Results 341-360 of 5,599 for speaker:Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Sports Funding (5 Dec 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: In the context of sport, perhaps our most unique sport is the game of hurling. There has been a fair bit of controversy in recent weeks in respect of the proposals relating to the counties where clubs do not have hurling teams. Does the Minister of State have concerns about the proposal that exists? If we are going to promote the game in those counties, the game generally needs to be...

Renters: Motion [Private Members] (5 Dec 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Last week's report from the RTB, as shocking as it was, was no great surprise. It only confirmed what we already knew, which is that there has been a shocking increase in rent across Cork and across the country on this Government's watch. We know this from the ever-increasing number of people calling to our constituency offices who simply cannot put a roof over their heads any longer....

Confidence in the Minister for Justice: Motion (5 Dec 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I agree with the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, on gender-based violence. It is not a soft issue by any manner or means. It is an issue of crucial importance that all parties must tackle. I am aware that he was not referring to Sinn Féin in that regard but it is important to put that on the record nonetheless. Is minic a deirtear i dtaobh rúin mímhuiníne go bhfuil...

Confidence in the Minister for Justice: Motion (5 Dec 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: -----and the opponents it would dearly wish to have. It is beside the point.

Confidence in the Minister for Justice: Motion (5 Dec 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Government TDs are entitled to their characters. Some of them believe them and some, less honourably, do not. That is neither here nor there and is of no concern to communities on the ground. When we boil this down, there are now fewer gardaí on the streets and fewer Garda stations open than there were when Fine Gael took office. We are two years past the 2021 targets and in terms of...

Confidence in the Minister for Justice: Motion (5 Dec 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I believe the Minister, Deputy McEntee, is a decent woman who is committed to public service. I believe she has empathy but empathy will not put any additional Garda boots on the ground where we need them, on the streets. People have talked a lot about the spectre, as they see it, although the public and gardaí on the ground do not see it like that, of a Sinn Féin Minister for...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (30 Nov 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: On Monday night, a petrol bomb was thrown at a house in Onslow Gardens in Cork city. A number of children were very fortunate to escape without injury. In the past three weeks, there have been two shooting incidents in the city and very many more serious incidents. Communities in Cork city feel neglected and terrified when incidents like this happen. It is not only Dublin that the...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (30 Nov 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Absolutely, but we do not have enough gardaí.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (30 Nov 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: That is-----

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (30 Nov 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: We are not getting enough on the streets.

Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2023: Report and Final Stages (29 Nov 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: That is effectively what I was expecting. I just wanted to confirm that my understanding was correct. Kudos to whomever spotted it. It seems like a very small part of the estate of Classes Lake on the Ballincollig-Ovens boundary. It is just about within the city council boundary and, therefore, Cork North-West. I just wanted to confirm that is the case and it is all in keeping with it....

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Youth Work Projects (29 Nov 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Some of that work is ongoing and I hope it will be forthcoming in the coming period. Some of the objective is to ensure that when that request comes, it receives a favourable and sympathetic response. The context is important. In some respects Carrigaline would be seen as an area which is relatively prosperous and that would be middle class. That is true to a large extent, albeit, as...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Youth Work Projects (29 Nov 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I am a big advocate of the youth diversion programme because it makes a huge difference. I am familiar with a number of projects, including the TACT project and I have seen the difference it can make. It offers the right interventions at a crucial juncture. Carrigaline is a town that has grown very rapidly. As recently as the sixties, there were fewer than a thousand people in what was...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Am I right in saying all the amendments grouped relate to sections on deferred pensions and that there are no others in the group? I want to know to give clarity to the discussion.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Okay.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I have a couple of general points. It is absolutely the case that the total contributions approach is fair, particularly to women and those who have had caring responsibilities. In my office, and, I am sure, the offices of the Minister, Deputy Ó Cuív and the Leas-Chathaoirleach, we regularly see women who rely on their partners' payments and who are not in a position to get a full...

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Yes, but does the buying back, the purchasing of stamps, remain the same?

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: Off the back of Deputy Ó Cuív's questions, from the point of view of the Pensions Commission, it could be argued that as we currently have both choices, they should be continued. Why not continue with that? Is the cost of administration or the cost of payments the reason not to allow the choice to continue? I imagine it is the cost of payments.

Select Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (29 Nov 2023)

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire: I move amendment No. 2: In page 6, between lines 28 and 29, to insert the following: “Report on extending availability of full Parent’s Benefit to Lone Parents 8.The Minister shall prepare and lay a report before the Houses of the Oireachtas on extending the availability of the full duration of Parent’s Benefit to lone parents to examine the effect that enabling all...