Results 4,441-4,460 of 6,623 for speaker:Gerald Nash

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....

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

Gerald Nash: I thank the Minister. We are on the same page in our mutual determination to deal with issues surrounding precarious work, making sure work pays and that people's dignity in the workplace is not only respected but also properly vindicated. I accept, as does the Labour Party, that we do not have a monopoly of wisdom. Therefore, we will be pleased to work with the Minister and her officials...

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

Gerald Nash: We know this from our day-to-day work and various commentary. It is important that people have their employment status determined in an efficacious way. I mean no disrespect to the Department's scope section, but that is not happening in a timely and efficient way. People have contacted me in recent weeks who claim to have worked with the scope section for a number of years to get...

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

Gerald Nash: Next Tuesday.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Public Services Card: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2018)

Gerald Nash: We will do our best.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Public Services Card: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2018)

Gerald Nash: I refer to the cost of the verification process in the Department. I have obtained information from the Mirroron foot of a freedom of information request on the response from the Department to a journalist last November. It stated the initial costs associated with producing the public services card were €18.284 million, ex-VAT, and that a further €1.5 million in costs were...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Public Services Card: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2018)

Gerald Nash: I accept what Mr. Duggan is saying, that he never accepted that it was a requirement but he was obligated to do so because of the intervention of the Data Protection Commissioner. It appears to me, however, to be an absolute waste of the Department's resources and staff time for the reasons I outlined earlier. Nobody's card was invalidated because he or she did not contact the Department so...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Public Services Card: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2018)

Gerald Nash: I raised the prospect in my earlier contribution about a number of people who are walking around with the wrong card in their pocket. It may happen. There is no system that I am aware of that can provide 100% assurance and reliability that the card would get to everybody safely. Has the Department carried out any risk analysis? Has everybody who was due to receive a card received the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Public Services Card: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Feb 2018)

Gerald Nash: I asked a question about the reliability of the process, in other words, that all cards issued by the Department are correctly held by those who are supposed to have them. Has the Department engaged in a process to ensure that is the case? I accept that there will never be 100% reliability for any system. Sometimes cards may be sent out incorrectly and people may not return them. That is...

Seanad: Versatis Medicated Plasters: Statements (21 Feb 2018)

Gerald Nash: It is important we debate this issue of enormous public importance and concern. I welcome to the Visitors Gallery those who are affected by the denial of the opportunity to use Versatis in the future, as well as those who represent those experiencing chronic pain as a result of several conditions. I thank them for speaking out individually and collectively to raise public awareness of this...