Results 1,221-1,240 of 2,735 for speaker:Marie Louise O'Donnell

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: I do not wish to hear about IBRC, Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Banks or any of those valueless banks for which we paid millions, and are still paying millions, through the universal social charge, in order that they could stay alive. Let us all talk about the real bank, which is the post office. I want the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection to come to the House to explain...

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources may also like to come to the House for the debate because he has responsibility for communications. They can both attend.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: It is to bring in the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: On the issue of the social welfare forms, the capitulation to the banks and the disposal of post offices.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: The Senator has lost half his points.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: Fianna Fáil sold it.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: It must be.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: In the light of what the Leader has said, I will not press it today. I will take him at his word that the Minister will be invited to come to the House as quickly as possible.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Citizens Information Board: Chairperson Designate (10 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: I welcome Ms Mangan to the committee. The Tánaiste has made an outstanding appointment. Ms Mangan comes with a seriously qualitative background, including the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the European Commission office, the Law Reform Commission, the National Council of Ageing and Older People, the human rights commission and the Referendum Commission. We are lucky that she happens...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Citizens Information Board: Chairperson Designate (10 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: In her experience as a worker on the ground down through the years, as Deputy Connaughton pointed out, is there anything Ms Mangan would like to see changed quickly and radically? Is there any trajectory she should like to see up and running over her five years?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Citizens Information Board: Chairperson Designate (10 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: Ms Mangan is correct in that regard. People who were supposedly literate and able got caught by the banks because they did not ask the right questions and thus were not given the correct information, or else the information was set out on page 103 of an agreement in tiny writing. They did not know their loans and mortgages were going to end up in a different country. Precision of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Rent Supplement: Discussion (10 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: The Department of Social Protection spends €20 billion per annum and 42% of the tax I pay is subsequently allocated to the Department. I am pleased that is the case because some people are not as fortunate as others and may need help at certain times in their lives. There seems to be a gulf between the views expressed by the Department and those expressed by the Peter McVerry Trust...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Rent Supplement: Discussion (10 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: There is so much that both organisations acknowledge in the effort all are making. However, that seems to be a major impasse.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Rent Supplement: Discussion (10 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: Does the Department want to answer?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Rent Supplement: Discussion (10 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: I would be interested in what the Department officials have to say in response, although they have only begun working together and it is an enormous problem. I also think the Department of Social Protection is a benevolent city in itself in respect of our citizens. I am interested in how it is responding to the point that Focus Ireland and the Peter McVerry Trust are making. It seems to be...

Seanad: Order of Business (16 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: Nothing could prepare parents for what they might have heard today on the death of their young sons and daughters in the United States. It is an absolute tragedy and I send my sympathies and condolences to any family suffering this loss. The Beit collection, Russborough House and all in it was left to the State in 1976 by Alfred and Lady Beit, so could somebody please tell me what it is...

Seanad: Order of Business (16 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: Yes, that is what I am saying. That is why I am asking the question. If she was not consulted, why not? How dare anybody take our paintings and put them on a boat or a plane and send them off to Christies. I do not accept it at all. What licence did they have to do so, export or otherwise? What moral, ethical or State licence did they have to do so? I would like an answer to this,...

Seanad: Order of Business (16 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: What can the Seanad do to save those jobs and pensions and the franchises within it that will also lose money, wares and so on? Will the Leader invite the relevant Minister to the House? I could ask him or her what we can do about this and whether we can challenge it in the commercial court in terms of there being one law for one group of people and a lesser law for the traders and people...

Seanad: Junior Cycle Reform: Motion (17 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: I move: That Seanad Éireann: notes that we are currently in the midst of a decade of commemoration of the historical events that led to the foundation of the State;  further notes that, while the State is articulating the value and premium it places on a younger generation being knowledgeable about that history, they are at the same time carving up history as a core/compulsory...

Seanad: Junior Cycle Reform: Motion (17 Jun 2015)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: Technology may be the mechanics of the brain, but history is the mind. It is evidence and informed thought. It is away from the garbage of the information highway. It is the antithesis of the Internet, the tabloid press, the frenzied media and the glut and garbage of the saturated information highway. It is the counteraction against the torpor of ideas and immediacy. It involves...