Results 2,121-2,140 of 4,026 for speaker:

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (14 Jun 2022)

Duncan Smith: 1125. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to a pre-pension scheme in other European Union countries in which employees working with hazardous material can avail of 85% of their State pension from the age of 58 years onwards with the remaining 15% paid at retirement age; if she is considering any such scheme; and if she will make a...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services (1 Jun 2022)

Duncan Smith: 228. To ask the Minister for Health if the position set out in a January 2004 Departmental background paper published as an appendix to the Travers Report to the effect that the Health Act 1970 distinguishes between eligibility and entitlement and that the nature of the obligation imposed by the Act to make services available is not such as to confer an entitlement on an individual insofar as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Delays at Dublin Airport: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Duncan Smith: Where exactly will these holding areas that have been announced as part of the DAA's plans be in relation to the terminal buildings?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Delays at Dublin Airport: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Duncan Smith: This weekend, therefore, the advice is that people with luggage should arrive for short-haul flights three and a half hours in advance and four and a half hours in advance for long-haul flights.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Delays at Dublin Airport: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Duncan Smith: That is the advice. Therefore, people arrive for a long-haul flight three and a half hours in advance, does Mr. Philips envisage that they will have to be outside for a period of time or will they be able to go directly into the terminal building?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Delays at Dublin Airport: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Duncan Smith: We did not think we would be here after the DAA's letter last week but we are here after the weekend and now we have a plan to have gazebo holding areas or covered holding terminals for the summer.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Delays at Dublin Airport: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Duncan Smith: They will be set up for the summer but not for this weekend in the event that we have these issues again as the passenger numbers increase.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Delays at Dublin Airport: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Duncan Smith: Does the DAA have a plan to ensure food and beverage concessions are open both landside and airside in every terminal and at every gate to ensure that people are able to get refreshments and stuff they need? That has been a key problem. Is there a plan to ensure that the sanitary facilities in terms of toilets and such are clean as well? These are other key problems that existed this weekend.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Delays at Dublin Airport: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Duncan Smith: I understand that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Delays at Dublin Airport: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Duncan Smith: It is part of the overall experience if a person is four, four and a half or five hours from when he or she gets out of his or her car, bus or whatever to get to his or her gate and he or she has not had a cup of tea or been able to use a toilet facility. That is a huge problem. We know the Government did not provide any conditionality in terms of retaining employees. The DAA is losing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Delays at Dublin Airport: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Duncan Smith: No, it is the EWSS.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Delays at Dublin Airport: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Duncan Smith: The DAA is not really.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Delays at Dublin Airport: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Duncan Smith: Okay. So, that never came from Government. Every decision that was made with regard to staff sizing, downsizing or rightsizing, to use Mr. Philips's language, was made by Mr. Philips and his colleagues on the management team.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Delays at Dublin Airport: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Duncan Smith: Does Mr. Philips think the DAA pulled the lever too early in May 2020 for the packages being offered to reduce staff in terms of going into the pandemic crisis?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Delays at Dublin Airport: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Duncan Smith: Does Mr. Philips think the DAA pulled the lever to cut as many staff as early as it did into the crisis?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Delays at Dublin Airport: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Duncan Smith: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Delays at Dublin Airport: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Duncan Smith: It was too deep, too quickly. This is the point I am getting at. Was the pandemic the moment the DAA was waiting for to make the cuts it always wanted to make?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Delays at Dublin Airport: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Duncan Smith: There has always been a tension in the airport that there has always been a desire for management to cut long-term employees who are on good pay and good terms and conditions across many areas. That was the sense and this is what I have been picking up. Staff in large numbers contacted me over the weekend who are afraid to speak on the record. These staff, who are still there, were...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Delays at Dublin Airport: Discussion (1 Jun 2022)

Duncan Smith: I will finish on this point. I thought I had a good understanding of the staff culture. This weekend has shifted it. I know it is a crisis weekend but we have a staff body who feel very low and very battered and bruised. This is my final question. There is no upward ask in terms of the number of security staff the DAA wants to hire. Is the DAA going to go higher now in terms of security...