Results 5,821-5,840 of 74,100 for speaker:Bernard Durkan

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: After-School Support Services (23 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: 316. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the ongoing efforts, if any, to provide afterschool services given the necessity for both parents to remain in employment due to high mortgages; if it is anticipated that this issue is being provided for in a meaningful way; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14594/23]

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Citizenship Applications (23 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: 328. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 652 of 18 October 2022, the procedure to be followed to achieve citizenship in the case of a person (details supplied); if some indication might be given to the procedure to be followed, if other than the usual; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14611/23]

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (22 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: The appalling and degrading treatment of women who are mothers and their children continues in the family law courts with such vigour and determination that one would be led to believe it is the intention that this can and will continue, which it cannot. It requires now a preliminary inquiry to determine the extent of the problem and the length of time it is expected to continue when it is...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Discussion (22 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: Does the Chair not know I am always brief? I agree entirely with the sentiments expressed by Deputy Michael Healy-Rae. As public representatives, we have to deal with the situation on the ground all the time. That is reality. The banking system must be alert to and aware of the need to respond quickly to the people about whom Deputy Healy-Rae has spoken. The local authorities also need...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Discussion (22 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I will return to that. We must be awfully careful about what we do with the rainy day fund. People asked in recent years why we do not spend the rainy day fund because they thought it was raining at the time. It turns out it was not raining then. As we now know, the rapidity with which things can happen in the financial sector is so serious that we do not know what we might need in the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Discussion (22 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I welcome our visitors. I agree in general with the sentiments Mr. Madouros has expressed. The emphasis has to be on stability. If the international financial system identifies a hint of instability in any country then things will fall rapidly and what is a healthy position today could become a very unhealthy position tomorrow. I am minded of the previous financial crisis when things...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Discussion (22 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: Following what Deputy Healy-Rae had to say, there is one issue in this country that is causing a lot of anxiety to the younger half of the population. Remember we have an ageing population and a younger population. They are supposed to balance each other out in terms of the degree to which we rely on the younger population to fund the future and the liability of people of my age. The...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Discussion (22 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: It has been a very useful conversation. There is one aspect I wish to refer to that relates to the construction industry and the building of houses, given that the building of houses is absolutely necessary. The annual house building rates are way beyond anything we have achieved so far. Is it true that the construction sector, developers and builders, are relying on investment funds to...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Discussion (22 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I just wonder how the Central Bank can control, oversee and influence what is happening in that area if a combination of lenders are involved and given they may be affected in one way or another by actions or by developments in the industry outside the jurisdiction. This whole housing issue is a national emergency. We need to do something in a very great hurry. As Deputy Healy-Rae has...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Discussion (22 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: Has anybody envisaged what might happen in the event of there being a really accelerated house building programme and the effect that might have, or is feared to have, on the value of houses already sold or available for sale, which are the new building schemes? For instance, if a builder or developer has a scheme of houses built and the national urgency is to provide more houses, that must...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Discussion (22 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I am going to go straight home after this. I am aware of quite a number of housing developments all over the region that are completed for the last six months and are ready for occupation. Why are they not being occupied?

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Discussion (22 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I will finish with that one because I have a question down this week to ascertain where those developments are going and what we are waiting for, so we will see. I will know the answer tomorrow, please God. I thank the Chair for allowing me to interject so often and our visitors for their patient replies.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Stability Programme Update: Discussion (22 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I have one last question, Chair.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Engagement with Chief Executive Officer (22 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I welcome Mr. Gloster and wish him well for the future. Without doubt, he has a mammoth task ahead. However, there will also be opportunities. Mr. Gloster indicated that he is prepared to meet the challenges and overcome the obstacles that exist in so far as that can be done. I want to know, if possible, the degree to which Mr. Gloster has identified the main issues that afflict the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Engagement with Chief Executive Officer (22 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: A number of issues have repeatedly arisen at meetings of this committee over the past number of years. I refer, for example, to overcrowding and a lack of capacity in the south west, particularly Limerick. Does Mr. Gloster have in mind a short-term plan that will deal with the situation in a way which will ensure that it will not have to be dealt with again next year or the year after? I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Engagement with Chief Executive Officer (22 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: One of the things I have noticed over the years relates to the building programme. We have certain elements of the building programme, including the children's hospital and the new national maternity hospital, for which I presume plans are ongoing at pace. I was told something a number of years ago regarding the very current issue of housing. I went to Ministers, Secretaries General and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Engagement with Chief Executive Officer (22 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I come from the generation that was led to believe many years ago that we had far too many hospital beds and hospitals and too much space in hospitals. We argued against this theory at the time for very good reasons which are now obvious to everybody. I am delighted to hear Mr. Gloster's vision for the future in this regard. As a priority, it would be helpful if he were to go down through...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Engagement with Chief Executive Officer (22 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: It is, as my colleague was saying a few minutes ago, the year after.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Engagement with Chief Executive Officer (22 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: I know, but it is after the event that it is coming up again. It is urgently needed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Executive: Engagement with Chief Executive Officer (22 Mar 2023)

Bernard Durkan: The rest of the facilities are urgently needed. Mr. Gloster knows that. I know that. The people who are the potential patients of that hospital know that as well. I will make another point. I had need to access emergency treatment recently and I was really impressed with the treatment in a public hospital. I drove in and was attended to - not immediately, as there were between 20 and...