Results 41-60 of 7,123 for speaker:Mary O'Rourke

Macroeconomic and Fiscal Outlook: Statements (Resumed) (28 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: I want to make the case in the course of this debate for a national system of internship. At a recent parliamentary party meeting Senator Brian Ó Domhnaill raised the matter, which I seconded, and a good general discussion followed. In all my years of public life I have never met so many highly qualified young people coming to see me with a CV and hope in their faces. Much money has been...

Macroeconomic and Fiscal Outlook: Statements (Resumed) (28 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: He has a very nice face. I know he was just about to say it. I repeat my call for a national internship programme. I ask the Government to include it, amidst the doom and gloom which it will be emitting through its figures. Such a programme would provide a spark of life for young people.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (28 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: Question 76: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will review the case of a person (details supplied) in County Westmeath who has been refused supplementary welfare allowance and child benefit because of the habitual residence clause [39471/10]

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (27 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: Question 422: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will review the case of a person (details supplied) in County Westmeath regarding the previous refusal of a mortgage interest relief claim [38625/10]

Written Answers — FÁS Training Programmes: FÁS Training Programmes (19 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: Question 176: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding apprenticeships and the arrangements put in place to ensure that apprentices whose training has been halted due to firms closing will have a programme in place to enable their training to conclude [37649/10]

Written Answers — Departmental Correspondence: Departmental Correspondence (13 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: Question 186: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform his views on correspondence (details attached) [36536/10]

Education (Amendment) Bill 2010: Second Stage (Resumed) (13 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: I had forgotten that there was a lunch break on Wednesday and I was in full flight before at the sos. I am sorry that the Minister, Deputy Coughlan, is not present. However, Deputy Haughey, an equally important Minister of State, is present so I can address my remarks to him. In my speech, I paid tribute to the Minister, Deputy Coughlan, and repeated my contention, without wishing to be...

Education (Amendment) Bill 2010: Second Stage (Resumed) (13 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. The JAMs entered the system in the time of the late John Wilson, who was then a Deputy. During that time, there was a great shortage of teachers. Over the years, training courses were put in place for those teachers so they could become qualified, as was correct. In this day and age, the teacher training colleges are bursting with people. Hibernia...

Education (Amendment) Bill 2010: Second Stage (13 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: I welcome the introduction of the Bill and the opportunity to contribute to what has been so far a very important and interesting debate on the matters contained in it, and on some matters outside of the purview of the Bill itself. I have engaged with the Tánaiste, Deputy Mary Coughlan, as the Minister for Education and Skills on parliamentary questions and Adjournment matters but this is...

Education (Amendment) Bill 2010: Second Stage (13 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: In this House there have been very prominent and feisty women in all parties, including the three parties represented here at this moment, and the Minister well fits that CV. I wish her good luck in the Department and I have no doubt whatsoever that she will soon rumble the various subterranean plots which abound in Marlborough Street and which are bound to trip up a Minister at the very...

Education (Amendment) Bill 2010: Second Stage (13 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: That is not to decry any particular civil servant in it, but it has a propensity for planning and tripping a Minister and meanwhile getting its chosen deep-seated and deep rooted point of view across. An unwitting Minister may and could stumble on many occasions. Anyway, the Minister is welcome there and I have no doubt that she will make her mark, as have the other women who have occupied...

Education (Amendment) Bill 2010: Second Stage (13 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: All right. I was a bit astounded at the alacrity with which this new model, the VEC community primary school, was being embraced, bearing in mind that we have had for a number of years - since the early 1980s with the Dalkey multi-denominational school - a very successful primary school model called Educate Together, which now numbers 57 primary schools. This is quite a huge number and they...

Education (Amendment) Bill 2010: Second Stage (13 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: It was quietly forgotten. I told the Minister that story some time ago and we had a laugh together about it.

Education (Amendment) Bill 2010: Second Stage (13 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: Am I not allowed to tell stories?

Education (Amendment) Bill 2010: Second Stage (13 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: Good.

Education (Amendment) Bill 2010: Second Stage (13 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: Yes indeed, not like Margaret Thatcher whose birthday is today. I heard that on the radio.

Education (Amendment) Bill 2010: Second Stage (13 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: I cannot adjourn the debate; I have 20 minutes.

Education (Amendment) Bill 2010: Second Stage (13 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: I will return to speak again and I will have another story or two.

Written Answers — Inter-country Adoptions: Inter-country Adoptions (12 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: Question 262: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the position regarding Russian adoptions [35827/10]

Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2009 [Seanad]: Second Stage (Resumed) (7 Oct 2010)

Mary O'Rourke: I am very glad to speak on this Bill, which, as the previous speaker noted, is mainly of a technical nature. I think of the 1901 Child Care Bill and the various amendments since then which show that child care is evolving all the time in keeping with changed circumstances and the complex world in which we live, in particular the difficult and complex world in which young people live. I...