Results 13,981-14,000 of 14,388 for speaker:Clare Daly

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Further Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Further Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Further Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Further Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Further Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: I have one question regarding this Vote but it is incredibly important. I am referring to the protective services units and the plans to have one open in every division by the end of the year. I asked the Minister about this the last time he was before us and he said he did not have the answer to hand regarding funding for this initiative. He subsequently wrote to the committee and stated...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Further Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Further Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Further Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Further Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Further Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: I wish to briefly raise two issues, the first of which concerns the well aired problems faced by those suffering from mental health issues in the Irish Prison Service. The Minister might clarify who pays for the services. In January the new director general of the Irish Prison Service told the Committee of Public Accounts about the difficulty in recruiting forensic mental health staff and...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Further Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Further Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Further Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Further Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Further Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: I will not open a discussion on it, but there is a crisis in that regard. Its continuation will result in further assaults on staff and probably deaths among prisoners who need help. If the recruitment of forensic psychiatrists has been sanctioned for years and they have not been recruited, there is a bigger problem. We will return to the matter again.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Further Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Further Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Further Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Further Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Further Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: This is a major area and most of my questions come under this Vote. I will see how we get on taking them together. My first question is on the office of the Inspector of Prisons. I notice a substantial reduction in the budget for this year. I wonder what is going on in that regard. We have a situation now where the Inspector of Prisons has a smaller budget than the Irish film...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Further Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Further Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Further Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Further Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Further Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: I will not labour the point, but my understanding was the total budget for last year was €563,000 and that it had been decreased to €496,000. If the Minister is saying that is incorrect, I will go back and look at my figures again, but what has been shown to me clearly shows that there has been a reduction. I do not know how extra resources can be given if the budget has been cut.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Further Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Further Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Further Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Further Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Further Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: I will go back and look at it. While we are on the topic of prisons, I refer to a recent parliamentary question about OPCAT, in the reply to which I was told that the draft legislation was nearly complete. Has any money been set aside for its ratification? If money is being set aside for the Judicial Appointments Commission that has not yet been authorised, is anything being set aside...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Further Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Further Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Further Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Further Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Further Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: Will the Minister, please, come back to me on the issue? What I would like to know is whether money has been ring-fenced for independent inspection bodies for places of detention. Has any money been set aside for that purpose in this year's budget?

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Further Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Further Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Further Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Further Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Further Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: Obviously, there has been an underspend on the INIS in the past few years as a result of the difficulties in recruitment. Will the Minister provide an update on staffing levels? Is the service still understaffed and, if so, why has it proved so difficult to recruit staff? Obviously, there are long delays in the system, which is soul destroying and incredibly stressful for the individuals...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Further Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Further Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Further Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Further Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Further Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: I have one other question related to another area.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Further Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Further Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Further Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Further Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Further Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: In some ways, that is frightening. I know a number of the individuals who are living in Hatch Hall and they are really worried about what it means for them. There is the prospect of hundreds of people being dispersed to who knows where. There is nowhere for them to go. Hatch Hall is to be turned into a luxury hotel, which is unfortunate, to put it as mildly as I can. A number of people...

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Further Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Further Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Further Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Further Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Further Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: What the Chairman said speaks for us all.

Select Committee on Justice and Equality: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (Further Revised)
Vote 21 - Prisons (Further Revised)
Vote 22 - Courts Service (Further Revised)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Further Revised)
Vote 25 - Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Further Revised)
Vote 41 - Policing Authority (Further Revised) (10 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: Absolutely.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Defence Forces Recruitment (11 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: 6. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence his views on the fact that the Defence Forces had a net gain of just three members in 2017 despite a recruitment and training campaign costing in the region of €15 million. [16804/19]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Defence Forces Recruitment (11 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: The Government has for many years been warned about the crisis in the Defence Forces. The general secretary of the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, RACO, recently announced that, in spite of all the hype about the much-trumpeted so-called recruitment campaign, there was a net gain of three personnel in 2017. Unless the Government addresses pay and conditions, this crisis...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Defence Forces Recruitment (11 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: There are none so blind as those who will not see. The Minister of State in his response is basically trying to tell me that there is no problem at all and the turnover is normal. There is a crisis. Even the figures he gave indicate that a significant number of skilled personal are leaving the Defence Forces. That is a fact. It cost a lot of public money to get them to that level of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Defence Forces Recruitment (11 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: This is not a normal situation whereby there is a crisis because people are retiring. For the Minister of State to claim that is the case is shocking. It is not the reason for the crisis. According to a report published in early March, numbers in the Defence Forces dropped below 8,500 for the first time. The establishment level of the Defence Forces is 9,500, so it is 1,000 below the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Defence Forces Recruitment (11 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: I referred to personnel working 80 hours a week.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: UN Missions (11 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: 8. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence when a decision will be taken on whether to deploy the Army Ranger Wing to the MINUSMA mission in Mali. [16806/19]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: UN Missions (11 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: In January, the Minister of State told me, in response to a parliamentary question, that the option of deploying a group of Army Rangers was being considered but that it would take some time before a conclusion would be reached. The Army Ranger unit is not trained and organised for peacekeeping and as far as I am concerned, the idea of sending them to Mali is mad. We hear a lot from the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: UN Missions (11 Apr 2019)

Clare Daly: It is my clear understanding this mission operates under Article 7 of the UN Charter and that it is an entirely different type of operation.