Results 181-200 of 764 for speaker:Kathryn Reilly

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Third Level Funding (2 Oct 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: I thank the Minister for Education and Skills for coming to the House and his officials for contacting my office when this motion was originally submitted last week. I want to use this opportunity to raise a number of questions on the future of third level funding, maintenance grants and fees and I will leave it to the Minister's discretion to answer them. I tabled this matter in context of...

Seanad: Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Statements (9 Oct 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: I hope not to take up that much time. I welcome the Minister of State to the House. He is a regular visitor here and we are discussing an important topic. As many other Senators have said, small and medium businesses, SMEs, are the lifeblood of the economy and upon them hinge jobs and the fate of the local economy. That is an interlinked cycle in that when one suffers, everyone suffers...

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Road Safety (16 Oct 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: I would like to raise a road safety issue that relates to a stretch of road that cuts in and out of the North and the South. The prevalence of unsafe driving practices in this area has increased in recent years. It has not been possible to curtail this behaviour because of jurisdictional issues along the stretch of road in question. Members of Clones Town Council have tried various ways of...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, will come to the House this afternoon to discuss a broad range of issues related to her portfolio. No further business has been ordered for today. When I asked the Leader to arrange a debate on youth employment, I was advised to use the opportunity of today's meeting with the Minister to discuss the issue. Given that no other business...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: Yes.

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: Yes.

Seanad: Social Protection: Statements (Resumed) (18 Oct 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Perry, to the House and regret that the Minister for Social Protection had to leave as there are a number of issues I wished to bring to her attention. I have called for a debate on youth unemployment in this House and was hoping to address that issue with her today. The Minister mentioned earlier that there are between 70 and 80 programmes under the...

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Sugar Beet Industry (18 Oct 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, will come to the House this afternoon to discuss a broad range of issues related to her portfolio. No further business has been ordered for today. When I asked the Leader to arrange a debate on youth employment, I was advised to use the opportunity of today's meeting with the Minister to discuss the issue. Given that no other business...

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Sugar Beet Industry (18 Oct 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: Yes.

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Sugar Beet Industry (18 Oct 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: Yes.

Seanad: Social Protection: Statements (Resumed) (18 Oct 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Perry, to the House and regret that the Minister for Social Protection had to leave as there are a number of issues I wished to bring to her attention. I have called for a debate on youth unemployment in this House and was hoping to address that issue with her today. The Minister mentioned earlier that there are between 70 and 80 programmes under the...

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Sugar Beet Industry (18 Oct 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: Yes.

Seanad: Social Protection: Statements (Resumed) (18 Oct 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Perry, to the House and regret that the Minister for Social Protection had to leave as there are a number of issues I wished to bring to her attention. I have called for a debate on youth unemployment in this House and was hoping to address that issue with her today. The Minister mentioned earlier that there are between 70 and 80 programmes under the...

Seanad: Order of Business (23 Oct 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: Last year I raised the issue of food labelling and the agrifood sector. Today, I was saddened to learn of the loss of 90 jobs in a poultry plant in County Cavan. The business credited its loss making to feed price rises, increasing energy costs, poor market prices and low quality imports. The Irish Farmers Association has expressed serious concerns about the future viability of the poultry...

Seanad: Junior Certificate Reform and the Literacy and Numeracy Strategy: Statements (23 Oct 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: I welcome the Minister to the House. I did my junior certificate in June 2003, almost ten years ago.

Seanad: Junior Certificate Reform and the Literacy and Numeracy Strategy: Statements (23 Oct 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: Some memories of that time stand out. I can particularly remember my diet of fizzy drinks and chocolate and the nights spent cramming because of the large number of subjects we took. On some days we sat two exams. Other Senators mentioned rote learning, and for many subjects I studied at the time it was not necessarily a case of being examined on what one learned over the years but what...

Seanad: Youth Unemployment and Public Policy: Address by Professor Christopher Pissarides (Resumed) (8 Nov 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: I welcome the professor to the House. This debate is particularly relevant to me because young people under 25 years are my peer group. I am very aware of people my age, friends, family, colleagues from college and school, who are unemployed or have been forced to emigrate. Senator Healy Eames quoted an Irish writer. I would like to quote another one, W.B. Yeats, who wrote, "That is no...

Seanad: Youth Unemployment and Public Policy: Address by Professor Christopher Pissarides (Resumed) (8 Nov 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: My point is that it is no country for young men, young women or young families. This comes back to the issue of youth unemployment and to emigration, which was not touched upon. In 2011 alone, 87,000 people left this state and there are 460,000 unemployed. I agree totally with the professor's point that we have given too much away to fiscal austerity. My party is a firm advocate of that...

Seanad: Youth Unemployment and Public Policy: Address by Professor Christopher Pissarides (Resumed) (8 Nov 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: I join Senator Bacik in asking the professor to touch on the youth guarantee. Our Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, has stated she would advocate this during the Irish Presidency. Will the professor give his opinion on that issue? I refer again to long-term youth unemployment. How do we try to tackle it? As he noted it will be much harder for these young people to try...

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Kathryn Reilly: I welcome the Minister to the House again. In terms of public sector reform I will focus on the issue of public sector pay and pensions. The Minister knows well how Sinn Féin feels about this issue having listened to my colleague in the Dáil, Deputy Mary Lou McDonald. We believe there is a need to reform the public sector pension system but we disagree fundamentally on the way it must be...