Results 4,221-4,240 of 6,412 for speaker:Gerald Nash

Seanad: 25th Anniversary of Decriminalisation of Homosexuality: Motion (19 Jun 2018)

Gerald Nash: I, too, want to share in the appreciation extended to our colleagues, Senators David Norris and Jerry Buttimer, of the extraordinary work they have done to promote LGBTI rights in this country. It is on days like this that I think of my colleagues in the parliamentary Labour Party from 2011 to 2016, former Deputies Dominic Hannigan and John Lyons, who made an enormous contribution-----

Seanad: 25th Anniversary of Decriminalisation of Homosexuality: Motion (19 Jun 2018)

Gerald Nash: -----to transforming attitudes in this House and introducing and supporting transformative legislation. It has made our country a better, fairer, more tolerant and more progressive place. I also welcome those who are present in the Public Gallery this evening. Campaigners for LGBTI rights have put their collective and individual shoulders to the wheel for decades to transform this...

Seanad: 25th Anniversary of Decriminalisation of Homosexuality: Motion (19 Jun 2018)

Gerald Nash: This is a day when we can be proud of our parliamentary democracy and I hope it is a day that will live long in the memory. It is a day too that I hope will mark another important turning point in our society and in our politics. It is an important reckoning with our recent history. This is a long overdue and sincerely extended apology from our national Parliament and from those who...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Jun 2018)

Gerald Nash: We will all be very excited to find out exactly what is happening with the boundary report. I agree with what Senator Boyhan said, as it seems to me that a number of people appear to have been briefed on the reality of what we will be facing, or at least those individuals who have a franchise in electing us. I received calls from a number of councillors across the country today requesting...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Jun 2018)

Gerald Nash: First Communion.

Seanad: Community Banking System: Statements (30 May 2018)

Gerald Nash: If one can be found.

Seanad: National Minimum Wage (Removal of Sub-minimum Rates of Pay) Bill 2017: Second Stage (29 May 2018)

Gerald Nash: I am pleased to support this Bill. It is simple and straightforward legislation, which I believe can help to make our workplaces more equal. The statutory minimum floor is the floor beneath which no worker should be allowed to fall. The principle of a legal minimum rate of pay is a critical one and something that must be protected. The establishment of the Low Pay Commission in 2015 was a...

Seanad: National Minimum Wage (Removal of Sub-minimum Rates of Pay) Bill 2017: Second Stage (29 May 2018)

Gerald Nash: Unfortunately Fianna Fáil felt it necessary, on the instructions of those they invited into the country, to slash the rate of the national minimum wage by €1 per hour. Unfortunately, that calls into question Fianna Fáil’s supposed credentials as a social democratic party. Notwithstanding that, I recognise the contribution that Fianna Fáil did make regarding the...

Seanad: Order of Business (16 May 2018)

Gerald Nash: I wish to be associated with the remarks on the great loss of the wonderful contemporary Irish playwright, Tom Murphy. He is a loss to the Irish arts community, Irish culture and the Irish nation. It is the job of a playwright to hold a mirror up to the nation and to give expression to the nation and, indeed, the dispossessed and marginalised in a nation. Tom Murphy did that skilfully and...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Taxi Licences (29 Mar 2018)

Gerald Nash: I raise an important matter concerning the Taxi Regulator and the treatment of the next of kin of deceased taxi licence and plate holders. As the Minister will understand, taxi owners form an integral part of the public transport system. They are largely self-employed and work hard to earn what can only be described as very modest incomes. They comply with the law and pay their taxes and...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Taxi Licences (29 Mar 2018)

Gerald Nash: It is important in order to illustrate the point. This woman has spoken publicly and has no difficulty being referred to in the House. Her husband was a taxi driver for almost 30 years. When the business was deregulated in 2000, he bought his own plate like thousands of others. He worked hard for 17 or 18 years as the owner of that plate and met all of the industry regulations with which...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Taxi Licences (29 Mar 2018)

Gerald Nash: I thank the Minister for his response and I thank you, a Leas-Chathaoirligh, for indulging me in permitting me to mention the two particular cases, with one of which I am especially familiar. I did so merely to illustrate the point and the human cost of this overly bureaucratic system and its impact on people on a regular basis. I tend not to mention individual cases in this House and I...

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Mar 2018)

Gerald Nash: Members will be aware that the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, AGSI, is having its annual conference. Serious concerns have been expressed by that body about the Government's foot dragging over responding to a landmark Council of Europe decision a couple of years ago relating to trade union rights for the AGSI, a right that should and could be very easily applied not just to...

Seanad: An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Mar 2018)

Gerald Nash: Hear, hear.

Seanad: An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Mar 2018)

Gerald Nash: I welcome the Minister back to the House. I thank him for his remarkable contribution at the start of this debate. It really was a powerful statement from him and I know that, personally and politically, he has travelled his own journey in recent years to come to the conclusion he has arrived at in recent times. I want to thank him for that. Of course, we all have a job over the next...

Seanad: An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Mar 2018)

Gerald Nash: It is 20 seconds now.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Feb 2018)

Gerald Nash: I respectfully disagree, and not for the first time, with some of the remarks Senator Leyden made earlier.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Feb 2018)

Gerald Nash: He mentioned that he returned here after, I think, a ten-year hiatus from these Houses. To be frank, I think too much of Senator Ó Clochartaigh to wish that on him, and I mean that in the best-intended way.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Feb 2018)

Gerald Nash: Senator Ó Clochartaigh has made a remarkable contribution to this House during his term. I had the opportunity to get to know Senator Ó Clochartaigh first when I was a Member of the previous Dáil and then probably even better when I became a Minister of State. On many occasions when I was here dealing with issues of industrial relations, pay policy and trying to improve the...

Seanad: Protection of Employment (Measures to Counter False Self-Employment) Bill 2018: Second Stage (28 Feb 2018)

Gerald Nash: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, to the House. Employment policy is at the heart of public policy. There are, of course, core issues to do with pay, such as how do we get weaker growth in take home pay and how do we best ensure wage growth is consistent with sustainable economic growth and economic competitiveness....