Results 161-180 of 371 for speaker:Michael Conaghan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Effects of Black Economy: Discussion with Construction Industry Federation (21 May 2013)

Michael Conaghan: I want to ask a question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Effects of Black Economy: Discussion with Construction Industry Federation (21 May 2013)

Michael Conaghan: I welcome the delegation. In hindsight, the old construction economy was based on an unsustainable and unstable base. We know the consequences. Will our guests broadly sketch out the new construction economy's shape and elements? Will it be built on a more sustainable base? What impact will large infrastructural projects like the national paediatric hospital at St. James's Hospital and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Creating Policies that Work: Discussion with FIT (28 May 2013)

Michael Conaghan: I am a big fan of FIT because over the years I have seen the work it is capable of doing. I have experience of the partnership in Ballyfermot where it worked with Kieran Reid and which was a quantifiable success. I am also in favour of its approach to apprenticeships and the need to define a new rationale for apprenticeships now but keeping their intrinsic values, and build the new...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Creating Policies that Work: Discussion with FIT (28 May 2013)

Michael Conaghan: Many VECs are characterised by experimentation. One has to experiment, dip one's toe in the water. The blueprint is written afterwards. FIT has to take that into account but overall I am a big fan of its work.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for the Public Services 2013
Vote 32 - Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (11 Jun 2013)

Michael Conaghan: A number of general issues have been raised and I wish to raise several small matters. With regard to research, I know the linkage with product development-----

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for the Public Services 2013
Vote 32 - Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (11 Jun 2013)

Michael Conaghan: Research plays a vital role in the critical linkage between product identity, product development, employment and exporting. Some academics and people in the media have claimed this research has become very skewed and too utilitarian, that research should have a much broader vision and that Ireland's reputation may be damaged if this narrowing of the research mandate and focus continues. I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (2 Jul 2013)

Michael Conaghan: I understand some constituents are concerned about the importation of bicycles from China? Is that right? This relates to two of the proposals made.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (2 Jul 2013)

Michael Conaghan: We gave it the go-ahead.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Home Care Provision: Discussion with Home and Community Care Ireland (2 Jul 2013)

Michael Conaghan: We are too quick to commercialise care. In my area, I see many people, particularly women, who go to the homes of neighbours and elderly people. I acknowledge that they get a small amount of money, but most of the care is driven by more altruistic motives. They know the people for whom they are caring, who have been their neighbours for years. We should not look at all areas of human...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Home Care Provision: Discussion with Home and Community Care Ireland (2 Jul 2013)

Michael Conaghan: I am suggesting that it is not a continuum. There are different break points and categories of work, some of which are very informal. It is not a professional continuum.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs 2013: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (9 Jul 2013)

Michael Conaghan: I thought two committee members, in their remarks at the beginning of the meeting, were overly critical of the Government's performance in the past couple of years, as if we had inherited a normal economy in normal times. It is important to remember the context. This country had lost its credibility on the international stage and it has been an extraordinary task to reinstate and win it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: European Competitiveness Council: Discussion (24 Sep 2013)

Michael Conaghan: I am just looking at page six of one of the reports, which indicates that Ireland scores above the EU average for six out of ten Single Business Act for Europe, SBA, principles. If that is the case, I find some of the comments today extremely negative. It is as if people are speaking in an abstract context and the economy has not been severely wounded. People should put in some sort of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: European Competitiveness Council: Discussion (24 Sep 2013)

Michael Conaghan: It is easy to throw out such comments as if the past five or six years had not occurred. We should take the real world into account.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: European Competitiveness Council: Discussion (24 Sep 2013)

Michael Conaghan: It is different if people go around pretending they are blind.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: European Competitiveness Council: Discussion (24 Sep 2013)

Michael Conaghan: One would not know that from listening to some people today. They may wish it otherwise.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: European Competitiveness Council: Discussion (24 Sep 2013)

Michael Conaghan: There are objective measurements on page six of the report. Six out of ten is not bad.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: European Competitiveness Council: Discussion (24 Sep 2013)

Michael Conaghan: There is a danger that the education system will become a slave to the economy. I am not saying that the Minister has the view because he is a very enlightened person. It would be wrong to slavishly follow the needs of the economy or skew the education system towards that star. The needs of the economy today will be completely different from its needs in ten years' time. The education...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Excise Duties Issues (1 Oct 2013)

Michael Conaghan: 202. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide a breakdown of excise returns by category and by month from January 2012 to September 2013. [40682/13]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pathways to Work 2013: Discussion with Department of Social Protection (8 Oct 2013)

Michael Conaghan: I welcome the delegation. I would like to remark on the work it does and the value of that work. Moving someone closer to work is probably one of the most important interventions that can be made in someone's life. It takes staff to do such work, as I would like to acknowledge. My second remark is about the scale of the transformation of services. When we think about how State services...

Criminal Justice (Forensic Evidence and DNA Database System) Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed) (9 Oct 2013)

Michael Conaghan: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Perry, to the House. I would like first to focus on the value of forensic work in combatting crime. In regard to local crime such as burglary, when word gets around in a local area that gardaí are engaged in forensic work there is generally a fall off in this type of activity. Burglars know that forensic evidence at the scene of local crimes may...