Results 2,681-2,700 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (8 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: 6. To ask the Taoiseach the number of Cabinet sub-committees held in February and March 2014. [19931/14]

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (8 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: I welcome the interpretation of Standing Orders and the possibility to move a little outside the strict remit of the questions asked. That is important in the week that is in it. The reality is that working-class people of my acquaintance in the North on both sides of the community dread the increase in sectarian tensions at this time of year. Young people dread the menace spread,...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (8 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: I am always amazed at how intensely the Irish political establishment courts former President Clinton, and it will probably continue to do so if Hillary Clinton runs for the American presidency. I put it to the Taoiseach that in regard to Northern Ireland Bill Clinton has no insight to offer that will lead us out of the current difficulties. Unfortunately what we are seeing is what some of...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (8 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: 3. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his recent meeting with Mr. Bill Clinton; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19932/14]

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Bank Branch Closures (8 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: 207. To ask the Minister for Finance his views regarding the announcement by Ulster Bank of the closure of a further ten branches here; his plans to meet senior executives in Ulster Bank or Royal Bank of Scotland and if any such meetings are planned; his views on a possible merger with other institutions to form a third force in banking; his views on the call by the Irish Bank Officials...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Health Professions Admission Test (8 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: 251. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on the number of private colleges offering tuition courses in the health professions admission test; and if his Department has made any assessment on the impact this private tuition may be having on the final student cohort entering medicine in universities. [29360/14]

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information Remit (8 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: 333. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will consider extending the freedom of information legislation to cover records that are kept by religious institutions. [29774/14]

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Trade Agreements (8 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: 353. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will report on the talks related to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Trade in Services Agreement; if he will outline the Government's position; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28241/14]

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Housing Assistance Payments Administration (8 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: 517. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the duration of the pilot housing assistant payment schemes in the six chosen local authority areas; and when his Department will extend it to all local authority areas. [29409/14]

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Disabilities Services Funding (8 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: 544. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will reverse the budget cut to the National Deaf Advocacy Service of the Irish Deaf Society; if his attention has been drawn to the levels of social exclusion and difficulties in accessing essential public services that the deaf community face; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29776/14]

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Data Protection (8 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: 618. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she will consider extending data protection legislation to cover records that are kept by religious institutions. [29774/14]

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Human Rights Issues (2 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: 3. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will make representations to the Kazakh Government on the imprisonment of leading human rights lawyer Vadim Kuramshin; and if he will demand the ending of state persecution of Mr. Kuramshin, who has highlighted brutal civil rights transgressions in Kazakhstan. [28359/14]

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Human Rights Issues (2 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: Go raibh maith agat agus gabhaim buíochas leis na Teachtaí eile as sin. I ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to make the strongest possible representations to the Government of Kazakhstan with regard to bringing to a complete end the state persecution of leading Kazakh human rights lawyer Vadim Kuramshin, who was jailed for 12 years on trumped-up...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Human Rights Issues (2 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: I urge the Government to continue to exert pressure in respect of the case of Vadim Kuramshin. He is a very heroic defender of human rights who has been hounded and persecuted by the authoritarian regime in Kazakhstan. He has courageously exposed the horrific regime of brutality which obtains in the country's prisons, in one of which he has suffered ill-treatment. This matter came to a...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Human Rights Issues (2 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: A jury threw out the trumped-up charge of extortion against Mr. Kuramshin in August 2012. In September of that year he gave a speech on human rights abuses in Kazakhstan at the OSCE conference in Warsaw, at which the Tánaiste may have been present. On returning to his country, Mr. Kuramshin was again arrested and sentenced by the court - in respect of the same charge of which the jury...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Human Rights Issues (2 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: 12. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his views on the increase in State security and the workers and human rights abuses that accompany many international sporting events such as the World Cup. [28240/14]

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Iraqi Conflict (2 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: 17. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his position on the political and military situation in Iraq. [28242/14]

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Foreign Conflicts (2 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: 26. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will report on the Government's position on the political and military situation in the Central African Republic; and his views on further intervention by foreign powers in that State. [28243/14]

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Middle East Issues (2 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: 37. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he has made representations to the Israeli Government on the matter of the Israeli Defence Forces operation in the occupied Palestinian territories following the abduction of three young settlers near Hebron; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28239/14]

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: I will be fairly succinct in making some comments following on from our previous discussion. Section 26(1)(b) provides that one of the functions of the NTMA is "to provide advice to any State authority on all aspects of financing, refinancing and insurance of public investment projects to be duly undertaken by means of public private partnership arrangements or within the public sector"....