Results 1,001-1,020 of 7,652 for speaker:Joanna Tuffy

Seanad: University College Galway (Amendment) Bill 2005: Second Stage. (14 Dec 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: On behalf of the Labour Party I support this Bill and the proposed changes proposed for University College Galway. In a general sense, I support the principle of the legislation because it proposes to introduce a more flexible and holistic approach to the Irish language as opposed to the more technical, restrictive and discriminatory approach. There is a need for this type of approach to the...

Seanad: Commission of Investigation (Child Sexual Abuse) Order 2005: Motion. (15 Dec 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: I welcome this motion. The only issue I will raise is that the Labour Party is unhappy with the 18-month timeframe. The Minister stated in his speech that the legislation allows for the commission to endeavour to submit its report within the specified time period. If, therefore, the commission found it could not submit a report within the 18 months, it could get an extension. That would deal...

Seanad: Coroners (Amendment) Bill 2005: Second Stage. (15 Dec 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: I thank the Minister, his staff, the Government and the Leader of the Seanad for facilitating the bringing forward of this legislation, its speedy passage through the two Houses and for the additions to the legislation made by the Minister and the Department. I understand the Minister was very courteous to the family involved in the case that lies behind this legislation. That family are from...

Seanad: Coroners (Amendment) Bill 2005: Second Stage. (15 Dec 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: I thank everybody for their kind comments about the Labour Party and its leader Deputy Rabbitte. In addition to raising the issue with the Minister and the Leader of the House, Deputy Rabbitte also impressed on me and colleagues in the Seanad the importance of the legislation and the need for it to have speedy passage through the House. Deputy Rabbitte clearly felt strongly that there was an...

Seanad: Coroners (Amendment) Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (15 Dec 2005)

Joanna Tuffy: I thank everyone for facilitating the bringing forward of this legislation and for their kind words with regard to the Labour Party. In particular I thank the Minister and his Department for accepting the legislation.

Seanad: Employment Issues: Motion. (25 Jan 2006)

Joanna Tuffy: I welcome the Minister of State to the House. As my Labour Party colleagues have stated, the Labour Party recently launched a document entitled, A Fair Place to Work and Live. It deals with the issues raised by this motion. I wish to highlight some of the proposals made in this document. The first proposal relates to the issue of the standards that should be applied and complied with when...

Seanad: Order of Business. (1 Feb 2006)

Joanna Tuffy: I support the calls for a debate on the M50. My suggestion relates to Senator Ross's statement, that this has been presented as a fait accompli in media reports. I do not know whether it is but, from the points of view of the public and motorists, they will bear the brunt of more costs rather than less. How is this an improvement? From reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General on...

Seanad: Order of Business. (7 Feb 2006)

Joanna Tuffy: Will the Leader invite the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children to participate in a debate in this House on the proposals for a new children's hospital to replace Temple Street Children's University Hospital, Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin and the children's hospital in the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, now situated in Tallaght Hospital? It may be a good proposal...

Seanad: Third Level Education: Statements. (8 Feb 2006)

Joanna Tuffy: I have 15 minutes and wish to give five of them to my colleague, Senator Ryan.

Seanad: Third Level Education: Statements. (8 Feb 2006)

Joanna Tuffy: I intend to speak on some general points as regards funding which I have raised before with the Minister. She has attended many debates in this House, in contrast to her predecessor as Minister for Education and Science. I looked at the monitor one evening and noticed she was attending Adjournment matters in the House. She is one of the few Ministers to have attended the House on such...

Seanad: Road Network: Motion. (8 Feb 2006)

Joanna Tuffy: I mentioned last week that the Minister made an announcement but we are yet to see the details of the proposal. If the Government does anything, however, it should scrutinise proposed expenditure in a way similar to what the Committee of Public Accounts does after the money is spent, where often it finds there are serious problems with the figures. There must be pre-evaluation because there...

Seanad: Educational Services: Motion. (15 Feb 2006)

Joanna Tuffy: The Minister and Senator Ormonde are responding to this motion by blaming the schools. The Minister spoke of an imbalance in schools whereby there are some classes of 16 and others of 35. There could well be a reason for classes of such different size. Different years might be involved. Perhaps the Minister can produce figures to show that for some students in the same year, such differences...

Seanad: Educational Services: Motion. (15 Feb 2006)

Joanna Tuffy: The Minister is talking of reducing the average class size from 29 to 28 this year, and to 27 the following year. Will a class of 34 drop down to 33 or 32? Class sizes will remain too big for the next couple of years. Despite the Minister's announcement, progress will be slow. The issue of disadvantaged schools was raised by many Members. A recent report has confirmed that in poor areas there...

Seanad: Medical Cards. (15 Feb 2006)

Joanna Tuffy: My question to the Minister of State concerns a particular case of a married couple. The husband is in receipt of an old age contributory pension, and claims qualifying adult allowance for his wife. Their joint income is €298.80. In October they qualified for the medical card, under the medical card income guidelines. It has come to my attention that because of the budget increases, that...

Seanad: Order of Business. (16 Feb 2006)

Joanna Tuffy: In regard to the issue raised by Senator Finucane, there are not many Ministers whose Bills have been deemed unconstitutional. I understand the only Minister in this Government for whom this is the case is the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney. In introducing the legislation to retrospectively legalise illegal nursing home charges, she attempted to deprive elderly people of...

Seanad: Order of Business. (16 Feb 2006)

Joanna Tuffy: This wrong came on top of a wrong that had gone on for many years. The continuing delays over this issue further compound the wrong done by the Government in regard to the rights of elderly people. An article in today's edition of The Irish Times discusses the existence of an interdepartmental report which apparently proposes that elderly people should be obliged to sell or remortgage their...

Seanad: Order of Business. (16 Feb 2006)

Joanna Tuffy: Now she is trying to legalise it.

Seanad: Local Authority Services: Motion. (22 Feb 2006)

Joanna Tuffy: The relationship between the Seanad and local authorities has changed since the abolition of the dual mandate. Many of us were elected to this House as county councillors, although that changed a few years ago. However, we had a unique link with local government and most of us are still elected by county councillors. I welcome the decision by the Progressive Democrats to table this motion on...

Seanad: Order of Business. (23 Feb 2006)

Joanna Tuffy: I support the call of Senator McHugh yesterday for a debate on the survey of young people that was carried out by the National Youth Council. Some of the young people surveyed felt they were the subject of negative attitudes on the part of some sections of society, including politicians and the gardaí, which attitudes the young people reciprocated. The message for politicians is to do more...

Seanad: Teaching Council (Amendment) Bill 2006: Second and Subsequent Stages. (23 Feb 2006)

Joanna Tuffy: This is a technical Bill and I will not go too far into its background, but as it deals with something retrospectively and ensures that something is not invalidated, as described in the memorandum, then I worry whether the Bill will be legally sound. I presume the Minister obtained full legal advice about it. People who are not experts about this can never know for sure and we are not experts...