Results 1-20 of 141 for likes to work speaker:Paul McAuliffe

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Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (19 Jun 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: Like Deputy Connolly, I am very reluctant to say what I am about to say. The Peter McVerry Trust has done, and continues to do, huge amounts of good work, but there is no doubt that when an organisation is the subject of an inspection report, significant amounts of public controversy and, on top of that, the injection of €15 million of public money, there is an obligation on it to...

Nursing Homes and Care for Older Persons: Statements (12 Jun 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: Like many in the House, my heart was breaking when I watched the programme last Monday. The Beneavin nursing home is literally five minutes from where I live. There are neighbours and friends who have relatives in Beneavin nursing home. However difficult it was for any of us to watch the programme, I cannot imagine how difficult it was for them. I know many people could not bring...

Gaza: Statements (21 May 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: A few weeks ago, I raised the issue of Gaza here on the occasion of statements in respect of the European Council. I noted that we needed a united European voice in response to the conflict. Unfortunately, across the Continent we have not seen that united voice. I certainly welcome yesterday's news regarding the review of the trade deal but, sadly, since then the situation in Gaza has not...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (15 May 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: I support the suggestion to write to the pre-hospital emergency board. I ask that we get details of the number of people impacted and, on an anonymised basis, of the liability, so that we can get an idea of the scale of the impact. The total turnover is €4 million and €800,000 is 20% of that. It is a very significant amount of money and we need to get to the bottom of it. ...

Report of the Farrelly Commission: Statements (Resumed) (7 May 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: I thank the House for allowing us time to continue the debate on the Farrelly report, which began last week. A number of commissions have reported to this House in my time as a TD. Certainly, a number of them have left the victims or the people at the centre of those reports very dissatisfied with the outcome. We have to ask ourselves a question about the independent commission model. ...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Child Poverty (8 Apr 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: ...under the Department of the Taoiseach deal with the issue of child poverty and tackling disadvantage. Enda Kenny established this in the north-east inner city and the Taoiseach rolled that out to other communities, including my own in Ballymun. The former Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, established the child poverty unit. As we head into the second part of the programme, there is the...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Educational Disadvantage (3 Apr 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: I raise a significant issue, which is the funding of DEIS band 1 schools. Over the past number of years, we have seen significant funding go into education. Obviously, the free schoolbooks scheme and the free school meals scheme have been important for parents and education. In some cases, they have been a significant anti-poverty measure. I remember the first year the free school books...

Social Welfare (Bereaved Partner's Pension) Bill 2025: Second Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: It is interesting dealing with a case that was before the courts and, as a result, has had to come before the Executive and now the Legislature. Some of the difficulty with this week's debates in regard to speaking time is that there is often huge confusion as to the difference between the Executive and the Legislature. They are different things. When you take those two arms of Irish...

Maximising Artificial Intelligence: Statements (19 Feb 2025)

Paul McAuliffe: ...new about the debate we are having. We could replace the word "AI" with the word "steam", "electricity", "computers" or "Internet". All of them are just technological developments and it is up to us as a society to decide how we react to them. Having listened to the debate, I believe we have three options: one, pull the plug, hunker down and pretend AI is not happening; two, take no...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Nov 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: I think the most benign interpretation of this might suggest that we were being waited out on an opportunity for us to, once again, as we have on a number of occasions, question the national paediatric children’s hospital and those who are responsible for delivering the children’s hospital. It is unfortunate we have not had that opportunity. However, the beauty with democracy...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (7 Nov 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: ...thanking people, the Cathaoirleach rightly said we may or may not be back here. There is a group of people whom we know definitely will be here, which is all the staff in the Comptroller and Auditor General’s Office, the clerk’s office and the liaison officer with us. On behalf of all of my colleagues, we would like to say thanks so much for supporting us. The big...

Finance Bill 2024: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Nov 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: I join my constituency colleague, Deputy Shortall, in speaking about the USC obligation on general practitioners involved in the GP Care for All practice. I note as a broader point the changes to the USC and welcome them. I think they will be very welcome for workers. I will return to them in a moment but I want to speak to the point Deputy Shortall raised. Since she said it might be her...

Social Welfare Bill 2024: Second Stage (15 Oct 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: I start by talking about the progress of Ireland over the past 20 years. There has been a lot of discussion in the House about poverty. However, the SILC report published prior to the budget indicated that those at risk of poverty was 10.6% in 2023. That is a historic low and is down from 20% in 2005. We have halved the number of people at risk of poverty over 20 years. The number of...

Seanad Public Consultation Committee: The Future of Local Democracy: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Jun 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: It is a great pleasure to be back in the Seanad, having been in the Dáil only four years. I spent my first few months in this Chamber, so it is a great pleasure to be back and to represent Fianna Fáil. I offer the apologies of our party leader, who I think is on his feet at the moment in the Dáil. I will preface my remarks by saying that while I have nearly ten years of...

Committee on Drugs Use: Drug Use Policy: HSE, Department of Justice and Department of Health (20 Jun 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: Much of this will lie with the Department of Justice, given the way we have criminalised addiction and so on. One of the challenges is trying to operationalise the citizens’ assembly’s recommendations, assuming that is what we decide to do. How can the Department assist us? Perhaps it would be as micro as assisting us in drafting the wording of policies around the Misuse of...

Committee on Drugs Use: Drug Use Policy: HSE, Department of Justice and Department of Health (20 Jun 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: I might make a recommendation after the meeting, but as we go through this process, perhaps a liaison to the committee from each Department would be useful for private sessions when we could have additional discussions on drafting and so forth. Much of this revolves around the legal and policy approaches, but a great deal relies on what Senator Seery Kearney discussed. Addiction often has...

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (21 Mar 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: I thank all of the witnesses for being here. A visit to the Committee of Public Accounts is never at the top of anyone's agenda. I know it involves a great deal of preparation. As much as anybody who comes before us, I know the witnesses have an incredible amount of work to do. On his appointment, the Commissioner said that crime is not like rain and does not fall equally everywhere. in...

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (21 Mar 2024)

Paul McAuliffe: Statistics can say many things, but there is very clear evidence that we do not have the Garda numbers that we should. On another point, the Commissioner also helped support the working group we had in 2019 in respect of scrambler bikes. That working group has followed through and we now have the new Road Traffic and Roads Act 2023. It has been fantastic to see a problem that was in some...