Results 12,421-12,440 of 20,459 for speaker:Frances Fitzgerald

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Immigration Status (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I am advised by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department that the person concerned was initially granted permission to remain for two years on 24 January, 2006. This person's permission has been regularly renewed with the latest period due to expire 24 January 2017. Officials in the Citizenship Division of the INIS inform me that there is no record of a...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Refugee Status Applications (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I am advised by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department that there are a number of different categories of applicant referred to in the Deputy's question, many of which overlap. For example, many of the persons referred to do not have judicial reviews taken in their own name but are awaiting the outcome of a judicial review taken in their child's name. The...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Garda Investigations (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: The Deputy will appreciate that the conduct of criminal investigations is entirely a matter for An Garda Síochána and that likewise decisions on prosecutions are made independently by the DPP. I am in formed by the Garda authorities that the matter referred to was the subject of a comprehensive investigation by An Garda Síochána. A file was submitted to the Director...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Garda Operations (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I have requested a report from the Garda authorities on the matter raised by the Deputy and I will be in contact again when that report is to hand.

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Garda Operations (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I can advised that Deputy that the funding available to my Department in 2016 to support Crime Prevention Initiatives, including Community Alert, is €397,000. This represents a doubling of funding compared to 2015. The precise allocation for the Community Alert programme in 2016 has yet to be finalised and I understand that proposals for next years programme activities are due to...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Court Procedures (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I am informed by the Garda authorities that in the first instance an offence wording is created by An Garda Síochána. Following approval by the DPP, the approval details are forwarded to the Court Services for offence coding and returned to An Garda Síochána for uploading onto the Garda PULSE system. This then allows a member of An Garda Síochána to apply for a...

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: May I explain? As Senators are aware it is a complex Bill. Obviously at this point in the development of the Bill we are taking a legal overview of it as a whole. It is primarily technical fixes, given the changes to various sections. As the Senators will see when they go through the amendments, many are grouped which are about technical changes. There is a mix of simple corrections to...

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: No. There is months of work gone into it.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: No.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: On the amendments we accepted the last day, the only new amendments submitted today are ones that are tidying up the Bill. I would say there is no policy change. Where there is any key point on policy, I am noting that, with the main one today being that concerning the pre-action protocols. I have to say to Senator Norris that there is no question of the work that has been put into this....

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I am very pleased to begin this afternoon’s proceedings with a group of amendments that provide the statutory basis for the introduction of what is termed a “pre-action protocol”, which will take the form of ministerial regulations. The pre-action protocol will set out the steps to be followed and the obligations on all relevant parties to the handling of inquiries into...

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: As the Senator said, it is an important section, which provides that an apology by a medical practitioner is not to constitute an admission of liability or invalidation of insurance. It is a key plank of this innovation and was very strongly recommended by the working group report on this issue.It is also mirrored in several other common law jurisdictions. For obvious reasons, the Minister...

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: Amendments Nos. 2 and 3 set out the date of coming into operation of the new legal partnerships model being introduced under the Bill, which is to be within six months of the completion of the relevant public consultations. This will allow for the new legal partnerships, barrister-barrister or barrister-solicitor, to be introduced within a year of the establishment of the new regulatory...

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I do not agree with the Senator's analysis. It is about offering different models of legal services to the public. It is about choice. The 2006 Competition Authority report, the vast majority of the recommendations of which we are implementing, highlights the need for a choice of different legal models. Sinn Féin is staying with the status quo. The Government is proposing to...

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: There is no policy difference. It is just a technical amendment to changed sections in the Bill. There is no policy difference versus what we agreed last week.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I have nothing further to say.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I will go into detail on this so that people understand that these really are technical changes - corrections might be the word. This group of amendments concerns a range of corrections to wording and to cross-references contained in the Bill at this point - for example, wrong wording or references to legislation including those that are as a direct result of the ongoing amendments being...

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: I have explained it.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: As will be seen from a perusal of this cluster of amendments, they fall very much under the tidy-up category in regard to this Bill. I have said, for example, that the phrase "practising barrister" for each occurrence of the word "barrister" concerned is a substitution of that. It makes the relevant provisions coherent with the fact that this Bill will now regulate practising barristers...

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

Frances Fitzgerald: If I may explain, this group of amendments relates to section references. It is not that there is any substantive amendment in each of these amendments. They made changes to the section references. They only relate to the section references. We are reconciling the section references of the Bill with the various amendments made to the Bill since its inception and since it has come before...