Results 3,901-3,920 of 6,307 for speaker:Gerald Nash

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

Gerald Nash: Senator Boyhan for President.

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Institutes of Technology (13 Nov 2019)

Gerald Nash: I felt compelled to raise this very serious issue with the Minister of State, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, given the circumstances I will address in my contribution. It is fair to say that Dundalk Institute of Technology is at a very serious crossroads. The road it takes over the next few weeks and months will determine its prospects and those of the north east for generations to come. In...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Institutes of Technology (13 Nov 2019)

Gerald Nash: With respect, that is what the Minister of State has been briefed on but the reality on the ground is something different. We are not talking about a bunch of revolutionary firebrands who are putting themselves first and trying to take industrial action to simply appeal for better terms and conditions and so on. This is a bigger issue than Dundalk Institute of Technology itself. This is...

Seanad: Illegal Drugs: Motion (13 Nov 2019)

Gerald Nash: I was looking around wondering where they were. I welcome them too. I now have the unenviable task of following in the footsteps of Senator Ruane, who is an acknowledged expert in this area. There is very little that she has remarked upon that I would take issue with. As the Minister of State knows only too well, the community I represent and in which I am proud to live and have grown up...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Gerald Nash: This is an extraordinary state of affairs. Like Deputy Joan Collins, I was anxious to extend an invitation to Mr. McMahon, given his unrivalled and exceptional experience of dealing with such issues on the ground. Far too often, we do not hear from people such as him who have direct experience. The committee, not least in its work in recent years, has shown a willingness and interest in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Gerald Nash: It is an important point. I am glad he made reference to the John Grace Fried Chicken Limited case. Committee members will be aware that the case led to the destruction of the then joint labour committee and employment regulation order system, and that the architecture has since been reformed. A clear point that emerged from the case informed the new legislation that governs the joint...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Gerald Nash: Not the Social Welfare Appeals Office.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Gerald Nash: Not the Labour Court, not the Workplace Relations Commission, not the Revenue Commissioners, but the Oireachtas, the Parliament.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Gerald Nash: What Mr. McMahon has outlined is dangerous.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Gerald Nash: An arm of the State has decided not just to identify a precedential case to inform its decisions but to be selective in doing so.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Gerald Nash: The next step I am interested in taking is to hear from the chief appeals officer. I believe we have not done so in the context of our investigations of the practice of bogus self-employment. The chief appeals officer in the Department should be afforded the right, in the interests of natural justice, to respond to what Mr. McMahon stated. The State is currently dealing with an important...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Gerald Nash: Yes, but there are more people involved in the case before us.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Gerald Nash: It is wholesale misclassification of the employment status of workers. It affects not just the rights and entitlements of workers but, as Mr. McMahon noted, also compliant businesses that go about their business properly. It queers the pitch for decent employers, facilitates bad operators and goes against the interests of the decent economic model we all support. The one aspect about which...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Gerald Nash: We need clear definitions in primary law in order that employers cannot simply opt out of the legislative framework and decide, with the facilitation of an arm of the State, to misclassify the status of their workers. It should be a matter of law, plain and simple. It should be the case that someone either is an employee or is self-employed, as a matter of primary law. If that was the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Gerald Nash: Yes, of course.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Gerald Nash: It was quite a number of years ago.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Gerald Nash: Every Oireachtas Member and citizen needs to be aware there is one law-making body in the Republic under the Constitution.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Gerald Nash: Oireachtas Éireann.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Gerald Nash: It exploits a lacuna in the law. My view, of which Mr. McMahon will be aware, is that fundamental legislative change is needed to make employment status a clear issue of primary law. There has been too much exploitation. The State has failed individuals, workers and decent, compliant businesses. We hope to get to the point where there is legislative change but I will not hold my breath...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Bogus Self-Employment: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2019)

Gerald Nash: They are under direct control.