Results 2,101-2,120 of 4,178 for speaker:Paul Gavan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018 (Resumed): Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (29 Jan 2021)

Paul Gavan: I thank the Tánaiste for his presentation. He has been quoted as saying that this new agency will be an Irish FBI for white-collar crime. This certainly sounds very impressive, until one looks at the budgeting for the organisation over the past number of years. The budget was just €6 million. I compared that to the amount of money the previous Government spent on welfare...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018 (Resumed): Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (29 Jan 2021)

Paul Gavan: According to a report in 2007 by RSM Robson Rhodes, we were losing at least €2.5 billion a year then. It does strike me as very stark that while the Tánaiste was prepared to make very high-profile campaigns against so-called welfare cheats, this organisation has been underfunded for years. I ask the Tánaiste why that is the case. I am conscious of time. My second...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018 (Resumed): Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (29 Jan 2021)

Paul Gavan: The Tánaiste has not given any explanation for the chronic underfunding of the organisation compared to other arms of Government involved in chasing people with much less money.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018 (Resumed): Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (29 Jan 2021)

Paul Gavan: I meant to thank the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, earlier for his presentation. I will ask the Tánaiste a couple of questions on staffing. I appreciate the information he has given us so far. My first question is a specific one. The Tánaiste is the line manager for his Department. Yesterday, the ODCE requested five additional staff to work on the FAI investigation. Will...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018 (Resumed): Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (29 Jan 2021)

Paul Gavan: Maybe I should clarify the level of funding.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018 (Resumed): Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (29 Jan 2021)

Paul Gavan: I imagine there would be a funding implication. I am asking this question because I am concerned about the staffing plan as set out. In fairness, the Tánaiste has gone through it. That the ODCE is now moving to agency status means that some of the new staff will have to perform HR and administration roles, for example, that would not have been required previously. How many of the new...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018 (Resumed): Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (29 Jan 2021)

Paul Gavan: No, and I take the Tánaiste's point, but he can understand my concern. He has been honest enough to acknowledge it. An increase in funding of €300,000 is a drop in the ocean. According to figures from 2007, €2.5 billion was being lost each year to corporate crime, white-collar crime or whatever one calls it. It is extraordinary that the Government is proposing this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018: Discussion
General Scheme of an Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill
Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018: Discussion General Scheme of an Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill (22 Jan 2021)

Paul Gavan: I wish to follow up on those last comments from Mr. O'Mahony. I should start by thanking all the guests for their comments and Mr. Drennan for his presentation. This issue of directors not putting insolvent companies into liquidation is a point of particular concern to an awful lot of us. It is an issue of huge frustration for trade unionists, employees and companies. I will not name any...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018: Discussion
General Scheme of an Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill
Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018: Discussion General Scheme of an Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill (22 Jan 2021)

Paul Gavan: It does, and I thank Mr. O'Mahony. I have a follow-on question. Does Mr. O'Mahony's organisation have a role in so-called strategic liquidations, whereby assets are basically moved from one company to another to enable a liquidation that basically saves values in the company but at the employees' expense? Is that something that his office does or should deal with?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018: Discussion
General Scheme of an Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill
Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018: Discussion General Scheme of an Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill (22 Jan 2021)

Paul Gavan: I wish to raise an issue regarding head 38 of the proposed Bill, which deals with liquidation. The Company Law Review Group, CLRG, had a slightly different proposal. It proposed that the director of an insolvent company who failed to take appropriate steps to nominate a named liquidator should be deemed to be subject to a restriction order. What is Mr. O'Mahony's opinion on that? Does he...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018: Discussion
General Scheme of an Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill
Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018: Discussion General Scheme of an Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill (22 Jan 2021)

Paul Gavan: Coming back to the first point my colleague, Deputy O'Reilly, made on resources, I have a more specific question. A number of us are interested in the investigation into the Football Association of Ireland, FAI. I think the ODCE seized 280,000 files before Christmas. Does the ODCE have enough resources right now to investigate this important case?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018: Discussion
General Scheme of an Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill
Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Bill 2018: Discussion General Scheme of an Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill (22 Jan 2021)

Paul Gavan: I understand that. I will not comment on an individual case but I echo the comments of my colleague, Deputy O'Reilly. I am conscious of what Professor Deirdre Ahern stated in her submission. She said it is clear that the witnesses' organisation has been under-resourced for some considerable time. I have a concern in this regard. That seems like a huge investigation to undertake. Am I...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (18 Dec 2020)

Paul Gavan: I will begin by wishing the Cathaoirleach a happy Christmas. I thank him for his guidance during the year. I also extend Christmas wishes and thanks to Mr. Martin Groves, Ms Brigid Doody and all the Seanad staff as well as to the Leader, whose constructive approach thus far must be acknowledged. I was struck by the comments of Senators Casey and Crowe and my heart genuinely goes out to...

Seanad: Appropriation Bill 2020: Second Stage (18 Dec 2020)

Paul Gavan: Sinn Féin will support the Bill. The purpose of the Appropriation Bill is to give statutory authority for the amounts voted by the Dáil during the year as required by the Constitution. The Appropriation Bill must be enacted by the Oireachtas in December. Otherwise, there will be no authority to spend any voted moneys from the start of 2021. The amount of €69.7 billion in...

Seanad: Appropriation Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Dec 2020)

Paul Gavan: I want to speak on two issues. First, I concur with what everyone has said on several occasions in this Chamber over several years about councillors' pay. I am genuinely puzzled because, in my naïveté, I had assumed this problem would have been dealt with by now. I suppose I have an interest in the Sinn Féin councillors, in particular, because most of them tend to be...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (17 Dec 2020)

Paul Gavan: I will raise two issues. The first I have raised before, along with Senators from all sides of the Chamber, and that is the plight of the student nurses. I quote some voices from the front line, which were contained in a powerful article in The Irish Times yesterday: So far I have washed and fed patients, emotionally supported them and have been on the ward as two patients have died ......

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Employment Rights (16 Dec 2020)

Paul Gavan: I wish to raise a serious issue today, namely, the work of social media content moderators. These people carry out a new form of work which is horrific in nature but regrettably is essential. On a daily basis, these workers will view and filter out the worst acts of humanity posted online in order that they do not appear on our screens. This is done through social media platforms such as...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Employment Rights (16 Dec 2020)

Paul Gavan: I am genuinely very disappointed by that response. I am a former trade union official and the Minister of State has spent the last four minutes reciting the current employment law protections. Respectfully, I am aware of them. The problem is that the protections in place are not working in respect of these content moderators. There is no right to collective bargaining in this country,...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (16 Dec 2020)

Paul Gavan: A few years ago, on 23 January 2015, something very strange happened. This country flew its flags at half mast for the death of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who was without doubt one of the world's greatest butchers and tyrants. We now know, thanks to the pioneering work of Irish journalist, Sally Hayden, that things are getting worse rather than better in Saudi Arabia. Members can see...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2020: Report and Final Stages (16 Dec 2020)

Paul Gavan: I second the recommendation.