Results 1,441-1,460 of 1,580 for speaker:Marie Sherlock

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Amendment) Bill 2020: Discussion (30 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: I thank the representatives from the HSA, HSE and Congress for their submissions and for participating in the hearings today. I very much support the Bill. The INMO, Congress, SIPTU and others made clear last year their express desire for this amending legislation and they indicated there is a serious deficiency with regard to the reporting legislation. I have three specific questions....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Amendment) Bill 2020: Discussion (30 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: I thank the representatives for that comprehensive answer. I am conscious that I probably have very little time left in my slot. I have a question each for the representatives of the HSA and Congress. With regard to the HSA, it was stated that a number of workplaces are open and that it is hoped a much larger number will be open in the coming weeks and months. I note the representatives'...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Amendment) Bill 2020: Discussion (30 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: Sorry, I did not hear the Chairman.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Amendment) Bill 2020: Discussion (30 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: My question specifically for Congress is to ascertain the impact on workers if there is a failure to make progress on this Bill. Serious concerns have been articulated by Congress. I want to understand what message it would send out and the impact on workers.

Seanad: Reports on Department of Health Policy in RTÉ Investigates Programme: Statements (29 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House and for her comprehensive statement. I join Senator Bacik in welcoming the Minister of State's statement on the publication of the senior counsel's report. Like so many other people, I was horrified by what I learned from the "RTÉ Investigates" programme but we must keep reminding ourselves that at the heart of all of this are...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (26 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: I too want to express my horror at what we learned in the "RTÉ Investigates" programme last night. It is important to remember that at the heart of all this are families with children, some of whom are the most vulnerable children in our State, and those families' quest to try to vindicate their children's essential constitutional right to an appropriate education in this country. Yet,...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Disability Services Provision (12 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, for coming to the House and for making herself available for this important question. As the Minister of State knows only too well, the HSE is currently rolling out its reconfiguration of disability services for children and it hopes to complete the centralisation of services July of this year. I understand that when there are waiting lists as...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Disability Services Provision (12 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: I thank the Minister of State for her response and I understand that she understands the seriousness of the issue. Any of us who have dealt with families and children with a disability who are waiting know the distress involved. I understand what the HSE is doing across the country but not for the schools where there is already a good service in place and this had caused the greatest...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: I thank the witnesses for joining us and for making their submissions. I have three questions and one comment, which are directed primarily to Dr. McGann and Ms Redmond. There can be no doubting the labour demand in the sectors that the witnesses have identified, including care, manufacturing and agrifood, over the coming years. I want to focus on care. In the witnesses' submission, there...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: Is Dr. McGann saying that in order to enter healthcare assistant roles, workers should have a lower skills requirement than is currently the case? I appreciate what she is saying about grandfathering and that people already in the sector should be skilled up. We are talking about the entry of workers from outside the European Union into employment in Ireland. Should there be a skills...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: Depicting it as low-skilled may not be helpful when talking about the skills need and employment need in the care sector. On my second question, I thank Dr. McGann for the detailed document which complemented today's presentation. She talks about a competition between the construction industry and the manufacturing and food processing industries for workers. Will she go into more detail...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: Concern about the cost of housing in the country is shared across parties and by our guests from IBEC and the Irish Congress for Trade Unions. Our guests talked about allowing more third country workers to come to Ireland and take up employment, particularly in the low-margin industries, which I take to mean jobs in which workers earn the minimum wage or barely above it. Do our guests have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: Should that condition be extended to all the other permit schemes about which Dr. McGann is talking and proposing should be introduced?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: Precisely.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: I asked questions earlier, but I will follow up. A number of statements were made on the rationale for the appeal to extend the employment permits system, which has been made on the basis of low-margin sectors, the need to maintain competitiveness and, by extension, low wages within particular sectors. We need to see more evidence from IBEC on this. I note, in particular, the reliance on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of Employment Permits (Consolidation and Amendment) Bill 2019: Discussion (Resumed) (9 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: There is no attempt to tar whole sectors with the one brush, but there are many stories and reports of exploitation within certain sectors and by certain companies. To level the playing field for good employers, I make a particular appeal to IBEC to throw its weight behind ensuring there is a much more robust and better functioning enforcement system.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank of Ireland: Discussion (9 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: I thank Ms Rowland and Mr. Sibley for attending today. My question relates to the investigation process. We have heard much about the administration sanction procedure and how individuals cannot be investigated until the investigation of the firm is completed. I ask Ms Rowland about her view on the design of the administration sanction procedure. Why could the fitness and probity regime...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank of Ireland: Discussion (9 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: I hope Ms Rowland will appreciate we are under tight time constraints. Is it not possible to prosecute under the fitness and probity regime until the administration sanction procedure is completed? It seems there are clear breaches of the fitness and probity regime. Under the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001 making a gain or causing a loss by deception is an offence....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank of Ireland: Discussion (9 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: I note a call on six separate occasions between October 2018 and October 2019, and it was noted in Ms Rowland's comments today, for the introduction of a senior executive accountability regime. We have seen no action by the Government since the first call two and a half years ago. Is it a source of huge frustration to the Central Bank of Ireland?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Central Bank of Ireland: Discussion (9 Mar 2021)

Marie Sherlock: A number of committee members have already referenced the length of time that this investigation took. It took seven years from when the original action took place and five years since the High Court case. We know that the staff count within the Central Bank has almost doubled over the past ten years. Is it the case that within the enforcement section, all energies were devoted to the...