Results 161-180 of 13,362 for speaker:David Stanton

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: The Defence Forces Ombudsman is all about complaints-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: ----- from members of the Defence Forces. That is on the oversight body's agenda too. Is there a risk of having a twin-track approach here or a conflict or lack of synergies if there is an engagement and there is some sort of understanding as to the roles of the two bodies?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: I have been looking at the whole issue of aptitude testing for people who want to join the Defence Forces. I am not sure if our guests have looked at the test. I am sure they would all fly through them with no problem but the Chair and I have had difficulties trying to get through them. I certainly have, anyway; not the Chair. Have the witnesses any view on the aptitude testing? I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: I have a final question. I have not seen any reference to the body’s engagement with an Oireachtas committee and whether it would report to a committee on a regular basis as part of its work. The heads are very loose and when the Bill is published it will be tightened up fully. Our job here is to try to see if there are any suggestions we could make for it. That is something I have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: Apart from increasing the number of the board of the body by two initially -----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: ----- is there anything else that should be included in the heads of the Bill that are not there or that are there and should be removed?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: Thank you.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: I believe the Act says that one can go straight through to the ombudsman but the feeling is that if one goes through the system which the Senator is talking about, that there might be a faster resolution. I wonder about the effectiveness of the ombudsman's findings and how impactful they are. At the end of the day, that might be something worth looking at if it is within the remit of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: Should we include something in the legislation where if there is a vote of the members of the body where there was a very deeply-felt difference of opinion, that there would be some way of resolving that? Would there be a minority report or how would Professor MacCraith see that working? We do not want to see a situation like that arising as we are dealing with serious issues here and there...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: The body will have a statutory legal function with even a badge, or whatever it is called, and the way the body comes to a decision as a group will probably need to be statutorily laid down as well, I imagine, in some way, if such a conflict ever arose and hopefully it will not.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: I ask now about the body’s information technology, IT, system. We are obviously quite interested in the issue of the hacking of computer systems and all of that kind of stuff which goes on. Some other committees are looking at the fourth industrial revolution, that of artificial intelligence, AI. What kind of thinking does the body have around the IT system it will acquire or...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: One of the complaints we have had here from time to time is the time it takes for people to become attested in the Defence Forces from the time they make an application. It can take months and months. Will the body be looking at that timescale because if someone shows an interest today, and it takes six months or longer for them to be attested, they may have gone off to do something else in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: I do not want to test the Chair’s patience with my time but I have two more or perhaps three further questions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: Will the oversight body be reviewing the Defence Forces regulations, DFRs, as part of its remit because quite often these regulations come up at this committee as a reason why things can and cannot be done?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: We bring in the ombudsman from time to time and one of the ombudsman’s unique roles is that former members can only make complaints there, as they are not members any more. Has the body thought or looked at veterans and former members and its role there, and at the issue of retirement from the Defence Forces and how people actually leave the Defence Forces. Sometimes, people become...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: Re-enlistment is another issue. If people leave and want to come back in again, what are the terms? There is also the issue of people who want to join who are part of the military establishment in other jurisdictions and who want to come here and join at a certain rank and level. Is that something the body would see as part of its operation?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: I brought up an issue with the Tánaiste recently when he appeared before the committee. I said to him that it was a bit of a curveball and he agreed with me but I will nevertheless bring it up again. When I was in the Department of Justice, I visited Mountjoy Prison from time to time and I visited a jobs fair there where young prisoners who had been through training and rehabilitation...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: I thank the Chair.

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Immigration Policy (22 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: I thank the Minister. I urge her to move that along as quickly as possible, given it has been ongoing for some time. On the issue of employment permits, we are an outlier in the European Union and, indeed, in much of the OECD world in that there is no direct access for dependants of those with intra-company transfer employment permits. We are the only ones who do not give that access....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Immigration Policy (22 Feb 2024)

David Stanton: I welcome the Minister's commitment to this. The Department of enterprise is on the same playing field as her on this, so it is a matter of the two Departments getting together and making it happen. The Minister might write to me setting out what is required to make it happen. The spouses and partners of those with critical skills visas can work automatically. There is no issue there. It...