Results 11,001-11,020 of 11,469 for speaker:Ivana Bacik

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: The profession, as the Senator prefers, and a member of the trade union for the profession, that is, the Bar Council.

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I thank Senator Norris for that accolade. It is important the legal services ombudsman would assess the adequacy of admissions policies. Senator Norris has reminded me of a campaign in which I was centrally involved in 1988 and 1989 when the Law Society operated a restrictive admissions policy in the form of a quota for the number of people who could pass the entrance exam. The Minister of...

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: The Bar Council has already raised with the Minister of State the cost of the legal ombudsman service. Section 11 gives the necessary power to the ombudsman to employ persons on particular terms and conditions and to engage the services of professional and other advisers and so forth. That is important. It is necessary to keep the cost of running the service as low as possible. Given the...

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: In my Second Stage speech, I referred to section 15(1) the Bill, which states that "the Legal Services Ombudsman shall prepare and submit to the Minister a report . . . specifying the number of persons admitted to practise". This section is incomplete in the absence of a provision requiring the ombudsman to review the number of people who have left the profession and to monitor the figures...

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I am grateful to the Minister of State for indicating his willingness to consider this important point. He is as aware as I am that there is anecdotal evidence of high levels of attrition. When we did our study, we were concerned to get hard data on that. We found that neither the Bar Council nor the Law Society was able — I am not sure they were not willing — to provide information on...

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I thank the Minister of State.

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I share Senator O'Donovan's concern about this section of the Bill, which seems rather open-ended. I would have thought that the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights would be the obvious committee before which the ombudsman would appear. I am slightly bemused as to why any other committee would require the ombudsman to appear before it. On this section I...

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: Again, this relates to the levy to be paid for the establishment of the expenses of the ombudsman, or "ombudsperson". I am grateful to Senator O'Donovan; I also like to use that word to symbolise that it could be a man or woman. This levy is to be paid by the Bar Council and Law Society. The Bar Council has approached the Minister and I did not table an amendment to subsection (4) because...

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I am not putting it any higher than that.

Seanad: Legal Services Ombudsman Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (3 Mar 2009)

Ivana Bacik: Senator Norris has put his disbelief on the record. My other point is on the Minister's power by regulation to provide for the payment of the levy, but perhaps I will leave that for section 20.

Seanad: Order of Business. (27 Feb 2009)

Ivana Bacik: It is a bit rich to hear those on the Government side of the House lecturing those on this side on the need for bipartisanship, unity and solidarity. My understanding is there have been many offers from this side of co-operation but those have not been taken up by the Government. It is most inappropriate of the Government not to try to achieve with the main Opposition parties a common...

Seanad: Order of Business. (27 Feb 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I would love to be enlightened on those plans.

Seanad: Order of Business. (27 Feb 2009)

Ivana Bacik: The one in ten figure demonstrates that the country as a whole is waiting to hear the Government's plans for economic recovery. We have not been given a package of measures. The reason we saw more than 100,000 people protest last weekend is because the Government's measures are piecemeal. All we are getting is a little tinkering at the edges but no real change. I ask the Leader for a...

Seanad: Order of Business. (27 Feb 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I want an early debate on taxation. I want the Minister of Finance, not a Minister of State, to come to the House to explain to Members why the Commission on Taxation will not report until September. The commission has said it is bringing its report forward by a number of weeks, but that is not good enough. We need a decision from the Government on taxation and to hear when the Minister...

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages. (27 Feb 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I welcome the opportunity to support the amendments, both of which have the same effect by providing for a sunset clause. I echo the comments of Senators Twomey and White. The Government refers to the Bill as an emergency measure, which is not a tax. However, this comes down to honesty. If the Government parties want to be honest, it would be more honest and straightforward to raise...

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages. (27 Feb 2009)

Ivana Bacik: There is no comparison between the imposition of a 10% levy and the loss of one's job. The tragedy of job losses for people in Waterford Wedgwood, Dell, SR Technics and smaller firms around the country, which are bearing the brunt in the private sector, must be acknowledged. However, people must feel they are fairly being asked to play their part. Public sector workers, in particular, are...

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Second Stage. (26 Feb 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I echo Senator O'Toole's words because I, too, watched the news at 9 p.m. and the one in ten figure stood out starkly for me, as it is doing for people all around the country tonight. Clearly, there is a lack of confidence in what the Government is doing to tackle the enormous economic downturn and problem we are facing. There is a will among people to share the burden. All of us want to...

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Second Stage. (26 Feb 2009)

Ivana Bacik: Why are we not seeing tax increases?

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Second Stage. (26 Feb 2009)

Ivana Bacik: The Government has just ruled them out for this year.

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Feb 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I echo the criticisms made by Senators Cummins and O'Toole of the public service levy. The real problem at present is the uncertainty surrounding it, the fact that Ministers stated it will be tweaked and yet we have not seen any sign of that tweaking. Previously, there was tweaking done on the medical cards scheme for the over 70s and a U-turn on that. There was a U-turn, or tweaking,...