Results 20,561-20,580 of 21,307 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald
- Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: Question 201: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the name, position and a breakdown of the retirement packages for all senior civil servants eligible to retire before February. [28815/11]
- Written Answers — Domestic Violence Services: Domestic Violence Services (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: Question 460: To ask the Minister for Health when he expects the Health Service Executive to complete its review of domestic violence services; and if it intends to end State funding to Safe Ireland and the Rape Crisis Network. [28260/11]
- Public Service Appointments (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: I thank the Minister for that information. Apropos a previous discussion, was Mr. Dermot McCarthy at any stage a member of TLAC?
- Public Service Appointments (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: So he was an ex officio member of the body who made the contractual arrangement which the Minister could not challenge even with the pensions legislation.
- Public Service Appointments (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: I am aware of that.
- Public Service Appointments (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: I did not suggest.
- Pension Provisions (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: The Trident report said, as the Minister acknowledged, that members would pay more to the scheme in contributions than they would receive from its benefits. In fact, the report goes on to say that teachers would be better off to opt out of the pension scheme. The Minister said he has spoken with the teachers' unions. Has he identified for them the flaw in the Trident report and, if so,...
- Pension Provisions (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: The teachers and everyone else know full well that the pension levy is a tax and is not a contribution to pension.
- Pension Provisions (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: If Trident is wrong on that basis and if, as the Minister has said, the pension levy is not set in stone can I assume the Minister gave the teachers unions some reassurance or a timeframe as to when the pension levy might end?
- Public Service Contracts (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: Question 43: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he attempted to rescind the special severance gratuity payment and added years awarded to former secretary general (details supplied) to the Department of the Taoiseach as agreed by the Top Level Appointments Committee, in advance or upon their retirement as allowed for in sections 6 and 7 of the Superannuation and...
- Public Service Contracts (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: The Minister will be aware that Mr. Dermot McCarthy received a pay-off of â¬713,000 and that his package will cost the State in the region of â¬6 million. Whatever about the time of his appointment, his retirement occurred on the Minister's watch. Whenever I question the Minister on this matter, he constantly invokes the Top Level Appointments Committee, TLAC. What the Minister...
- Public Service Contracts (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: -----states that the Minister, if in his discretion so thinks proper, can grant to the civil servant a special severance gratuity not exceeding one half of the annual salary of the office of the civil servant. That severance gratuity payment can only be paid on the Minister's say so. I take it from the Minister's response to my question that he made no effort t rescind that payment to Mr....
- Public Service Contracts (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: I am sure the Minister will concede that TLAC cannot overrule the law of the land. I again put it to the Minister that he had the levers and discretion to stop the special severance payment, to put a halt to the award of additional years and to end the disgrace of this outrageous payment to this top civil servant but despite all of his rhetoric around change and transparency he failed to do that.
- Public Service Contracts (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: It is not grandstanding to say the Minister did not grapple with this issue, instead allowing this outrageous payment to go ahead. He also claimed there are other anomalies. What about the Secretary General of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation who is supposed to retire soon with a large lump sum? The seven-year tenure of the Secretary General in the Department of Education...
- Ministerial Staff (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: Question 182: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the basis upon which he signed off on salaries to special advisors to Ministers in excess of the Guidelines on Staffing of Ministerial Offices issued by him in March 2011 in view of the fact that special advisors are to be placed on the Principal Officer standard scale with such appointments generally required to be at the...
- Ministerial Staff (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: The Taoiseach has two advisers, Mark Kennelly and Andrew McDowell, who earn â¬168,000, and the Tánaiste has two advisers, Mark Garrett, who earns â¬168,000, and Colm O'Reardan, who earns â¬155,000. I do not know how the Minister can explain to me, the House or the citizens how this is a value for money decision. The Minister said in the House that he has made exceptions in respect of...
- Ministerial Staff (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: The Minister sanctioned them.
- Ministerial Staff (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: The Minister told me in the summertime that the pay cap would be â¬92,672. That is a really good salary and is competitive for any level of professionalism yet the advisers in the Department of the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste's Department are on almost double that sum. One of the other exceptions is, ironically, the Department of Social Protection. This is the same Department that will...
- Ministerial Staff (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: They should not be excluded. I wonder about the quality of the advice given by special advisers in previous Administrations. I do not have a hang-up about special advisers, but there is a real problem with those salary levels. We have had the universal social charge, pension levies and welfare cutbacks, all of which had to be implemented because things are tough and we are all in it...
- Ministerial Staff (11 Oct 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: Absolutely.