Results 2,241-2,260 of 7,404 for speaker:Mick Wallace

Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Report and Final Stages (6 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: We will go along with the Minister and withdraw our amendment No. 38 when we reach it.

Quarterly Report on Housing: Statements (6 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: I wish both Ministers good luck. They will probably need it. It is not an easy job. Someone from Gorey contacted me recently to explain their situation. The maximum rent supplement for a couple or one-parent family is €530 and it is €565 for a parent with two children. The cheapest available accommodation on daft.ieis €760 and the next cheapest is €825. I...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Teacher Training Provision (6 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: 17. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the existing or planned measures to ensure that primary school teachers are sufficiently trained to deal with mental health issues that may arise with regard to their pupils; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31701/17]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs Staff (6 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: 55. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to bring forward the date of allocating SNA resources to schools to March-April as recommended by an organisation (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31700/17]

Other Questions: NAMA Transactions (5 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: 28. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 138 of 3 May 2017, if the debtor involved in Project Shift was one of the seven advised by a person (details supplied) as reported in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report on Project Eagle; the reason Project Shift was not discussed at any NAMA Northern Ireland advisory committee meetings; and if he will make a...

Other Questions: NAMA Transactions (5 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: This question deals with Project Shift, which relates to the sale by NAMA of the loans of a Northern Ireland debtor associated with German shopping centres and Cerberus, the same Cerberus that bought Project Eagle. Until some months ago, little was known about Project Shift. However, from two previous replies to parliamentary questions we have established that it was not discussed at any...

Other Questions: NAMA Transactions (5 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: Okay, but it will be a long supplementary. I have spoken to Brian Rowntree several times lately. He said to me that he had never heard of Project Shift. He said that he was led to believe by NAMA, via the chairman, Frank Daly, and Ronnie Hanna, that Project Eagle was the first sale of any element of the Northern Ireland portfolio to a third party loan acquisition group. This is a...

Other Questions: NAMA Transactions (5 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: Sorry. We have been in contact with Mr. Justice Cooke about Project Shift among other things. He has asked us to preserve any evidence relating to Project Shift. However, I cannot understand why the Minister might not be interested in getting answers to the questions around NAMA in this area. I welcome the Minister to his new portfolio and I hope he gets on well in it. By the end of...

Other Questions: NAMA Operations (5 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: According to the NAMA Act, the overall objective of NAMA was to bring stability to the banking system by removing impaired loans from bank balance sheets; it was never set up to make a profit. It would have to get back over €74 billion to make a profit. The Minister is saying the EU directive requires that certain companies, including NAMA, must be audited by a statutory auditor...

Other Questions: NAMA Operations (5 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: Speaking of Mazars, this morning Professor Richard Murphy of University College London called for greater regulation of the big four accountancy firms because of their ongoing facilitation of tax avoidance. We all know the names of the four firms: Deloitte, PwC, Ernst & Young and KPMG. Mazars is probably No. 5. The goal of the European Union with the directive was to reinforce the...

Other Questions: Tax Code (5 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: The Minister appears to tell us about the changes to section 110 and the fact that some of the investors will actually pay some tax, but he is ignoring the fact that the REITs, provided they share 85% of the dividends with their investors, pay no tax on their rental income, nor do they pay any capital gains tax if they stay for at least five years. In January 2014 I challenged the then...

Other Questions: NAMA Operations (5 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: 24. To ask the Minister for Finance further to the recent announcement by NAMA of the appointment of a company (details supplied) as statutory auditor, the role played by his Department in this decision; the advice his Department and NAMA sought on this decision; if the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General was consulted about the decision; if he has satisfied himself that the...

Other Questions: NAMA Operations (5 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: My question relates to the appointment of a second auditor to NAMA arising from the EU audit directive. I have some questions about the process involved. When did this matter first arise? Will the Minister outline the advice his Department and NAMA received on the decision? Was the Comptroller and Auditor General engaged at all times in decision-making? If legal advice was sought from...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Data Protection Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: I thank the witnesses for coming before us. It is important to acknowledge that the witnesses know more about this issue than we do. I cannot help thinking that the witnesses know more about it than the officials who are drafting this Bill. Have the witnesses had any meetings with those drafting the Bill or have they consulted the witnesses?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Data Protection Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: Last year, Digital Rights Ireland commenced legal proceedings against the Irish State, challenging the independence of the commissioner and alleging that the commissioner did not effectively monitor databases containing personal data that had been created by public bodies. Also the fact that the commissioner is integrated into the Department of Justice and Equality and that many of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Data Protection Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: It is funny. I have heard that before.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Data Protection Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: A report carried out last year by the International Network of Civil Liberties Organisations, INCLO, called Surveillance and Democracy: Chilling tales from around the World, highlights the dangers of secretive international information-sharing agreements between intelligence agencies along with the problem of domestic surveillance. There are reports of people being put on secret fly lists,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Data Protection Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: On that same theme, does the new legislation square with the ongoing health identifiers framework project which aims to have a database in place which will track every Irish citizen through the health service from birth to death? The legislation underpinning the project, Health Identifiers Act 2014, allows for Ministers from various Departments to share data about individuals with the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Data Protection Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: Right.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Data Protection Bill 2017: Discussion (Resumed) (5 Jul 2017)

Mick Wallace: When I asked the Data Protection Commissioner about the information gathered by phone companies, she told me there is no specific provision under the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011 that obliges her office to notify a person about whom a request has been made for access to his or her telecommunications. We have been communicating with the phone company 3. According to a reply we...