Results 11,881-11,900 of 14,388 for speaker:Clare Daly

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: Yes.

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: The position of active and deferred members is being improved by this legislation because at the moment there is nothing there. That is not really the issue, which is whether this is being improved enough and if the process is fair. These are the issues we are grappling with, particularly as the work is being done at the expense of existing pensioners who, as of today, cannot have benefits...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: I will be supporting Deputy Ó Snodaigh's amendments as my own were ruled out of order. In essence we are trying to improve the situation for the lowest-paid pensioners in particular. The Bill is concerned with securing benefits but that needs to be tilted in favour of the lower paid. We must view this against the frightening backdrop of the fact that 80% of our pensioners depend on...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: Deferred scheme members, however, up to a number of years ago, had the same protection as existing pensioners. I know that situation is complicated by the fact that it is the existing pensioners who are now taking a hit in this legislation and they were not exposed previously. It is a case of balancing interests, particularly in situations where schemes unravel, as with the IASS scheme,...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: I move amendment No. 3: In page 9, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following:“9. The Principal Act is amended by inserting the following new section after section 47:"47A.Where the company is solvent the discharge of the liabilities of a relevant scheme under section 48(1AB), the resources of the relevant scheme are not sufficient to discharge, in whole or in part, the...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: I wish to make a couple of brief points. The ESB scheme was always a defined benefit scheme. The IASS scheme was also a defined benefit scheme, but that did not prevent ten years of argument as efforts were made to undermine the benefits to the members of that scheme. The measures undertaken by the company were the subject of years of adjudication in front of the Pensions Board. The...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: The Minister has not sufficiently addressed the issue we are seeking to address in our amendment. The legislation clearly defines the State's responsibility in cases of double insolvency and guarantees certain benefits to scheme members in such cases. The guarantee in this regard is not adequate, but that is an issue for discussion under later amendments. Our amendment No. 3 is seeking to...

Committee on Education and Social Protection: Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: The legislation is probably clear in the case of double insolvencies, but this is to deal with cases in which a company is still viable and the scheme runs into difficulties or there is a dispute. The legislation is deficient in the protection it gives to workers compared with those in other countries. It lets the employers off the hook somewhat. We should try to copperfasten the...

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Plant Science (12 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: 17. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps he has taken for developing plant science here. [52921/13]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Animal Welfare (12 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: 32. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps he has taken to deal with some recent shocking cases of animal cruelty, neglect and abandonment; and if he is satisfied that the relevant authorities have sufficient resources to ensure compliance with the new Animal Health and Welfare Bill. [52922/13]

Other Questions: Defence Forces Properties (11 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: We understand the Minister's priority in that regard. We appreciate that this task is probably bigger than the Department of Defence. This is not about creating a new city - it is about recognising that this was always a garrison community. Civilians with connections to the Army lived in that community and assisted it. The value of this key and unique part of our history should be...

Other Questions: Defence Forces Properties (11 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: This is about more than housing.

Other Questions: Defence Forces Properties (11 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: Maybe the Department could consider such an approach.

Other Questions: Defence Forces Properties (11 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: 10. To ask the Minister for Defence if he will undertake a study in relation to redeveloping the garrison community in the Curragh Camp through the re-use and restoration of the numerous buildings, housing, hospital, businesses and many other premises that could be put to beneficial civilian, military and community uses. [52901/13]

Other Questions: Defence Forces Properties (11 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: It is the policy of the Minister and previous governments to drive the remaining civilians out of the Curragh Camp and to have it as a purely military facility. Will the Minister stop that policy before it is too late? This was once a thriving community and there are many important buildings in the Curragh Camp, including a hospital, a prison, businesses, accommodation and dwellings of...

Other Questions: Defence Forces Properties (11 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: I am afraid the Minister has avoided the central thrust of the question. Clearly, expenditure on improvements and capital projects in the Curragh for military purposes is one thing, with which I do not have a difficulty, but it does not, in any way, take from the very valid points I raised in the question. The heart of this issue is that a very narrow and I suppose neoliberal view has been...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Properties (11 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: I am afraid the Minister's reply does not deal with the reality of the issue. The people in question are not anachronisms or overholders but rather men, women and children, some with special needs and other difficulties. These people have attempted to engage in some instances with other State agencies like Kildare County Council and private lenders to secure mortgages but they have been...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Properties (11 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: The Minister may think it is dramatic but it is not so for some of the individuals involved. One family has three children, two of whom have serious special needs. That family also has a very ill wife but it has received a letter ordering them to leave the property. Somebody else has lived in a property since 1952 but has been asked to leave. There are other court orders for other cases....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Properties (11 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: 3. To ask the Minister for Defence if he will cease his efforts to remove former members of the Defence Forces and their families from their homes in the Curragh Camp, some of whom have lived there for decades. [52918/13]

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Defence Forces Properties (11 Dec 2013)

Clare Daly: Men, women and children in families who have given loyal service to the State are facing eviction from their homes. My question asks the Minister to accept that this is not appropriate treatment of citizens who have served the State, to stop this course of action and instead to engage in a progressive and more humane solution.