Results 3,161-3,180 of 74,100 for speaker:Bernard Durkan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Credit Servicers Directive: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: That is true, but if legislative procedures are put in place - I agree with that - a common template would be required. That would not leave huge variation between the settlements, or lack thereof, as the case may be. What I have discovered through the years is that when a proposition to solve the problem is made by a public representative or a professional insolvency expert, the usual...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Credit Servicers Directive: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I have a lot of it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Credit Servicers Directive: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: Other speakers raised the fact that a certain amount of control is exercised in the lending market by the so-called vulture funds by virtue of the fact that they will offer assistance where it suits them. They are very quick to adapt in situations like that, and not in the ways we would like. The point I wish to emphasise before I conclude is that there is a common trend when I make a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Credit Servicers Directive: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: It is to the advantage of investors.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Credit Servicers Directive: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: Unwilling to impose.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Credit Servicers Directive: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: They did not always work.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cardiovascular Health, Stroke and Heart Attack: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I should mention at the outset that I am a previous smoker. I do not know if it made much difference or not. It is 25 years since I stopped but I do not know. The jury is still out. We will see.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cardiovascular Health, Stroke and Heart Attack: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: We will see. The other issue is examples and warnings and consequent prevention. To what extent can we adapt other well-known marketing principles of attracting attention to a potential disease that might have serious consequences for the public? How do we alert the public, like we did with tuberculosis way back in the fifties, with regard to both cardiovascular heart disease and other...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cardiovascular Health, Stroke and Heart Attack: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: How do we get to the stage where we advertise to create an awareness of being overweight, obesity and so forth? We know the drinks sector and sugar, etc., is a serious contributory factor. How do we convince people who are in that category - some might say I am in that category myself but we will struggle on at this stage - and especially young people who may be in that category of where to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cardiovascular Health, Stroke and Heart Attack: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I think they will, actually, but it has to be convincing. For instance, somebody said to me one time that I look like a candidate for diabetes. That might be, but I am not: I do not have it. There is no set piece that says one person will be in this category and another will be in that category or whatever. We need to get the attention of people who could be overdoing it in any particular...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cardiovascular Health, Stroke and Heart Attack: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I agree, and that is what I am trying to get at. It is to create that urgent awareness and the necessity to address the issue. I will move on to something else. I know Ms O'Shea wants to come in as well, but I want to move into other areas. There is an urgent necessity to be more graphic in the extent to which junk food, sugar or saturated foods create a problem, because they do create...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Cardiovascular Health, Stroke and Heart Attack: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I was disappointed when I heard the statistics on that because I had spent quite an amount of money changing over from a previous open fire, back-boiler system, to a wood-burning stove. The change in cost downwards was huge but somebody then came up with the unhelpful statistic that Mr. Macey has just given us. I now feel like I am wandering in the wilderness, looking for direction and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Credit Servicers Directive: Discussion (13 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I am sure that, like me, other members are dealing with several of cases where loans were sold on. The question I raise with Mr. Honohan is who has the deeds of a property. Obviously, the purchaser will have to have the deeds of the property, otherwise, the entity, whatever it is, will have no proper title when the time comes, such as if and when the property is sold again or it has to be...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: School Accommodation (12 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Cheann Comhairle and I thank her for allowing me to raise this issue again. There is a serious problem throughout north Kildare at the present time. It is welcome, of course, that we have an increasing population and an increase in employment and commercial activity. The significant increase in population impacts on school places. Almost every school and...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: School Accommodation (12 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I thank the Minister of State for his detailed reply, which is much appreciated. It clearly indicates that the Minister of State, the senior Minister and the Department has a knowledge of what the situation is. It is also important to have an up-to-date knowledge and such knowledge will show the most results at this particular time. We have all, as public representatives, tried to ensure...

Ábhair Shaincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Matters (12 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 37 and the name of the Member in each case: Deputy Michael Ring - To discuss the investigations into the staff and CEO of Inland Fisheries Ireland. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor - To discuss the timeline for the opening of the mother and baby redress scheme and making of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: An Garda Síochána (12 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: There is one minute and seven seconds remaining. We will do our best.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Climate Change Negotiations (12 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: Can the Taoiseach say whether it was obvious that the countries producing fossil fuel energy are not serious about the need for reductions, on the one hand, and the extent to which the consumer countries - like this country and other European countries - are prepared to make the alternatives available in the shortest possible time, on the other? Postponing it to some mid-point in the future...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Climate Change Negotiations (12 Dec 2023)

Bernard Durkan: 22. To ask the Taoiseach to report on his recent attendance at COP28. [53525/23]