Results 11,221-11,240 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Order of Business (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: I understand the Bill will come before the House in the third week of April.

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: I suppose, of all the people in this House, the Deputy probably knows a little bit more about bullying, intimidation and threat than almost anybody else-----

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: -----whether on these benches or on the benches opposite. He is kind of a connoisseur. With regard to the Dunnes Stores workers or to any other dispute, we want everybody at work. Yesterday, the live register fell below 350,000 for the first time since January 2009.

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: I was out yesterday, talking to workers on the National Gallery site, where there is a €26 million project underway and building workers back at work. That is what we want. The way to have a proper industrial relations system in any country is to have good industrial relations structures.

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: We have that and will be bringing legislation before the Dáil. It will be intriguing to see, when it comes before the Dáil, whether the Deputy will actually support collective bargaining legislation.

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: Generally speaking, the Deputy is somebody who looks for the negative in almost everything. The people in Dunnes Stores who have gone on strike are vindicating their rights as Irish citizens to seek, through their union, proper terms and conditions of work, and fairness at work. Fairness at work is the hallmark of the industrial relations structure in this country, which will be enhanced by...

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: Did the Deputy turn up for it?

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: The Deputy must recall that the heads of the Bill were published last December and that, on their publication, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions described it as the greatest advance in terms of workers' rights since 1913 - I am quoting the general secretary of congress. I want to ask the Deputy does he support the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and its leadership-----

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: -----and the secretary general of the workers' union in this dispute-----

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: -----who says there is a way to a rapid conclusion of the dispute by the employer entering into a dialogue. I am not quite sure what the Deputy's reference is to a voluntarist system because, in this country, we have a very elaborate system of legislation and of industrial relations, including the Labour Court, the Labour Relations Commission and custom and practice in regard to trade disputes.

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: Yes, it does mean both sides coming together, including the workers and their representatives, the trade unions. However, I get the sense that none of that machinery of voluntarism, as the Deputy describes it, is enough for him. What is it the Deputy wants - some kind of Leninist approach to how industrial relations works in this country? Is that what he wants?

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: That approach has not worked very well outside countries like North Korea, if that is what the Deputy is talking about. We want an actual legal framework which will be enhanced by the new legislation so we get actual results for workers. As we saw yesterday, more and more people are going back to work. We now have a situation where unemployment is down to 348,000. Instead of celebrating...

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: I have not heard so much eloquence since I listened to a megaphone a couple of months ago. I think the megaphone was manned by the Deputy but he has not lost it.

Order of Business (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: It is proposed to take No. 12, motion re proposed approval by Dáil Éireann of the Freedom of Information Act 2014 (Effective Date for Certain Bodies) Order 2015 (back from committee); and No. 13, motion re proposed approval by Dáil Éireann of the Freedom of Information Act 2014 (Exempted Public Bodies) Order 2015 (back from committee). It is proposed, notwithstanding...

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: As a result of the Organisation of Working Time Act, as people involved in industrial relations will know, there is a framework of 15 hours. However, for many people 15 hours is not enough and they need certainty as to when their hours of work are to be in order that they can make arrangements - this applies in particular to women - for their families, whether their children or perhaps older...

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: Briefly, as did tens of thousands of other people.

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: I am sure as the deputy leader of Sinn Féin, Deputy McDonald, has had an opportunity to be briefed in respect of her party's position in the North. In the North, approximately 32,000 workers are on zero-hour contracts. Sinn Féin gave a public commitment that the party's position was to ban them outright. Then, when the relevant Northern Ireland Minister undertook a review on...

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: Let me say in respect of Ireland-----

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: The Organisation of Working Time Act is significantly stronger than what pertains in the North. In Sinn Féin's time in government or in the Dáil, that party has never, to my knowledge, taken any interest in collective bargaining.

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Joan Burton: The collective bargaining legislation will be coming before the Dáil in the next term. It will be enacted before the recess. That work has been done. It has involved complex and detailed negotiations and consultation with employers and trade unions. As an economy, we want legislation that works because we want our people at work. We do not want anyone having to resort to strike action.