Results 8,641-8,660 of 18,459 for speaker:Brendan Smith

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Departmental Staff Training (26 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: 136. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will provide, in tabular form, the language courses available to the staff of his Department; the number of staff members enrolled in these courses since March 2011 and in what language; if he will further provide in tabular form the language qualifications currently held by the Department of Foreign Affairs and...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Departmental Staff Training (26 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: 137. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if his Department has a strategy to improve the linguistic ability of the staff of his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50289/13]

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Human Rights Issues (26 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: 138. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will outline Ireland's position in relation to the EU's Eastern Partnership summit; his views on whether there will be substantial progress in the area of human rights between the attending countries and the European Union; if he will raise the case of the jailed Ukrainian opposition leader, Yulia Tymoshenko at...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Peace and Reconciliation Programme (26 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: 301. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform following on the recent conclusion of the multi-annual financial framework in the European Parliament, the level of funding that will be provided by the Government towards the Peace IV programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50807/13]

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: National Monuments (26 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: 302. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the funding that will be provided in 2014 in respect of a project (details supplied) in County Cavan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50808/13]

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Climate Change Policy (26 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: 449. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will outline Ireland's position in the negotiations being conducted at the Warsaw climate change conference; if he is concerned by the recent decisions of the governments of Australia, Japan and Canada to downgrade their efforts to combat climate change; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50290/13]

Topical Issue Debate: Northern Ireland Issues (21 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: I thank the Minister of Stage for his reply. It is very clear to all of us that dealing with the past must be victim centred. Abandoning justice for victims would be an abdication of our moral and civic responsibility to those who endured during the grim days. It would be a betrayal of our duty to the men and women who were always committed to peaceful means. The history of the Troubles...

Topical Issue Debate: Northern Ireland Issues (21 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: I am glad the Minister of State is present to take this debate. More than 3,600 people died in the troubled era that scarred this island for more than three decades. The wave of violence that consumed so many lives in the North has left a dark legacy for an entire generation, in particular on the shoulders of the families of those who lost their lives in the Troubles. Out of that bleak...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Business of Joint Committee (21 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: I propose the committee write to the SEUPB secretariat to ask it not to withdraw the offer of support for the Narrow Water bridge project. Hopefully, the Northern Ireland Executive and the Government will bridge the gap in funding.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Ex-Prisoners and Conflict Transformation: Discussion with Community Foundation for Northern Ireland (21 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: I welcome the witnesses. I have a question or two for Ms Kilmurray in particular. The PEACE IV programme will soon come on-stream. The European Parliament has finalised its budget for the coming years in recent days. Reference was made to the lack of continuity for schemes depending on such programmes. Such funding will be critically important given the challenges facing governments in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: Challenges in Urban Belfast: Discussion (21 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: I welcome the reverend gentlemen and thank them for their presentation, even though it presents a grim picture, as has been said by colleagues. The same message was given to us in east Belfast 12 months ago. Listening to Reverend Hamilton in particular, the situation seems to have deteriorated rather than improved in the meantime. He has mentioned that 75% of youth work is organised by the...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Waiting Lists (21 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: 211. To ask the Minister for Health his proposals to provide an immediate improvement in the waiting times for outpatients on the orthopaedic list in the north east particularly Our Lady's Hospital, Navan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49893/13]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: US Immigration Reform: Discussion (20 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: Some years ago there used be biannual visits, between the foreign relations committee of the Congress and this committee and the Oireachtas in general. There were visits to the United States one year and they visited here another year. Is that arrangement gone by the wayside?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: US Immigration Reform: Discussion (20 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: It was a useful one. It was an annual visit.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: US Immigration Reform: Discussion (20 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: I support Deputy Durkan's suggestion. If we could get or encourage a visit by a member of Congress to us here, it would be useful.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: US Immigration Reform: Discussion (20 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: It is welcome that the delegation was engaged in an intense lobbying exercise with officials of the US Administration and Congress Members. We all want to see the matter progressed because not one week goes by without us receiving representations from families who wish to have the immigration status of a family member regularised. It is a difficult position to be in for many of those...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: Situation in Syria and the Philippines: Discussion with UNICEF Ireland (20 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: I welcome Mr. Power and his colleagues. Like the Chairman, I, too, welcome the great clarity brought by Mr. Power to this humanitarian disaster. I was struck by much of what he had to say in his presentation in terms of the number of people affected and displaced and, in particular, the following sentence: "I saw the magnitude on families and children which will forever change their lives...

Other Questions: Ministerial Meetings (19 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: I thank the Tánaiste for his reply. He stated there would be no change to our corporate taxation rate, which has been the policy of successive Governments and a necessary part of our economic and industrial policies. Is he not concerned that two senior figures in the SPD - namely, the party's budget spokesperson and general secretary - have described our corporation tax rate as too...

Other Questions: Ministerial Meetings (19 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: 89. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the action he has taken in response to the demand by Germany’s Social Democratic Party that Ireland raise its corporation tax rate; if he has raised this issue with his foreign affairs counterpart in Germany; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48973/13]

Other Questions: Ministerial Meetings (19 Nov 2013)

Brendan Smith: There has been considerable coverage of the decision by Germany's Social Democratic Party, SDP, to place Ireland's corporation tax rate and its opposition to an EU financial transaction tax on the agenda of discussions being held in Berlin on the formation of a new coalition government. Corporation tax is a national competence and cannot be decided at EU level. This competence was clearly...