Results 61-80 of 3,871 for speaker:Paul Gavan

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: I was delighted to attend, with some of my colleagues from the Dáil, the momentous and historic occasion last Saturday when Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill was elected First Minister with the DUP’s Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly. With many others, I witnessed first-hand epoch-making events. It was a day like no other in Ireland’s long and...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: Well said.

Seanad: Finance (State Guarantees, International Financial Institution Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: I will briefly come in to support Senator Higgins' amendments. The reason I do so is because it is increasingly clear to me that in fact, there will be an agenda of privatisation and of outsourcing coming from the European Union. It is very clear, unfortunately. God knows the Ukrainian people have suffered enough already. It is par for the form of the European Union to attach these types...

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: The Minister of State is very welcome. I wish to express a little frustration regarding these amendments. Sinn Féin is not opposing them but we did ask for a briefing note on them. Even from what the Minister of State has just said, there is quite a lot involved here. We did not get such a briefing note. That is not a good way to go about doing business in terms of tucking these...

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: That was 20 minutes ago.

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: I appreciate the Minister of State setting out the detail. I think he has accepted the point that the short notice was not acceptable. Clearly those are amendments that we are very happy to support, given the housing emergency that we have across the State.

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: No.

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: I move amendment No. 4: In page 12, line 31, to delete “3 years” and substitute “2 years”. Unfortunately, I was in Strasbourg when the Second Stage of this Bill was being discussed. However, my colleague, Senator Warfield, did express a degree of frustration that many of us in Limerick feel with regard to the lack of ambition regarding the content of the Bill....

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: Let us work through the timeline as the Minister of State proposes it. As he proposes it, a review will commence three years into the new mayorship. I am going to take a wild guess, but face it, no reviews I am familiar with take less than six months and probably take a year. Under the most optimistic of circumstances, that would leave one year in the lifetime of a Government to implement...

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: I do not want to prolong this unnecessarily. I accept the Minister of State's point in terms of three years and three months. However, he and I both know that if a report comes back three years and three months into a term, the likelihood of the recommended changes being made into actual legislative changes by the time the five years is up is slim, to say the least. That is my concern....

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: We will agree to disagree.

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: I move amendment No. 5: In page 12, line 33, to delete “3 years” and substitute “2 years”.

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: I move amendment No. 8: In page 13, between lines 34 and 35, to insert the following: “(b) Furthermore, the Mayor shall not engage in any other type of paid employment during their term of office.”. I gather that I will need to speak to amendment No. 8, and I think the Acting Chair mentioned that amendment No. 11 is also included, is that right?

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: I thank the Acting Chair. The Minister of State is welcome back. With regard to amendment No. 8, if we want this position to be a truly transforming one for local democracy, the position of mayor must be the sole focus of anyone elected. To allow for other employment during the term of office would be a definite signal to the electorate that this is not a role that has value. If it is to...

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: The Minister of State could save time.

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: On a point of order, and I mean this respectfully, the Minister of State is speaking so fast that I cannot understand what he is saying. I know he wants to get the Bill through, but I ask him to speak at a pace that we can understand. I want to listen and respond.

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: I think we are almost out of time but I will say, and I mean this respectfully, I am so disappointed. The interpretation of the plebiscite the Minister of State has included in this Bill is so conservative. If we were to ask the people of Limerick if they would like their mayor to tackle the issue of waste management, they would tell us that of course they would. The idea that it would...

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: Not just yet. What time are we due to conclude the debate?

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: That is good because I have an extra five minutes. I wish to make a point in all seriousness about the inclusion of these amendments. I acknowledge the fact that the Minister of State has answered on the policing issue by saying the community safety partnership has not yet been set up and has expressed the wish that the mayor will be chair. That is now on the record of the House, which I...

Seanad: Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2023: Committee Stage (8 Feb 2024)

Paul Gavan: I report progress.