Results 3,701-3,720 of 4,608 for speaker:Joe O'Toole

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: Does this apply to part-time workers who work for a certain number of months each year? When they come back into employment after being away for a year they are employed under the same terms of contract. It is not the same contract.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: I know what the Minister of State is saying. It is much more complex than that. We are talking about a contract whereby somebody takes up employment in the Passport Office for example, for three months and returns the following year. Does that person's initial contract identify, relate to and cover the fact that he or she will be employed for three months each year?

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: This is a flaw in the Bill. I have no objection to this but I am trying to establish how it might relate to other factors.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: The Minister of State is well down the chasm and he is swaying in the breeze on this aspect. This is a good idea but I assume the Minister of State recognises that it will have wider application, that the people who have come back into the identical terms and contract of employment they held when they left would also be covered by that section.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: Exactly.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: I accept that and have no argument with it. I know what the Minister of State has in mind but I want to know what it means. I am clear that it has a much wider application than he has just outlined. I am sure what he said is right and I have no objection to it. However, the term "the same contract of employment" is used twice in the Bill. The public service regularly has a contract of...

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: Where are the details in writing about an established custom or practice?

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: The Minister is in the chasm. Is this a flaw in the Bill or a very good part of it?

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: Absolutely.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: As the Minister said, we do not mention rights here, as we do not want to get stuck in the chasm between rights, duties and responsibilities. However, people will return.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: I apologise for cutting across the Senator's point. If people who were in the Passport Office for three months during the peak period last summer were to return this year, would they not be considered to be new entrants?

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: If the Senator were in the Chair, he would rule himself out of order.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: The Minister has not given a clear answer on certain matters. Let us once again use the example of the staff employed seasonally in the Passport Office. Despite what was said by Senator Walsh, I have no objection to these people being looked after. It is quite right that they should be. I am simply trying to understand the implications. It was the Minister who mentioned them as an example. I...

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: Are they currently under contract if they are not in the office at the moment?

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: I have no problem whatever with that.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: I understand all that.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: All those things are quite in order; that is not the issue. The Minister said not five minutes ago that a person re-entering the public service would not have the same contract. This prompted me to ask whether the person returning to employment would have a different contract. If it is the same contract, is the person still under contract? I do not know what goes on in the Passport Office...

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: I do not believe what the Minister is saying. He is making it up as he goes along. It makes no sense at all. I do not think he is deliberately deceiving, simply trying to make the best of it. However, if this applies to the people the Minister is talking about, with all his lovely phrases such as continuation of expectation — he is a credit to his father — why does it come into effect on...

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: I hope nobody is listening to this.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Joe O'Toole: We have established there is a chasm on this and we cannot take it any further. We are left with the words "under the same contract of employment" so we will have to go to another place, which is not in this building, to sort out what is meant. Undoubtedly, somebody in the Minister of State's profession will make a great deal of money from that.