Results 17,441-17,460 of 21,260 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Access to Credit Provision: Discussion with Credit Review Office (20 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: The consensus is that Mr. Trethowan's small group of staff provide a useful service that is perhaps inadequate for the global task. I want to explore two matters with him.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Access to Credit Provision: Discussion with Credit Review Office (20 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes. I am not being critical. I am trying to give an overview. Does Mr. Trethowan have a view about extending the office's powers? Should its regulatory function be strengthened and given mandatory powers? Obviously the committee seems to agree that the powers of the office could be improved, that it should have more discretion and that its hand should be strengthened. Can he briefly...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Access to Credit Provision: Discussion with Credit Review Office (20 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I shall make a counter-argument. If anybody imagined that the recession, the crisis, the slump - call it what one will - would be short term, we have all been enlightened in that regard. For any borrower, particularly in the SME sector, the review mechanism is a valuable permanent arrangement. As Deputy Mathews has said, the State is bound up with the banking sector in a way that was not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Access to Credit Provision: Discussion with Credit Review Office (20 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I was present when Mr. Trethowan said that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Access to Credit Provision: Discussion with Credit Review Office (20 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I heard him say it. With all due respect, his comment reinforces my point rather than his. My second question comes from a slightly different angle. Other Credit Review Office activities during the quarter have been itemised. Mr. Trethowan has also met the troika. Can he tell us about the meeting? What was the agenda? What was the purpose of the meeting with the troika?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Access to Credit Provision: Discussion with Credit Review Office (20 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: What did Mr. Trethowan tell them?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Access to Credit Provision: Discussion with Credit Review Office (20 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: We have also met the troika on a number of occasions. I shall give my take on them. While they listened politely to concerns about demand in the economy and the fact that the domestic economy is flat as a pancake, I walked away with the view that either they did not really understand the significance of that or they were not terribly bothered by it. It certainly was not on their list of...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Human Rights Issues (20 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he has decided on any specific issues, to bring forward in the coming months on the UN Human Rights Council . [8853/13]

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Overseas Development Aid (20 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade in view of Trócaire’s 2013 Lenten campaign which shows the positive impacts for communities in the developing world when they are free to organise, operate and demand their rights, if he will, through both funding and diplomacy in Irish Aid’s priority countries, work to guarantee safe spaces for community...

Magdalen Laundries Report: Statements (19 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Taoiseach's welcome apology on behalf of the State was long overdue. The Magdalen women have waited, hoped and prayed for this moment. Many of them despaired that it might never come, but it has. Today saw a full acknowledgement of the wrong done to them. They were wronged. The State was complicit in their detention and abuse in the laundries. It oversaw a system of slave labour,...

Magdalen Laundries Report: Statements (19 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: If I may be unorthodox and overrule the Acting Chairman, I will say to the people in the Public Gallery to work away. This is not the stuff of history. We would be fooling ourselves but no one else in the course of this debate if we believed for a second that this approach to vulnerable women and children was a thing of the past. It is not. It lives with us yet in society. Deliberate...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Coillte Teoranta Lands (19 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the research his Department has conducted on the impact that the sale of the Coillte forest crop will have on tourism; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8606/13]

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Public Transport (19 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the impact assessments that are carried out by his Department when deciding on funding cuts to public services like Bus Éireann in order to establish the likely impact on service and potential for resulting industrial disputes. [8585/13]

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Staff Numbers (19 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number of public sector workers as of the 31 January 2013. [8425/13]

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Pension Provisions (19 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform further to the passing of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Bill 2013, if it is still his view that former Taoisigh, Ministers, office holders and senior civil servants' pensions cannot be reduced on the basis that he considers such payments to be vested property rights. [8651/13]

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Employment Rights Issues (19 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: To ask the Minister for Social Protection following the recently published Migrant Rights Centre Ireland Report December 2012 Part of the Family, which illustrates the way the unregulated au pair system is being used to facilitate cheap childcare and that leaves au pairs without basic protections, her plans to address the issue of au pairs here; and if she will make a statement on the matter....

Written Answers — Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Departmental Bodies (19 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht further to Parliamentary Question No. 110 of 7 February 2013, if any of the board members of the four bodies under the aegis of his Department gift their annual fee back to the State. [8272/13]

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Employment Rights Issues (19 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality following the recently published Migrant Rights Centre Ireland Report December 2012 Part of the Family, which illustrates the way the unregulated au pair system is being used to facilitate cheap childcare and that leaves au pairs without basic protections, his plans to address the issue of au pairs here; and if he will make a statement on the...

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Asylum Applications (19 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality further to Parliamentary Question No. 556 of 29 January 2013, if the eight persons returned to their last port of departure from the State were Syrian nationals. [8722/13]

Written Answers — Department of Children and Youth Affairs: Employment Rights Issues (19 Feb 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs following the recently published Migrant Rights Centre Ireland Report December 2012 Part of the Family, which illustrates the way the unregulated au pair system is being used to facilitate cheap childcare and that leaves au pairs without basic protections, her plans to address the issue of au pairs here; and if she will make a statement on...