Results 201-220 of 371 for speaker:Michael Conaghan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs 2013: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (9 Jul 2013)

Michael Conaghan: I thought two committee members, in their remarks at the beginning of the meeting, were overly critical of the Government's performance in the past couple of years, as if we had inherited a normal economy in normal times. It is important to remember the context. This country had lost its credibility on the international stage and it has been an extraordinary task to reinstate and win it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Home Care Provision: Discussion with Home and Community Care Ireland (2 Jul 2013)

Michael Conaghan: I am suggesting that it is not a continuum. There are different break points and categories of work, some of which are very informal. It is not a professional continuum.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Home Care Provision: Discussion with Home and Community Care Ireland (2 Jul 2013)

Michael Conaghan: We are too quick to commercialise care. In my area, I see many people, particularly women, who go to the homes of neighbours and elderly people. I acknowledge that they get a small amount of money, but most of the care is driven by more altruistic motives. They know the people for whom they are caring, who have been their neighbours for years. We should not look at all areas of human...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (2 Jul 2013)

Michael Conaghan: I understand some constituents are concerned about the importation of bicycles from China? Is that right? This relates to two of the proposals made.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (2 Jul 2013)

Michael Conaghan: We gave it the go-ahead.

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for the Public Services 2013
Vote 32 - Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (11 Jun 2013)

Michael Conaghan: A number of general issues have been raised and I wish to raise several small matters. With regard to research, I know the linkage with product development-----

Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Estimates for the Public Services 2013
Vote 32 - Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Revised) (11 Jun 2013)

Michael Conaghan: Research plays a vital role in the critical linkage between product identity, product development, employment and exporting. Some academics and people in the media have claimed this research has become very skewed and too utilitarian, that research should have a much broader vision and that Ireland's reputation may be damaged if this narrowing of the research mandate and focus continues. I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Creating Policies that Work: Discussion with FIT (28 May 2013)

Michael Conaghan: I am a big fan of FIT because over the years I have seen the work it is capable of doing. I have experience of the partnership in Ballyfermot where it worked with Kieran Reid and which was a quantifiable success. I am also in favour of its approach to apprenticeships and the need to define a new rationale for apprenticeships now but keeping their intrinsic values, and build the new...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Creating Policies that Work: Discussion with FIT (28 May 2013)

Michael Conaghan: Many VECs are characterised by experimentation. One has to experiment, dip one's toe in the water. The blueprint is written afterwards. FIT has to take that into account but overall I am a big fan of its work.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Effects of Black Economy: Discussion with Construction Industry Federation (21 May 2013)

Michael Conaghan: I want to ask a question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Effects of Black Economy: Discussion with Construction Industry Federation (21 May 2013)

Michael Conaghan: I welcome the delegation. In hindsight, the old construction economy was based on an unsustainable and unstable base. We know the consequences. Will our guests broadly sketch out the new construction economy's shape and elements? Will it be built on a more sustainable base? What impact will large infrastructural projects like the national paediatric hospital at St. James's Hospital and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Impact of Black Market on Small Businesses: Discussion (16 Apr 2013)

Michael Conaghan: I wish to make two brief observations. In making a rough analysis I tend to divide this activity into two broad categories. I refer to the nixer culture which flourishes in times of high unemployment. During the recent construction boom the legitimate industry offered very high rewards in the carpentry and plumbing trades, for example, and people were in a position to pay for these...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (26 Mar 2013)

Michael Conaghan: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the progress that has been made on the construction of a new building at Griffith College MDNS. [15133/13]

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Reliefs Availability (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Conaghan: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will detail in tabular form, every tax relief that is currently available to Irish citizens; and the tax revenue lost to the Exchequer from each tax relief in each of the past three years. [14439/13]

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Employment Scheme (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Conaghan: To ask the Minister for Social Protection when the local authority social employment scheme announced in Budget 2013 will be rolled out; and the way places on the scheme will be allocated. [14438/13]

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Wind Energy Guidelines (21 Mar 2013)

Michael Conaghan: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if his Department has conducted a cost / benefit analysis in relation to wind energy, and in particular has any research been carried out into the economic benefits of wind energy to the local communities in which wind-farming takes place. [14437/13]

Criminal Justice (Spent Convictions) Bill 2012 [Seanad]: Second Stage (Resumed) (14 Mar 2013)

Michael Conaghan: I wish to share time with Deputies Anne Ferris, Michael McNamara and Brendan Ryan.

Criminal Justice (Spent Convictions) Bill 2012 [Seanad]: Second Stage (Resumed) (14 Mar 2013)

Michael Conaghan: For too long in Ireland, even the most minor criminal conviction hasa mounted, in effect, to a life sentence. A person may not be condemned to spend the rest of his orh er life behind prison walls, but he or she is condemned to a lifetime of stigma, lost career opportunities and serious difficulties in rebuilding a normal life. The Bill before the House is a most welcome step in the slow...

Job Creation and Economic Growth: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (13 Mar 2013)

Michael Conaghan: Coming out of the recession in the 1980s successive Governments focused their attentions on building a broad-based sustainable economy. That approach was best exemplified by the rainbow coalition of the 1990s with the Labour Party Minister for Finance, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, at the helm. However, in 14 years of power Fianna Fáil deconstructed this model at the bidding of their...

Job Creation and Economic Growth: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (13 Mar 2013)

Michael Conaghan: The task of tackling the unemployment crisis is daunting but not one this Government will shy away from. It will not be solved overnight and it will take strategic thinking across Departments and investment to achieve success. The work of rebuilding a shattered economy is well under way and I am convinced the Government is on the right path.