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
IDA Ireland - Financial Statement 2013
Enterprise Ireland - Financial Statement 2013 (12 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: In other words, Mr. Shanahan would not be marketing this jurisdiction as a low wage economy. He would not regard that as one of the pull factors.

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
IDA Ireland - Financial Statement 2013
Enterprise Ireland - Financial Statement 2013 (12 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Mr. Shanahan probably knows that some recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, data revealed that this jurisdiction, just after the United States of America, had the highest level of low-paid employment. If the minimum wage were to increase would it make Mr. Shanahan's job more difficult in getting inward investment? In every budgetary cycle when people put...

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
IDA Ireland - Financial Statement 2013
Enterprise Ireland - Financial Statement 2013 (12 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: What about the North and the all-Ireland question?

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
IDA Ireland - Financial Statement 2013
Enterprise Ireland - Financial Statement 2013 (12 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Will that form part of the IDA’s thinking when it puts together its new FDI strategy?

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
IDA Ireland - Financial Statement 2013
Enterprise Ireland - Financial Statement 2013 (12 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: I can tell that by Ms Sinnamon’s accent.

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
IDA Ireland - Financial Statement 2013
Enterprise Ireland - Financial Statement 2013 (12 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Could I have a comment from both CEOs on corporate tax? They know there is now the possibility of the corporate tax rate north of the Border ratcheting down and perhaps to harmonise with the level in the South. Does either witness have a view as to whether that is a good idea or a bad idea? Would there positive spin-offs? I am picking the witnesses' brains.

Public Accounts Committee: 2013 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
IDA Ireland - Financial Statement 2013
Enterprise Ireland - Financial Statement 2013 (12 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Of course they do, and that is precisely my point. My view as a republican, as the witnesses will not be surprised to hear, is that the relationships ought to be collaborative and harmonised rather than competitive. It is nuts to have IDA Ireland and Invest NI out state-side or anywhere else competing for the same business. I know that is just the reality of how things may happen now, but...

Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) (17 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: When we addressed these issues last week, I raised my concerns about the Minister's amendment and the fact that the formulation and form of the legislation strayed from that envisaged by Mr. Justice Quirke. That is most regrettable and also unnecessary. It has caused unnecessary confusion, unless, of course, it is deliberate in limiting the number of services and treatments to which the...

Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) (17 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: I strongly support the amendment. When we look at the approach taken by the State in its totality, in so far as it concerns the Magdalen women, it has been limited, piecemeal and expressly and deliberately designed to achieve damage limitation, particularly in the payment of damages and financial compensation that might be awarded to the women concerned. The McAleese report remains...

Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) (17 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: I support amendments Nos. 17 and 18. Amendment No. 19 addresses the concerns expressed by Magdalen laundry survivors and their advocates, which are shared by Sinn Féin and other Deputies, that despite the Minister's insistence to the contrary, the legislation will not give full effect to Judge Quirke's recommendations. Despite the deficiencies in the legislation and discrepancies...

Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) (17 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: The difficulty is that not only Deputies here but people outside this Chamber have raised concerns about the robustness of this legislation and whether it fully captures the Quirke report. The best way to adjudicate on that is to ask the relevant and competent body to examine those matters and to report on them. I am very disappointed that the Minister is not accepting my amendment or...

Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2015: Second Stage [Private Members] (17 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I wish to introduce the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2015. This Bill has come to be known as Jake's law in memory of six year old Jake Brennan, who was knocked down and lost his life at 6.25 p.m. on 12 June 2014. Jake died in his mother's arms on the street where he lived and played for his all too short young life. In truth, this Bill...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Data (17 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: 190. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide, in tabular form, the number of recipients of rent supplement on 1 April 1989, 1993, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2013 and 2014. [6808/15]

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: International Agreements (17 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: 241. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if any of his officials or Departmental consultants have legal and / or policy expertise in the area of the implications for public spending of Ireland's international treaty obligations; if so, if he will provide, in tabular form, the date, subject matter and mode of communications, he has had with these experts since 2011, including...