Results 3,401-3,420 of 4,168 for speaker:Susan O'Keeffe

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Protocol Issues: Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (12 Feb 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: To Mr. O'Brien's knowledge, have other police ombudsman offices ever been bugged? Does this go with the territory?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Security and Protocol Issues: Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (12 Feb 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: In his presentation Mr. O'Brien made reference to his categorical recollection of the reasons for the choice of Verrimus. Are we to understand from this that there is no written evidence of his choice at the time? Did he write down his reason at the time or is it a memory? He has stated his recollection is at odds with the documentation of Verrimus. Does he also have documentation or is...

Seanad: Public Sector Reform: Statements (11 Feb 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: Will the further strengthening of the ethical framework for officeholders and public servants be part of the new Civil Service accountability programme? I cannot see it in the timeline but I know the Minister is committed to it. In what guise will it come? The Minister spoke about the preparation for universal health insurance. Again, the White Paper is promised for early 2014. Are we on...

Seanad: Public Sector Reform: Statements (11 Feb 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: I welcome the Minister back to the House; he is a regular visitor. Like him, I value public service enormously. There is nothing more important in a country than people working in the common good and setting aside the fact that they may achieve a certain level of earnings and no more. It is not like the private sector; it is a very particular job and important that the Minister has devoted...

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Feb 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: I share the concerns others have raised at the apparent bugging of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission’s, GSOC, office. It has a serious role to play. If anyone has deliberately set out to cause damage to its activity then they will have questions to answer and must be held accountable. How we do that is a matter of debate in this House and elsewhere. I am a member of...

Seanad: Homelessness Strategy: Motion (5 Feb 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: I welcome the Minister of State. I was entertained by Senator Ó Domhnaill's use of the figure of 98,000. He clearly remembers a time when Fianna Fáil was in power.

Seanad: Homelessness Strategy: Motion (5 Feb 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: Perhaps the Senator will allow me to proceed. This is not laughing matter.

Seanad: Homelessness Strategy: Motion (5 Feb 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: I am certainly not laughing. In 2011, when Fianna Fáil left office after a number of years in power, the figure for those who were homeless stood at 98,000. The current figure of 89,000 remains unacceptably high but at least it is going down. The word self-congratulatory was in respect of Senator Hayden. I do not know any other Senator who has spent so much of her time and...

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Feb 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: On World Cancer Day and despite all the challenges, I wish to pay tribute to the work of safefood and RTE who through the "Operation Transformation" programme in recent years have brought to life the idea of living and eating more healthily. It is a great community-based activity which in the true sense of public education encourages us to have better eating habits and to take more exercise....

Seanad: Humanitarian Situation in Syria, South Sudan and Central African Republic: Statements (30 Jan 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: I welcome the Minister of State. As others have said, his commitment to this work is not in question. At a time like this when there seems so little any of us can do in a crisis, particularly the crisis in Syria, which is so alarming and so enormous, at least Ireland is giving the aid and support it can. While €26 million is small in world terms, it is a significant amount for this...

Seanad: Freedom of Information Act 1997 (Prescribed Bodies) Regulations 2014: Motion (29 Jan 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: The record will show the Minister knew and understood that Irish Water should be included in the freedom of information legislation. Now, at the end of January we are including it. Evidently, the Senator does not know much about how government works if he thinks it is going to be forced to introduce such legislation because of a conversation on the radio. Irish Water was always going to be...

Seanad: Freedom of Information Act 1997 (Prescribed Bodies) Regulations 2014: Motion (29 Jan 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: I welcome the Minister, who has been dedicated and has come to this House himself every time we discuss issues of reform, as promised in the programme for Government. That reform, as the Minister and others have said, is needed in order to restore public confidence in politics and in Government. I would laugh - but laughing is probably not appropriate - at the mere idea ---

Seanad: Freedom of Information Act 1997 (Prescribed Bodies) Regulations 2014: Motion (29 Jan 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: --- of a member of Fianna Fáil describing the Minister as having his tail between his legs when it was a Fianna Fáil Government which introduced the constraints to the Freedom of Information Act in 2003, which this Government has overturned, as Senator Byrne well knows. I am not going to cite chapter and verse ---

Seanad: Freedom of Information Act 1997 (Prescribed Bodies) Regulations 2014: Motion (29 Jan 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: If the Senator would allow me to finish, I will tell him. Of course, the Senator also knows that the reform of the freedom of information legislation is still in train. The Bill is only on Report Stage at the moment. The Minister is still progressing that legislation through the House. The Minister is being asked to do something he cannot do.

Seanad: Order of Business (29 Jan 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: I pay my respects to the late Ted Nealon. There are many in the House who would have known him as a former Deputy for Sligo-Leitrim. I extend my condolences to his family. He was a journalist, a footballer and a politician who will be missed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (22 Jan 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: I support Senator Ó Clochartaigh's suggestion. There is a case to answer, as other jurisdictions manage to equality proof their budgets. There may be a time constraint, but where there is a will, there is a way. The idea that we would exclude the ESRI and Equality Authority from having a role in the budget merits our further examination. I would like the petitioner to attend to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (22 Jan 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: The petitioner had a valid thought in her head, namely, to make Ireland a more welcoming place for foreign drivers. However, the matter of road safety will always be the determining factor. In this matter, the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport has stated that it is not a question of which side of the road one drives on, but of whether other countries' driving licence standards are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (22 Jan 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: Yes. People generally believe that the left-hand side issue is the only reason, but that is not the case. For example, many authorities issue licences in the US. We should give a coherent explanation to the petitioner, whose purpose in raising this matter was valid.

Seanad: Common Agricultural Policy and Rural Development Programme: Statements (22 Jan 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: I propose an amendment to the Order of Business that we be allowed to continue this debate and that the Minister reply no later than 3.35 p.m.

Seanad: Common Agricultural Policy and Rural Development Programme: Statements (22 Jan 2014)

Susan O'Keeffe: I welcome the Minister to the House. Credit is due to him and his officials for a huge body of work done over the last few months. A person who is under the age of 40, lives on an island and owns sheep is probably very happy indeed, because such a person will qualify for all manner of things. I wish to concentrate most of my remarks on the rural development side. The Minister has been in...