Results 181-200 of 3,246 for speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Our Rural Future and Town Centre First Policies: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I feel brainwashed at this stage. I am quite confident that by the end of the week I will have a two-night stay booked in Strokestown without me realising.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Our Rural Future and Town Centre First Policies: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Google has probably listened to the discussion and already pre-booked. I will be subjected to a barrage of ads. I thank the witnesses for their contributions. This is an area of pivotal importance. In the discussion of the divide between rural Ireland and urban Ireland, people are often pitched at the two opposite ends of the scale. People are told their two options are Dublin 4 or a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Our Rural Future and Town Centre First Policies: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Will Mr. Doyle come in on the tracking question? I always get the abbreviation wrong. It is the collaborative town centre health check, CTCHC. Will Mr. Doyle comment on how it is mapped with the town teams now?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Our Rural Future and Town Centre First Policies: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: In relation to local authority empowerment, I am interested in hearing from Mr. Tiernan about the council's PPN.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Our Rural Future and Town Centre First Policies: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Does Mr. Nicholson wish to come in?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Our Rural Future and Town Centre First Policies: Discussion (1 May 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: It goes to the contributory principle around taxation. People feel much more positively disposed towards spending their taxation if they can see the effects of it in their local environment. Local authorities have a crucial role to play in this. Collaboration is very important to avoid creating a structure where it feels like it is where good ideas go to die. There are plenty of examples...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Parental Leave (30 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I am also asking this question on behalf of Deputy Leddin. There has been huge progress in the amount of family leave that is available and things like work-life balance, in particular working from home. I think of the difference between when I had my first young fella versus my third. I had three days leave for the first. By the time it rolled around to the third fella, it was two weeks'...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Parental Leave (30 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: There is a lot there that I welcome, but what the Minister has said on deferred leave is important. The Irish Cancer Society has been in touch with me and several other Members of the House to get that point across. That is something we would certainly like to see. The domestic violence leave is a superb piece of work and I congratulate the Minister on it. Neither the Minister not I are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Parental Leave (30 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I would not underestimate the cultural handbrake that is also there. There is definitely a societal pressure, in particular on men, to get that fit of child rearing done and get back to work. That is the thinking on it. I do not subscribe to that view. I think that time you put into your child at home is incredibly valuable and, to speak to our earlier question, gives that best start and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Early Childhood Care and Education (30 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: 89. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth when he expects to announce further details of the proposed equal participation model; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19261/24]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Early Childhood Care and Education (30 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I am smiling wryly at the Minister's previous answer. Teachers are very protective of their classrooms: "If they come into mine, they better not mess up the copies or anything else." As regards the fourth strand of the together for better programme, we have ECCE, the access and inclusion model and the national childcare scheme. The first three I understand quite well, but we have a...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Early Childhood Care and Education (30 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I believe passionately in this and that we should not confuse equality of outcome with the equality of opportunity we often get in a meritocracy, whereby you start from 50 m and I start from 100 m, we say the finish line is in the same place and we say, "Was it not great we all got to run in the same race?" That is not really how society works. Well, it is how society works but it is not...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Early Childhood Care and Education (30 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Additional staff and additional training for existing staff make all sorts of sense to me. The Minister will know that better informing parents is difficult. He talks about targeting that group. Trying to get people to actually interact with the services will be difficult. Will the Minister explain to me a little more about, as I said, the basic nuts and bolts? If I understand this...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (30 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I raise very similar concerns to the issues raised by Deputy Stanton. In the case of the naíonra in Tramore, it applied for that previous loan. It needed significant capital investment to maintain what has been an outstanding service for the past 30 years. Similarly, we see the number of housing estates cropping up all across the city and in Tramore. We are already at capacity within...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Funding (30 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I am taking this on behalf of Deputy Leddin. We have faced a massive challenge, particularly since 2022 with the outbreak of war in Ukraine. The outbreak of war in mainland Europe is not something we have seen in decades. For the most part, we as a country and particularly communities, have risen to that challenge magnificently. Over 100,000 people have been given shelter on our shores...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Funding (30 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I think the Minister of State is right in emphasising that even though what dominates our news cycle are the instances where integration has gone wrong or has failed to take hold, in communities across the country, there are small stories of community integration where it is going right. I would point to my home town of Tramore. We have had direct provision in Tramore for well over 20...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Departmental Funding (30 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I have a short personal story. I happened to be in UHW visiting a family member over the weekend. I met a nurse there whose accent I could not place. I asked her where her accent was from and it was from Somalia. However, it was not really a Somalian accent, or it started as a Somalian accent but it had a good 20 years of Waterford knocked into it as well. Even had I known at the start...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: European Year of Skills 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (30 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: My first question will build on Deputy Farrell's question a bit. I have seen it reported in the media that 3,376 people who engaged in craft apprenticeships failed to finish courses between 2021 and 2023. Is that figure is correct? Are we researching why people are dropping out of these craft apprenticeships? Are we doing anything in terms of retention measures? On lifelong learning...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: European Year of Skills 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (30 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Perhaps I will refocus that question. The question asked whether we are researching the profile of the courses being offered in some of those leading countries and if they match what Ireland is doing. I will come back to a personal example. I am unlikely to take an apprenticeship as an electrician at this point in my life. I am entirely likely to go back and study something else. I might...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: European Year of Skills 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (30 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I am conscious of time and I am aware the Cathaoirleach runs a tight ship. I asked a question also about those 3,376 people who failed to complete a craft apprenticeship. Can we have information on that?