Results 16,561-16,580 of 21,499 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Written Answers — Department of Health: Disability Services Funding (7 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: 851. To ask the Minister for Health if he will reverse the 1% cut to disability services for 2020. [14442/20]

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: Today, I want to raise the issue of the Debenhams workers. I was alarmed and disappointed with the Taoiseach's response yesterday when these matters were raised. His response was lacklustre and it was not the type of response that I believe is required from Government. As the Taoiseach will know, the Debenhams workers have been in dispute with their employer for some months now. At the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: Here is the problem. The State and the Government have not intervened in the appropriate way to protect these workers. I remind the Taoiseach that since 2015 he has been saying that there needs to be a review and a change to the legislation. In regard to the Clerys situation he said, "The most effective intervention is legislative". At that time, he challenged for a review of the law to...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: When?

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (8 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: I know that the Government will not do anything.

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (8 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: Access to affordable housing was, arguably, the biggest topic during last February's general election campaign. It is little wonder, given that people had endured years of failed policy that left them paying extortionate rents and there was an inability on the part of practically an entire generation to access affordable housing and precious little council housing. This was an approach by a...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (8 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: Be in no doubt that this is the scale of ambition required to deliver affordable housing to our people. I have a question for the Taoiseach. On the basis of what the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government stated last night, why is it that people will have to wait until September to see the new Government's plan for affordable housing? Why is it that the Government will lose so...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (8 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----given that the Taoiseach has said he understands the immediacy of the matter and that he has not wasted a minute since coming into office? Why is there such a delay on this? Why face down the fully reasonable and ambitious plan articulated by our housing spokesperson last evening?

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (8 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: I will take it when I can.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: I have been reluctant to raise the matter of the Minister, Deputy Cowen, on Leaders' Questions before today. I absolutely accept that everybody makes mistakes, that people learn from those mistakes and that they move on. We wanted to give the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine every opportunity to address all of the matters concerned, to draw a line under them and to move on at a...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is becoming clear that the Minister, Deputy Cowen, will have to come before the House and take questions on all of these issues. However, for the purposes of today's discussion, I am more concerned with what the Taoiseach, as Head of Government, knew. He has confirmed that he did, in fact, know about the Garda PULSE record and that there was an allegation that the Minister had sought to...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: Then publish it.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: Then the Taoiseach should have the Minister publish it.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is not agreed. The Taoiseach knew that the statement the Minister, Deputy Cowen, made to the Dáil was incomplete. Astonishingly, he has attempted to justify the Minister's lack of candour before the House. It is now very clear that the Minister, Deputy Cowen, needs to come before the Dáil to make a statement and to take questions. A senior Cabinet Minister challenging the...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is the worst type of evasion. As Head of Government, I appeal to the Taoiseach to do the right thing for the sake of the integrity of the Dáil. There is no conceivable reason that the Minister could not present himself to make a full and complete statement and to take questions from Deputies. It is entirely unacceptable to dance on the head of a pin in the way in which the...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: When I raised with the Taoiseach last week the need to extend maternity leave and benefit by 12 weeks for mothers and parents affected by the Covid-19 crisis, he said the matter was complicated and complex but that the Government would do the right thing. Yesterday, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs announced a three-week extension to parental leave to be brought in next year under...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Regeneration Projects (14 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: 1. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the role of his Department in the north east inner city initiative. [15758/20]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Regeneration Projects (14 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: In addition to everything the Taoiseach has recalled regarding the setting up of this inner city initiative, it should also be recalled that the north-east inner city was caught in the grip of what was referred to as a "gangland feud" at the time. He will recall that lives had been lost, the community, including children, was traumatised by the incidents they had been witnessed and at the...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Regeneration Projects (14 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: I welcome that the Taoiseach is open to a review. I am keen to acknowledge the substantial amount of work done by the board and I commend those involved on it. Nevertheless, this review has to be about the community. It has to be about the people who live in the kind of atrocious housing conditions that the Taoiseach has himself witnessed. Should the Taoiseach go into any of these blocks...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Regeneration Projects (14 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Greek Street flats are in the north-west inner city. They are not captured by the catchment area. I am not saying this to catch out the Taoiseach at all. I am simply raising it to reiterate the point about the catchment area for the north-east and north-west inner city. A line was arbitrarily drawn. I hope that as part of the review which I hope will be commissioned, those...