Results 1,601-1,620 of 2,815 for speaker:Tony Killeen

Written Answers — Health and Safety Regulations: Health and Safety Regulations (21 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: The Health and Safety Authority carried out a campaign in 2005 which focused on health and safety issues within Local Authorities and, in particular, on roadworks. While most local authorities are in broad compliance with health and safety requirements I understand that some of them would need to do more to demonstrate full compliance. A concentrated inspection campaign was instigated during...

Written Answers — Employment Rights: Employment Rights (21 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: The Labour Inspectorate of the Department is responsible for monitoring certain employment conditions for all categories of workers in Ireland. In the area of pay and conditions, it is primarily the provisions of the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 and the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 that apply to employees who are employed in domestic service. Employees, working in the provision of...

Written Answers — Employment Rights: Employment Rights (21 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: I am conscious of the difficulties sometimes experienced by non-native speakers in understanding their rights and conditions of employment. With particular regard for the needs of employees from overseas the Department has translated key Employment Rights information into nine languages namely Chinese, Czech, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, and Russian. The...

Written Answers — Job Losses: Job Losses (21 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: The number of actual redundancies for the first four months of 2006 was 7746 a 12.4% increase on the same period in 2005. The months of April and May 2006 have seen a drop in the numbers of redundancies at levels of 27% and 10% respectively, below those for the same months last year. Cumulatively, from January to May 2006 the number of redundancies was 6.6% up on the first five months of...

Written Answers — Job Losses: Job Losses (21 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: The number of employees who received collective redundancy notice as advised to the Department under the Protection of Employment Act, 1977 has seen an increase for the first five months of 2006 of 44% over the same period last year. I should point out that the more reliable indicator of redundancies relates to those people who have actually been made redundant during the same period. The...

Written Answers — Health and Safety Regulations: Health and Safety Regulations (21 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: I propose to take Questions Nos. 154 and 155 together. Ireland only ratifies ILO Conventions where we can accept every single provision with which our legislation is fully in conformity. This also allows for absolute compliance. In adopting Conventions, the ILO operates by way of a double discussion procedure whereby proposals for International Labour Standards are discussed over two...

Written Answers — Employment Rights: Employment Rights (21 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: Section 14(4) (as amended) of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 provides that where an employee is dismissed, the employer shall, if requested, provide particulars in writing of the principal grounds for dismissal to the employee within 14 days of the request. However, the Unfair Dismissals Acts generally do not apply to employees with less than one year's continuous service, with certain...

Labour Inspectorate. (21 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: I propose to take Questions Nos. 44 and 78 together. Article 10 of the Labour Inspection Convention 1947 provides that the number of labour inspectors shall be sufficient to secure the effective discharge of the duties of the inspectorate and shall be determined with due regard for the importance of the duties which inspectors have to perform, in particular; the number, nature, size and...

Labour Inspectorate. (21 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: The Deputy has asked about the system of recruitment and the time period over which it will be completed. Recruitment will commence pretty shortly. It is intended that the full 90 will be in place by the end of 2007. I remind the Deputy — Members who have been attending Question Time will be aware — that there is a considerable amount of work to be done in the process of recruiting people...

Labour Inspectorate. (21 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: The background to this arises from the document The Mandate and Resourcing of the Labour Inspectorate. Very considerable work was done in this document and the specific difficulties which had arisen were pointed out clearly. Some of these difficulties related to issues such as the poor quality of payslips that were acceptable under the previous regime. Much work remains to be done in that...

Labour Inspectorate. (21 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: The undertaking is to begin immediately, but there are some challenges to be taken on in ensuring that all factors are taken into account and that all information is available to the inspectorate.

Labour Inspectorate. (21 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: I presume that Deputy Bruton is not telling me that we will now have too many inspectors. We need to acknowledge, not just on the basis of the high-profile cases but on the basis of other evidence, that there were difficulties. It is incumbent on the Government to address those issues. An element of Deputy Morgan's question related to the manner in which the figure of 90 was reached. I agree...

Labour Inspectorate. (21 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: I will provide the Deputy with some information on that.

Labour Inspectorate. (21 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: There will undoubtedly be an increase in inspections, but the greater challenge is to ensure that workers coming into the country and others in the workforce are aware of their entitlements. That kind of information must be disseminated in a much more user-friendly fashion than has been the case heretofore. The figure of 90 was arrived at by consensus, as is the case with all social...

Written Answers — Health and Safety Regulations: Health and Safety Regulations (20 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: The Health and Safety Authority is the national competent authority with responsibility to enforce legislation governing the protection of workers from exposure to asbestos at work. I am informed that in this context, the Authority receives approximately 350 notifications and accompanying site specific reports and plans per year relating to asbestos at work as required by legislation, as a...

Written Answers — European Social Charter: European Social Charter (20 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: The Council of Europe has standard reporting procedures in relation to the revised Social Charter which apply to all Contracting Parties (i.e. those Member States that have signed and ratified the Charter). Ireland signed and ratified the Revised Social Charter on 4 November 2000. The Revised Social Charter has 31 Articles. In preparing Reports, the Department has to consult both internally...

Seanad: Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Bill 2006: Second Stage. (20 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: I thank Senators for their contributions to the debate on this quite complex legislation. It is a large and technically complex Bill which manages to cover many important areas of land and conveyancing law in considerable detail. We all recognise the importance of the subject matter, as well as the need to bring this area of law up to date so that it can accommodate changing needs and modern...

Seanad: European Communities (Amendment) Bill 2006: Second Stage (Resumed) (20 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: I thank Members for their contributions today and on Wednesday last. I am heartened to hear such broad support for the European Communities (Amendment) Bill 2006. As Members will know, Ireland has always been an enthusiastic participant in the European Union. We actively supported the fifth expansion of the Union and we look forward to its completion with the accession of Bulgaria and...

Written Answers — Registered Employment Agreements: Registered Employment Agreements (14 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: The wages and employment conditions of workers employed in the Construction Industry are governed and safeguarded by the Registered Employment Agreement (Construction Industry Wages and Conditions of Employment) Variation Order, which is enforced by the Labour Inspectorate of the Department. Labour Inspectors are empowered to seek compliance with payment of the statutory minimum rates of pay...

Written Answers — Health and Safety Regulations: Health and Safety Regulations (14 Jun 2006)

Tony Killeen: The boundaries of the Health and Safety Authority's South East Region for operational purposes has varied over the period years 2000 to date. In the period 2000 to 2004 it comprised 4 counties, i.e. Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny and South Tipperary, during which there were 3 Inspectors assigned to the region. In Spring 2005 the region was expanded to include counties: Carlow, Laois, Offaly,...