Results 3,901-3,920 of 4,168 for speaker:Susan O'Keeffe

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received: P00029/12, P00033/12, P00038/12 and P00053/12 (17 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has stated that it is his intention to extend the Ombudsman's remit to all public bodies. The Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2008 was before the Seanad today and it will come to this committee. Perhaps it would be appropriate to have that discussion in this committee as it applies specifically to this petition. It is something that would have been...

Seanad: Alcohol Consumption: Statements (Resumed) (17 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Alex White, for being present and in particular for his pledge to bring a concrete set of proposals to Government in the near future. That is very welcome. I also welcome the work done by the steering group, in particular the work done by the former Minister of State, Deputy Shortall. In his summary the Minister of State said that ambivalence is now...

Seanad: Alcohol Consumption: Statements (Resumed) (17 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: I propose, given the Minister of State is coming back, that Senator Moran might have her time back. I would be happy to wait until the Minister of State returns.

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: I join others in asking the Leader for a debate on prisons, in light of the report on St. Patrick's Institution and ask, in particular, that it be a debate about young people and about how we treat them and take care of them when they break the law. Do we treat them, as it appears from the statement by the Ombudsman for Children, as people who have broken the law, or as people who need...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Review of Food Harvest 2020 Strategy: Discussion (Resumed) with Irish Dairy Board and Bord Bia (16 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: I thank our guests for their continued efforts and the presentation they have made to the joint committee. I appreciate that it was only possible for them to provide a condensed amount of information on the activities in which Bord Bia was involved. In the context of the sustainability charter, are our guests satisfied that the targets they have set are appropriate? Do they expect these...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Review of Food Harvest 2020 Strategy: Discussion (Resumed) with Irish Dairy Board and Bord Bia (16 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: Is Mr. Condon saying that his situation is contingent on their investment?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Review of Food Harvest 2020 Strategy: Discussion (Resumed) with Irish Dairy Board and Bord Bia (16 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: What percentage of the Irish Dairy Board’s unbelievable turnover does the company spend on research and development?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Review of Food Harvest 2020 Strategy: Discussion (Resumed) with Irish Dairy Board and Bord Bia (16 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: Could Mr. O’Flynn indicate what is spent on market research?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Review of Food Harvest 2020 Strategy: Discussion (Resumed) with Irish Dairy Board and Bord Bia (16 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: Is it something the board has discussed, spent any money on or considered, apart from as small talk among themselves? Has research been carried out to suggest that it is a big stretch?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Review of Food Harvest 2020 Strategy: Discussion (Resumed) with Irish Dairy Board and Bord Bia (16 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: Is it not something the Irish Dairy Board would want to protect, given that meat is not the business of the board? That was never the case and no one asked the board to become involved in it. Is it a case of protection or-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Review of Food Harvest 2020 Strategy: Discussion (Resumed) with Irish Dairy Board and Bord Bia (16 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: Could the board use that as a vehicle to push the Irish product in with other products?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Review of Food Harvest 2020 Strategy: Discussion (Resumed) with Irish Dairy Board and Bord Bia (16 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: I appreciate there were a lot of questions but I would like to come back to Mr. Buckley briefly. In regard to that last question, given what we wanted to tease out with him was how to arrive at the challenges and commitments of Food Harvest 2020, I would like to hear a bit more. If he is saying the Irish Dairy Board is on target to deliver but there is actually a big "but", maybe we should...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Review of Food Harvest 2020 Strategy: Discussion (Resumed) with Irish Dairy Board and Bord Bia (16 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: I thank the delegates for their presentation and continued work. They say in their summary that the board is on target to deliver on its commitments. Are they on target to delivering on them, regardless of what is mentioned in the previous box in which it is stated it needs various things to be done? Mr. Buckley mentioned the provision of support for investment in processing. Is that a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received: P00027/12, P00030/12 and P00032/12 (10 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: I take it the petitioner knows the petition is still with us.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received: P00027/12, P00030/12 and P00032/12 (10 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: I second those comments and thank the people behind the scenes who are doing the hard work. It is extremely difficult to get to the bottom of some of these matters. They appear simple but when they start unravelling, the process can get very complicated. It is imperative that we have more assistance or we risk hitting a wall in perhaps two months. Returned correspondence will come on top...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Office of the Ombudsman Annual Report 2011: Discussion with the Ombudsman (10 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: Non-flathulach.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Office of the Ombudsman Annual Report 2011: Discussion with the Ombudsman (10 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: To sum up, the Ombudsman is in a half-way house. She is neither terribly positive nor dreadfully negative at this point, as it is too soon to say. While draft principles might be necessary, she probably has an opinion as to how they will play out.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Office of the Ombudsman Annual Report 2011: Discussion with the Ombudsman (10 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: I would welcome the committee's engagement on those principles.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Office of the Ombudsman Annual Report 2011: Discussion with the Ombudsman (10 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: Would a debate on the guidelines be of any assistance in their drafting? We could invite the Departments to debate the issues.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Office of the Ombudsman Annual Report 2011: Discussion with the Ombudsman (10 Oct 2012)

Susan O'Keeffe: Based on the Ombudsman's comments on the annual report she is decrying four issues, which are: fairness for people who applied to schemes which have been abolished and who got caught in the system; the notion of achieving savings by stealth and people not knowing this; the notion of discretion being used and changed; and the introduction of a prioritisation system which is either formal or...