Results 2,721-2,740 of 8,978 for speaker:Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

Seanad: Finance Bill 2019: Committee Stage (3 Dec 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: We support a second home tax. That is another distortion of the truth.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2019: Committee Stage (3 Dec 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Hear, hear. That is the point.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2019: Committee Stage (3 Dec 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: The Minister of State spoke about hoteliers and the hospitality sector. In Donegal and rural areas throughout the west of Ireland, the sector the Minister of State would claim to champion and laud is outraged that the Government has increased its rate of VAT from 9.5% to 13.5%. The Government is treating a hotel in the top of Donegal or the west of Mayo the same as a hotel in Dublin. It...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Special Educational Needs (27 Nov 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: In February this year, I raised with the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, the funding of Inishowen Children's Autism Related Education, ICARE, which serves the Inishowen area. The organisation in question works with more than 100 families, some of which have two or three children who are on the autism spectrum. Even though it is based in Buncrana, it serves the north Inishowen...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Special Educational Needs (27 Nov 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: We have a serious problem here. The person in the HSE or elsewhere in the health service who drafted the Minister of State's response has his or her numbers badly wrong. I appeal to the Minister of State to sort this out. A senior official in the Department of Health needs to speak to the person who drafted the response to ask him or her why it is suggested that ICARE has applied for...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Special Educational Needs (27 Nov 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I would like to clarify that-----

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Special Educational Needs (27 Nov 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Will I get a response?

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Special Educational Needs (27 Nov 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: That is fine. The Minister of State will respond to me with a clarification of these figures.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (21 Nov 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: The recruitment embargo is having a profound effect across the health service from acute hospitals to community hospitals and down to home care packages. Anybody who is a public representative will know the impact this has had, having being obliged to engage with the HSE and to listen to the challenges faced by families is having on them. This is crazy stuff. We must remember that...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Nov 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I wish to raise an important issue. Thousands of families in Donegal are affected by defective mica-affected concrete blocks. This has devastated them. We welcome the fact that a scheme administered by Donegal County Council will be operational soon to help the families make their homes safe. Unlike with the pyrite redress scheme, however, families in Donegal have been required to provide...

Seanad: Inquiry into the Death of Shane O'Farrell: Statements (20 Nov 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I met Ms Lucia O'Farrell and her husband, James, when I was Sinn Féin spokesperson on justice many years ago. I will never forget that meeting. As a long-standing Deputy, the Minister for Justice and Equality will appreciate that some meetings with families that have been through unspeakable grief are harrowing. My memory of that meeting is that the family had been destroyed by...

Seanad: Inquiry into the Death of Shane O'Farrell: Statements (20 Nov 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: They will have little choice.

Seanad: Inquiry into the Death of Shane O'Farrell: Statements (20 Nov 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: The Minister interrupted Senator Gallagher and that is on the record.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill: Discussion (13 Nov 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I want to go back to the issue of seasonal employment permits. Ms Dunne went some distance in assuring me when she spoke about an indicative wage, which I assume would be above the minimum wage, and that the Department would look at transport, accommodation and so on. That is encouraging. I assume the Department will engage with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in this regard. I accept...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill: Discussion (13 Nov 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Would that be renewable yearly?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill: Discussion (13 Nov 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: With regard to the labour market needs test, the review recommended that the duration of the test would be extended to four weeks and that it would be amended to reflect modern advertising methods. I absolutely accept the rationale for these changes. I believe this would apply to the more highly skilled end of things. The Department has laid out some criteria already in that regard. Ms...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill: Discussion (13 Nov 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: That is fine. I am reassured with what the Department is doing there, and I am happy with that.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (6 Nov 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I raise a matter of serious importance. In June 2018, the Dáil passed a motion calling for a public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of Shane O'Farrell in Monaghan in August 2011. This House did the same in February 2019. Many of us in these Houses have met the devastated family of Shane O'Farrell and have learned about the shocking set of circumstances and failure...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (6 Nov 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Get your retaliation in first.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (6 Nov 2019)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: On a point of order, I agree entirely with what Senator McDowell said there. The Leas-Chathaoirleach was responsible for an excellent report on criminality in the Border regions, so he knows more about this subject than most.