Results 981-1,000 of 1,981 for speaker:Conor Lenihan

Family Law. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: Deputy Shatter is an acknowledged expert in this area. This service is being provided on a pilot basis in the Dublin Circuit Court.

Family Law. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: It will be followed through on a phased basis in the Cork and Limerick Circuit Courts. The probation and welfare service is in the process of appointing a family law coordinator who will liaise with the Judiciary on the service it should access. Referrals will be processed through the Courts Service and accompanied with a sworn affidavit by the applicant and the respondent. Hopefully, the...

Family Law. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: I thought I alluded to the previous scheme in my initial reply but I will add it again for the benefit of Deputies opposite.

Family Law. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: The previous scheme collapsed after one year because the Courts Service and the probation and welfare service were under pressure.

Family Law. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: The purpose of this latest initiative is to contract panels of experts to conduct these assessments.

Family Law. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: It is intended not to put the Courts Service or the probation and welfare service under additional pressures, which would lead to another collapse of this scheme. There has been a significant issue with the costs of medical and other experts.

Family Law. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: From a value for money perspective it makes much more sense to do it on a contract basis.

Garda Operations. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: The figures were provided by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform in response to a parliamentary question. They refer to all warrants recorded on the PULSE system since the commencement of a new release of the system in November 2003, when all remaining outstanding warrants were transferred to the PULSE system. It is inevitable in any criminal justice system that at any given...

Garda Operations. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: The Deputy is a very clever sophist. I reassure him and the public that the Garda prioritises warrants for serious crime. It is not the case that serious criminal issues are losing out or are not being pursued because of this backlog. Many of these cases involve sums of money of less than €100. In most of the cases where the financial penalty——

Garda Operations. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: The average amount being sought by the Garda in many of these warrants is €100 or less. Arising from an earlier parliamentary question, the Minister requested the Garda Commissioner to furnish him with a detailed report on the nature and profile of these warrants. I will ask the Minister to reply directly to the Deputy when that report becomes available.

Garda Operations. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: I am not hiding behind a reply, I am giving one. The Minister has asked the Garda Commissioner who, in turn, has asked his regional assistant commissioners to give priority to this issue and report on it to the Government.

Garda Operations. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: Let us wait and see what the priorities are when the Minister receives the report. The Deputy may not have been listening when I said a pilot project was under way, whereby outside debt collection agencies were collecting the money involved in these warrants.

Garda Operations. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: As the Deputy is new to the House, he may not be aware that the Fines Bill is before the House and that it provides, among other matters, for the payment of fines by instalment and an improved means of assessing the capacity of a person to pay a fine.

Garda Operations. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: All these measures, the Fines Bill, the pilot project involving outside debt collection agencies and the Garda report, will help in shifting this problem.

Garda Operations. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: Very witty.

Garda Operations. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: That is my information.

Garda Operations. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: Yes, I want to hear this.

Garda Operations. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: I do not wish to evade Deputy Rabbitte's technical questions about PULSE, on which I am not an acknowledged expert. The Garda assures the Department that it continues to give priority to the enforcement of warrants in serious cases. That is why I said the sum sought by many outstanding warrants was approximately €100. I am not suggesting there are no serious cases among them because a...

Prison Accommodation. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: I refer the Deputy to the answer to his Question No. 522 of 4 December 2007 where it was stated that there are no plans to implement any mechanism whereby prisoners would be expected to contribute to the overall cost of their imprisonment. There would be major practical difficulties and costs associated with trying to recover money from individuals who frequently have no visible assets or...

Prison Accommodation. (13 Dec 2007)

Conor Lenihan: Prisoners are provided with access to health care services on an equivalent basis to citizens in the general community who are covered by the General Medical Services, GMS, medical card. Section 37 of the Prisons Act 2007 allows for the prison rules to provide, where it is deemed necessary on the basis of non-convicted status to facilitate a prisoner with access to elective health care...