Results 7,501-7,520 of 8,245 for speaker:Bríd Smith

Written Answers — Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Post Office Network (29 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: 472. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht her plans to safeguard the position and operation of the post office network and especially rural post offices; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32207/16]

Topical Issue Debate: Mortgage Lending (24 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: The Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, welcomed the changes proposed by the Central Bank and indicated they will make it easier for first-time buyers to obtain a loan that will suit their needs. Some people may be able to borrow enough to get a roof over their heads but it will be at a price set by developers and one at which they believe it will yield a decent profit margin. Various...

Topical Issue Debate: Mortgage Lending (24 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: The change in the first-time buyer's rebate had one aim and one aim only, namely, to drive up the price of property and homes. The entire Government policy to deal with the housing crisis has been about increasing prices. The perverse logic is that only the market can supply houses and, if it is not supplying them, we must ensure we make it worth their while to do so. We give tax breaks to...

Social Welfare Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: I thank the Minister. It was very helpful. I take Deputy John Curran's point about many different categories of people who may have returned to education, etc., being affected. However, I am making a specific argument about how women, or people who left the workplace to make a home after 1994 compared to before 1994. This difference is important in my approach to the issue. I appreciate...

Social Welfare Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: There is only one of him. There are loads of us.

Social Welfare Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: There was one "Níl" over there and a load of "Tás" over here. How do you make that out?

Social Welfare Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: Exactly.

Social Welfare Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: Therefore, it should be seen as an unemployment benefit, with the compensation being seen as something separate. We are arguing that the benefit paid by the State should be retrieved by it from the employer because it was the employer that forced the person out of work.

Social Welfare Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: A double penalty on the employer.

Social Welfare Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: I move amendment No. 7:In page 14, between lines 21 and 22, to insert the following:“27. Three months from the passing of this Act, the Minister shall lay a report before the Dáil on the matter of extending the Homemaker Scheme contribution years that can be disregarded for the purposes of determining the yearly average of claimants who raised families in the years prior to April...

Social Welfare Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: No, it would not.

Social Welfare Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: I cannot understand why the Minister is framing the amendment in terms of double compensation. If somebody is unfairly dismissed or claims unfair dismissal, he or she is out of a job and claims a benefits to which he or she is entitled and for which he or she has paid into the system. The waiting period may be two years, but there was a time when a person could be waiting three or four...

Social Welfare Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (24 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: I support the amendment. An employer who is found guilty of unfairly dismissing an employee has broken the law. There is legislation in this area in the Unfair Dismissals Act. There can be a very long wait of up to five years to have one's case for unfair dismissal heard. If the employer is found after that time to have been in breach of the law, it is only right and fair that any costs...

Business of Dáil (24 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: I understand it was circulated at 11.40 a.m. this morning.

Business of Dáil (24 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: That is not good enough because I am a member of the Business Committee and I was unaware that this was coming up, so I could not tell the people in my group or, indeed, Deputies beyond it. This is one of the most fundamental and central issues relating to what has been happening in this Dáil since we got elected. This is really what one would call pulling a fast one and it is not...

Business of Dáil (24 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: The Ceann Comhairle is making my case.

Business of Dáil (24 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: The Ceann Comhairle will confirm that I left this room and came back in to ask him. I told him that Martina Fitzgerald from RTE had tweeted that this was coming up-----

Business of Dáil (24 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: -----and that I was confused. I did not really understand. When Deputy Regina Doherty spoke at the Business Committee this morning and said she was raising this issue, we were in the middle of discussing what is coming up next week. In my naivety and "brand newness", I understood that this was coming up next week. Therefore, I think it is objectionable to pull a fast one by issuing this...

Business of Dáil (24 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: I did not say that all my colleagues here-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Legalisation of Medicinal Cannabis: Discussion (24 Nov 2016)

Bríd Smith: When Dr. Doherty speaks about scientific evidence, is saying that scientific evidence does not exist that the drug works. Is that correct?