Results 2,081-2,100 of 4,178 for speaker:Paul Gavan
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019 (16 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: We have not discussed the seasonal work permits yet. I am concerned because we will come into a period of mass unemployment at the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. I am concerned the Department still seems determined to have recourse to these work permits in that situation. The following point was made in a committee two years ago. If there is a case for seasonal workers, surely someone in...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019 (16 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: It is also an outlier in not having the right to collective bargaining. Maybe we could balance that up.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019 (16 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: No problem.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019 (16 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: I again thank Ms Ward for her patience this afternoon. I want to follow up on the point raised by Deputy O'Reilly. As a union organiser, my personal experience with meat factories is that these people cannot translate their contracts. They have no one available to do it for them. They do not understand English in many cases so even finding the website is not practical for them. The...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019 (16 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: I would love to give Ms Ward a suggestion and I welcome the opportunity to do so. Why not ensure, before the Department issues work permits, that there is a collective bargaining agreement in place between the employer and the trade union of the workers' choice? That is a simple way to ensure there is a third party to protect the workers. To be frank, and we have gone through the numbers,...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019 (16 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: I appreciate Ms Ward's patience but surely that balance should include a worker having a right to a living wage? Why is that not thought to be part of that balance in the Department?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019 (16 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: I thank Ms Ward.
- Seanad: Remote Working Strategy: Motion (15 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: It is nice to see Senator McGreehan in the Chair and to have the Minister of State, Deputy English, in the House. On behalf of Sinn Féin, I welcome this motion. There are lots of positive messages around remote working that we fully support. Like my colleague from the Labour Party, however, I am concerned about the aspirational nature of much of what is proposed as opposed to there...
- Seanad: Remote Working Strategy: Motion (15 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: Information-----
- Seanad: Remote Working Strategy: Motion (15 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: How dare the Minister of State-----
- Seanad: Remote Working Strategy: Motion (15 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: The Minister is watering down-----
- Seanad: Remote Working Strategy: Motion (15 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: Opposing an-----
- Seanad: Remote Working Strategy: Motion (15 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: There is not a right to collective bargaining.
- Seanad: Mental Health and Covid-19: Statements (12 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: It is the first time I have met the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, in the Chamber since her appointment. I wish her well and congratulate her. I will be critical of the Government but I do not doubt the Minister of State's personal commitment to this role. I would argue the Minister of State's job is certainly among the toughest of any Minister in the Government. Where should one begin...
- Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (8 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: I want to raise the crucial issue for Limerick of the Coonagh to Knockalisheen road. I am sure that many Members will have heard about this over the past weeks. Let me begin by saying that anyone who knows Moyross will know that it is among the most socially disadvantaged and socially isolated communities anywhere in the State. There is a tremendously brave and united community there...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Competition (Amendment) Bill 2021 (2 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: I thank our guests. I thank Ms McNamara for a refreshingly frank and impressive presentation. I want to drill down into a couple of key sectors that I know will be of interest to people watching at home, such as the powers of ComReg and the role Eir has played in recent years. I will start with a political point which needs to be made. The privatisation of Eir has been an absolute...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Competition (Amendment) Bill 2021 (2 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: I will move on to the energy market. We pay the fourth highest electricity prices in Europe, though when VAT and environmental levies are taken into account, we are the most expensive. The shocking thing is that consumers pay just under 50% higher than the EU average. The Commission for Energy Regulation seems to use the level of customer switching as the factor to determine competition in...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Competition (Amendment) Bill 2021 (2 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: How will the administrative financial sanctions work? Is the constitutional question still present? Will the courts ultimately still have to sanction the level of the penalty or will these administrative sanctions be independent of the courts?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Competition (Amendment) Bill 2021 (2 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: Will that cause difficulties in that the higher the financial penalty, the more likely that it will be considered punitive in nature and, therefore, potentially unconstitutional?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Competition (Amendment) Bill 2021 (2 Feb 2021)
Paul Gavan: I mentioned the RSM Robson Rhodes report last week when I was chatting to the Tánaiste. Back in 2007, that report estimated that we were losing €2.5 billion per year from economic crime. That equates to a potential loss to the economy of €35 billion over the past 14 years. Why has the State been so slow to tackle this aspect of economic crime, given the potentially severe...