Results 12,441-12,460 of 12,596 for speaker:Willie O'Dea

Maternity Protection (Amendment) Bill 2003 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (20 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: I thank everyone who contributed to this debate. I thank them for their generally positive remarks and support for the Bill. In the course of the debate, people lost sight of the fact that this legislation is the product of social partnership. It represents a deal worked out between employers, who are naturally concerned to protect their interests and minimise their costs, and the...

Maternity Protection (Amendment) Bill 2003 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (20 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: This amends the earlier Act, and anything that is not amended still stands. A breast-feeding employee is defined as an employee up to 26 weeks after her confinement. However, we will re-examine that to ensure it is absolutely clear. Deputy Gay Mitchell raised a query about what safeguards will be in place to prevent people from skiving off work on the pretext that they are breast-feeding....

Maternity Protection (Amendment) Bill 2003 [Seanad]: Referral to Select Committee. (20 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: I move: That the Bill be referred to the Select Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights, in accordance with Standing Order 120(1) and paragraph 1(a)(i) of the Orders of Reference of that committee.

Tribunals of Inquiry: Statements. (20 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: I brought it through Second Stage yesterday.

Maternity Protection (Amendment) Bill 2003 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (20 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." Maternity protection is a fundamental right of any pregnant employee and one which has been enshrined in our legislation since 1981. The Maternity Protection Act 1994 further enhanced the existing legislation by implementing the provisions of the Pregnant Workers' Directive 92/85 EEC. It retained all entitlements of the previous legislation...

Maternity Protection (Amendment) Bill 2003 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (20 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: Yes.

Seanad: Equality Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (18 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: In regard to the example the Senator gave about a teacher having a few scoops privately, I cannot envisage how that would undermine the religious ethos of the institution in which he or she is working provided he or she does it privately in his or her own time.

Seanad: Equality Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (18 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: I do not believe it would. The authority concerned would not be justified in sacking a teacher in those circumstances because section 37(1)(b) specifically states that the action which is protected must be reasonably necessary to prevent an employee from undermining the religious ethos of the institution. As the saying goes, "saying it don't make it so". I understand what the Senator is...

Seanad: Equality Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (18 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: In regard to amendment No. 16, we are transposing the terminology directly from the directive. Therefore, I do not consider there is any reason to accept that amendment. We have been asked to transpose the directive, and we can go further, but, in reality, I do not believe it is going any further. This section amends section 37 of the 1998 Act to take account of the framework directive in...

Seanad: Equality Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (18 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: It is, both from the point of view of what is allowed and what is excluded.

Seanad: Equality Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (18 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: This amendment to section 44 of the Act of 1998 is proposed to enable the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, to remunerate the board of the Equality Authority. In recent years, social-type boards such as the authority have been brought within the sphere of such payments, and I propose to include the Equality Authority in this category.

Seanad: Equality Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (18 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: This amendment inserts additional provisions in section 67 of the Act of 1998 to further clarify matters relating to the Equality Authority's role in providing assistance to persons in taking proceedings under the Act. The principal new provision is contained in the new subsection (5). This makes explicit that the relationship between a solicitor employed by the authority or a barrister...

Seanad: Equality Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (18 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: The purpose of Part VI of the Employment Equality Act 1998 is to provide guidance to employers, particularly large enterprises, in taking a proactive approach to implementing equality legislation in the workplace. Section 69 gives the Equality Authority particular powers, at its discretion, to invite a particular business or business group or sector to carry out an equality review or to...

Seanad: Equality Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (18 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: This is a minor technical amendment to the new provision in section 27(d) of the Bill, inserting a new section 75(3). The intention in this provision is to enable the director of the Equality Tribunal to issue appropriate guidelines or guidance notes to ensure that redress in equality cases taken before it is met with an efficient and fair response. It is considered that the provision, as...

Seanad: Equality Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (18 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: It was thought, when the legislation was being drafted and this office was being created, that it was better to give the director the power to recruit the staff in view of the fact that he or she would be best qualified to decide the calibre of employee required. It is a highly specific area. However, whatever staff are normally recruited by the director will be subject to the consent of the...

Seanad: Equality Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (18 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: As Senator Tuffy has said, the amendment in her name removes jurisdiction from discriminatory dismissal cases from the Labour Court. I deduce that she wants it to remain with the Equality Tribunal. The redress provided for in section 77 of the Employment Equality Act 1998 places such jurisdiction with the Labour Court for the good reason that this body has extensive statutory powers and long...

Seanad: Equality Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (18 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: I do not think so. Under section 77(3) of the Employment Equality Act 1998 the option for a claimant in a general discrimination case to refer it to the Circuit Court is available, in order to allow access to an unlimited award of compensation. This is a requirement of the gender equal treatment directive, following the 1993 judgment of the European Court of Justice in the Marshall case....

Seanad: Equality Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (18 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: The two official languages of the State are set down in Article 8 of the Constitution as Irish and English. The Constitutional Review Group, which reported in 1996 did not advocate the addition of any further languages. Irish has the status of a treaty language in the European Union. This derives from the fact that the treaties are in Irish. In the treaties, Irish is listed as one of the...

Seanad: Equality Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (18 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: The purpose of the provision is to ensure the exclusion is as narrow as possible. Acceptance of the amendment would exclude from the provisions of the Equal Status Act 2000 the letting of separate or self-contained accommodation in the owner's home such as bed and breakfast accommodation or a self-contained apartment in a house. As Members may be aware, the Equal Status Act 2000 includes an...

Seanad: Equality Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (18 Feb 2004)

Willie O'Dea: The advice is that omission of this provision could result in our being found in contravention of the race directive which would cause grave difficulties. The legal section of the EU has made clear that there is very little room for discretion in this matter. I accept Senator Tuffy's point about the difficulty in interpreting what is meant by "a separate and self-contained part" within a...