Results 28,941-28,960 of 34,778 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: We are now in Report Stage.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: I thank the Minister. I will say what I have to say now. The earlier amendments in this grouping are not a big issue. I will speak about the later amendments. This is an unusual one. Maybe the Chair can help me in this regard. We are now on Report Stage. I have spoken on some of my amendments in this group. Has the Minister spoken on every one of his amendments?

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: He has. That is fine.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: Okay. I will return to the issue I am raising in amendments Nos. 19 and 20.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: It seems to me that Schedule 3 excludes the commercial semi-State bodies from everything we are talking about here today. I thought that part of the reason for these redeployment, recruitment and appointment moves is to open the possibility of staff moving between these bodies and the rest of the public service. Perhaps that is not the case. If it is the case, we should be including them...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: I will make a few points just to conclude this line of approach. As a highly practical person, I will make two real and practical suggestions that I ask the Minister and the Department to take on board. On the issue of pregnancy-related illness, a system is in place at present whereby a person who is on half pay and has a pregnancy-related illness will not drop to a rehabilitative rate....

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: No, the Minister should bear with me. At present, my understanding is that in the case of a person on half pay who is ill during pregnancy, whose illness is related to the pregnancy and who, under the current regime, exhausts her full 12 months, there is an arrangement in place whereby she will not drop below that rate during her pregnancy. I believe the arrangement is that-----

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: Exactly. In other words, a person who is on half pay during her pregnancy and the clock runs out on her, she will not drop below that. The cost of doing this would not be all that much, that is, someone who commences her pregnancy-related illness on full pay should not be dropped to the half-pay rate during that particular specific illness. It might be for only two or three months or a...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: Okay.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: I asked about social welfare payments.

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: It will require employers to liaise with the Department of Social Protection in regard to each individual's entitlement. I accept that currently when a person goes onto half pay this is automatically calculated on a computer and that as no two situations will be the same, depending on the family situation, this will be difficult to deal with. However, as I stated earlier this measure will...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: I look forward to working our way through this hybrid of Committee Stage and Report Stage. I hope the Chair will bear with us as it is a little confusing. First, we have the Bill which has been passed by the Seanad. Then there are the proposed amendments to the Bill, and the green sheet of paper is what would normally be in front of us. Subsequently, however, we received the first...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: I am trying to multi-task. The substantive amendment on sick leave runs to approximately six pages and I had to go through that to find the single paragraph which is different in the Minister's substitute amendment from the Minister's amendment on the green list. It inserts a new subsection (9) which deals with making the regulations. I had tabled an amendment providing that these matters...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: I presume that if the Minister had taken action and commenced some procedure on the basis of the presumption that the statutory instrument would not be annulled by the Houses and it happened to be annulled, this means that what was done will not be undone. I think that is what it means in English, so we will not argue about it. It is unlikely to happen anyway. We come now to the...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: I will explain. The reason I raise this is the complicated cases I encounter in my constituency clinic, and I am speaking from personal experience of dealing with those cases. Where I believe this measure discriminates against women is at the jump from full pay after three months to half pay. The Minister has a mechanism in place for people who are going onto the rehabilitative arrangement...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments)(Amendment) Bill 2013: Instruction to Committee (resumed) (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: I accept that.

Order of Business (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: In view of the call by many members of both Government parties to give legislative effect to the planning rules for wind turbines and the document issued by the Minister, is there a timescale for legislation to give effect to those guidelines for wind turbines? There has been much comment about proposals by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in regard to renting national...

Leaders' Questions (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: How many parties was the Tánaiste in? How many parties did he change from? Was it five or six?

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Instruction to Committee (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: Women in the public sector are being attacked in that some of these measures will not impact on male workers. We all know that there are far more women employed at the lower pay grade rate in the public sector. The measures being introduced will have a greater impact on people on lower incomes. This legislation has not been gender proofed. The Minister would have noticed this had there...

Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Instruction to Committee (12 Dec 2013)

Seán Fleming: I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion which is to introduce a new sick leave scheme in the public service. The scheme is being included in the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointment) (Amendment) Bill 2013. Everybody should accept that the cost of sick leave is a major issue for the Irish taxpayer. The cost of sick leave in the public service is higher than in...