Results 1,501-1,520 of 3,777 for speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Green Paper on Disability Reform: Department of Social Protection (25 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I was going to raise the issue of self-employment. Even in terms of this proposed payment I do not see how self-employment and entrepreneurship among people with disabilities will be catered for. Similar to the working age payment we do need a real-time aspect. We need Revenue to speak to the Department of Social Protection. In the case of self-employment it would be year's end before...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Green Paper on Disability Reform: Department of Social Protection (25 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I thank Mr. Hession. This is the third straw an proposal that has been brought to our committee. I find it a useful way to frame my own thinking as it gives me something to respond to. I thank the Department for that level of engagement. I will now invite members to contribute. I remind any member participating remotely to use the "raise hand" function in Microsoft Teams and to cancel...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Green Paper on Disability Reform: Department of Social Protection (25 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Deputy Donnelly, are you happy with that? Have you any further questions?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Green Paper on Disability Reform: Department of Social Protection (25 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: The education statistics about people not completing third level education jumped out at me because I immediately wondered whether we have more people entering in the first place. I was wondering whether we were comparing like with like, particularly on this.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Green Paper on Disability Reform: Department of Social Protection (25 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I would like to see flexibility and responsiveness fleshed out in a little bit more detail. Mr. Hession and I mentioned AsIAm. The issue of autistic burnout means that people who are engaged in employment, and are due to work a certain number of hours this week, might not be up to facing that many hours next week. We do not want a situation to arise where people do not get the payments they...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Green Paper on Disability Reform: Department of Social Protection (25 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Quite a large proportion of people currently on disability payments have the capacity to work and that is something we are trying to facilitate. That was the final piece I wanted to touch on. I found the Green Paper to be excellent in many respects but I felt there was not a great deal of detail in it about labour supports. I know Mr. Hession gave an answer to Senator Wall on some of these...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Green Paper on Disability Reform: Department of Social Protection (25 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: It will require significant engagement with employers as well because the Department is going to have to make clear to them that they must apply an element of flexibility. If we want more people with a disability in the workplace, there is a piece of work to be done with employers to make sure they are facilitating that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Green Paper on Disability Reform: Department of Social Protection (25 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Visibility regarding what those employment supports would look like would go a long way towards assuaging people's fears about going to the Intreo office and being told "get out and work", which is one reading of that paragraph. We want to make sure this is not the case and that we have a tailored solution.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Green Paper on Disability Reform: Department of Social Protection (25 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: As no other members are offering, I thank the witnesses for their engagement. It has been very useful for us to air some of the concerns that we have around the straw-man proposal. It is a good way for us to frame our thinking and to be able to respond in a constructive and meaningful way to what the Department is planning. I have found the engagement today to be very informative from my...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I am never one to miss an opportunity to bore people about it. I am really enjoying this discussion. I am reminded of the Alain de Botton book, Religion for Atheists. This is like nature for economists or nature for accountants. It is trying to put a number on that spreadsheet so that things that are often discounted as externalities are counted in there. It is one of the reasons I enjoy...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Does Dr. O'Mahony see a role for a future generations commissioner? I know in Wales there was a series of workshops where people talked about the Wales they want and it was done under the Welsh well-being framework. In the Welsh context there were seven outcomes. They sat with people and asked them the Wales they wanted. It would be an incredibly interesting exercise to talk about the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Does Professor O'Hagan-Luff want to respond on the green bonds?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Under GDP, it counts. One can say, "Great news, we spent all this money".

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: There is a sense of agency.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I did not respond earlier because I am not a member of this committee but I am taking this opportunity to join the debate because I have an interest in this. Deputy Bruton asked a lot of the questions I was going to ask on green bonds, which picks up on the earlier session. I am talking about the existing green bond offering that Ireland has and the possibility of opening that up more....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: Is there anything that can be done to redirect the non-compliant element of it to a nature and biodiversity focus? That would respond directly to what we are here to talk about, that is, the citizens' assembly report.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: That is the case under the requirements for corporate sustainability reporting and corporate due diligence.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: It is more the former than the latter. In Mr. Owens's assessment, there is a real demand for a green bond, or whatever the term might be, or some sort of mechanisms whereby those large corporates can actively invest in nature and biodiversity.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Citizens Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed) (24 Oct 2023)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: The other part of the equation is the smaller and personalised green bonds. As I said earlier, I know Hong Kong was moderately successful in that regard and the UK was less successful because of the interest rate attaching. It might be small beans in the grander scheme of things but I think there is an importance in terms of the sense of agency, or the lack of it, that people have and which...