Results 14,121-14,140 of 21,206 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: I do not accept that, not least because the Minister is bringing forward this legislation in a culture and environment in which it is exceptional for people to come forward and to blow the whistle. The most recent high profile example of that is within the Garda Síochána. Let it be said that the Garda is by no means unique in this regard. One is not starting from a position of...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: The Minister is right that, by definition, a volunteer does not face detriment in terms of pay or promotion prospects, as would arise for a worker. It is also true to say, however, that many people who volunteer for organisations within the charitable sector, including, for instance, section 38 and 39 organisations, do so on the basis that they have a personal vested interest in the work...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: I disagree with the Minister in as much as I remain of the view that there could potentially be a very clear and measurable penalty exacted on a volunteer in circumstances where he or she comes forward with information on wrongdoing. I simply cannot assume that a person, in the absence of a channel for securing protections, would necessarily come forward with that type of information....
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: I will reconsider where I have placed this provision in the legislation. I would like to see everything to which the Minister has referred in terms of policy expectations, identifiable channels and so on being put in place.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: Yes. However, it would be preferable for that necessity to be expressed in primary legislation.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: I will.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: I move amendment No. 4: In page 8, line 35, after "obligation" to insert "or obligation arising from a professional code or workplace code of practice".The legislation envisages scenarios where there are failures to comply with legal obligations. My amendment proposes to extend this coverage to take into account breaches of professional or workplace codes of practices, which would amount to...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: I move amendment No. 2: In page 7, lines 25 to 27, to delete all words from and including “whose” in line 25 down to and including “, or” in line 27.I welcome the fact we are finally on Committee Stage of this legislation. Certainly, recent events have underscored how important it is. I hope the amendments I present are taken in the spirit of getting the...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: Yes. The amendment seeks to ensure that external advisers or professionals who may be contracted into a particular organisation - for example, auditors - would enjoy the full protection of the legislation. I have a concern that the legislation as currently worded would exclude not just auditors but accountants, financial advisers and professional advisers from those protections in the...
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: I thank the Minister. I am more than happy with that so, at this stage, I will withdraw the amendment. I will have another look at my own wording and I will reintroduce my amendment on Report Stage, although I anticipate the Minister will have something of far superior quality to my simple amendment.
- Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: I move amendment No. 3: In page 8, between lines 2 and 3, to insert the following:“(e) works on a voluntary basis, as a volunteer for no pay,”.The idea here is to ensure that the legislation captures also those persons who work in a voluntary capacity for organisations. The Minister will know, while it is perhaps not so much the case across private industry, that public bodies...
- Order of Business (14 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: When does the Taoiseach expects to have the Cooke report? Once having received it, when does he propose to publish it? Now that we have a new Minister for Justice and Equality I hope she and the Government will be more sympathetic and decent in respect of the case of the survivors of the Bethany Home. I have raised this issue many times on the floor of the Dáil. I hope today the...
- Order of Business (14 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: Is it not imminent?
- Order of Business (14 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: So it is not imminent.
- Order of Business (14 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: I am aware of that.
- Order of Business (14 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: The Government has been utterly indecent to these survivors. It has been callous and heartless and the Taoiseach clearly intends to continue in this vein. It is a disgrace.
- Leaders' Questions (14 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: I entirely agree.
- Order of Business (8 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: I have two matters. The Minister last took Leaders' Questions on 3 April and, on that occasion, I raised the issue of the Bethany Home with him. He will recall that the previous day, 2 April, a memorial stone had been unveiled to the more than 200 infants and children who died in that mother and baby home in Rathgar. At that point, the Minister committed to contacting the then Minister for...
- Leaders' Questions (8 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: Through each catastrophe, the Minister, Deputy Quinn, stood by former Minister, Deputy Shatter. I am fairly sure that at times the Minister, Deputy Quinn, knew the number of the former Minister was up, that each crisis was a crisis too far and the damage being done to An Garda Síochána and public confidence was becoming serious.
- Leaders' Questions (8 May 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: Yet, he stood by him shoulder to shoulder. The Government rallied around the former Minister, Deputy Shatter, regardless. What does the Minister, Deputy Quinn, think now?