Results 1-20 of 28 for 5 million speaker:Bríd Smith

Environmental Protection Agency Water Quality Report 2022: Statements (28 Jun 2023)

Bríd Smith: ...waters. There are a number of reasons for this and urban wastewater and historic under-investment in water treatment and wastewater is one of them. It is ironic this State spent more than €100 million on water meters in a failed attempt to move towards privatisation of water and charging people for drinking water. It was willing to spend up to €500 million on that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of the Industrial Relations (Provisions in Respect of Pension Entitlements of Retired Workers) Bill 2021: Discussion (25 Jan 2023)

Bríd Smith: ...and semi-State workers who saw their pensions hit so hard, particularly during the austerity years. They are the people who built the State and who stayed in jobs for 40 or more years, sometimes 45 or more years. They stayed in these jobs and were dedicated to them. When they retired, they were told they were worthless pieces of whatever and did not have any voice at the table when...

Water Environment (Abstractions and Associated Impoundments) Bill 2022: Second Stage (8 Dec 2022)

Bríd Smith: ...useful Seanad debates on it, a few questions jump out and it would be good if the Minister of State could clarify matters. As was highlighted in the Seanad debate, the threshold for registration is 25 cu. m while the threshold for licensing is 2,000 cu. m. I am at a loss to understand why anything below such large volumes of water is exempt from regulation. It is at odds with the...

Abuse at Certain Educational Institutions: Statements (24 Nov 2022)

Bríd Smith: ...the victims for a full inquiry must be supported but the issue facing us in the Oireachtas is about the type of inquiry. As has been said, 233 men have come forward and the order has paid out €5 million in compensation. One of the most important things we can do for the victims is to conduct a criminal inquiry. It needs to be a criminal inquiry that his teeth and will also use...

Science Week: Statements (15 Nov 2022)

Bríd Smith: ...out a review of its support for PhD researchers, which is good news. A recent report showed that Ireland's researchers are among the lowest paid in Europe, earning a salary of approximately €18,500 per year or lower, sometimes as low as €13,000. The highest paid are in Denmark where researchers are often paid up to €50,000 per year. A significant number in Ireland...

Home Care: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (8 Nov 2022)

Bríd Smith: ...Committee on Covid-19 Response that sat I do not know how many times during 2020 and examined the care sector in particular and what was happening in our nursing homes. I remind Deputies that 56% of all Covid deaths in the State at that time took place inside the nursing home system, which was totally disproportionate as this group of elderly people comprise 0.65% of the total population....

Mother and Baby Institutions Redress Scheme: Motion [Private Members] (19 Oct 2022)

Bríd Smith: ...me they do? The Minister needs to understand that their exclusion is re-traumatising. It is unconscionable and must be addressed. The second issue is on the cost of the scheme. It may cost €800 million in total, with some 34,000 survivors being eligible but I question these figures and many have. I want to ask where the religious order and institutions are in their...

Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Second Stage (3 Dec 2021)

Bríd Smith: ...took care of one another. We now have a very high vaccination rate. The Minister went through the figures - more than 91% are fully vaccinated and the partially vaccinated represent, I believe, 95%. Of the 5% of people who remain unvaccinated, a large cohort are marginalised communities to whom the Government could do much more to reach out in an attempt to educate and convince them it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Energy Charter Treaty, Energy Security, Liquefied Natural Gas and Data Centres: Discussion (resumed) (5 Oct 2021)

Bríd Smith: ...to the CRU is about water. At the outset Ms MacEvilly told us the CRU has a role to protect the interests in water. There have been startling revelations from data centre. Facts show that from 500,000 l to 5 million l a day can be used by one single data centre. Could the witnesses comment on any concerns they may have about the expansion of data centres in this country and the...

Companies (Protection of Employees' Rights in Liquidations) Bill 2021: Second Stage [Private Members] (12 May 2021)

Bríd Smith: .... He said progress has been slow but I want to ask him how slow does he think slow is. What I find interesting is that now that he is in government, he seems to accept the fact that since 2015 when the Clerys debacle happened, there was a recommendation from Duffy Cahill to push up the priority of workers in terms of redundancy legislation in circumstances of liquidation. If he was on...

Climate Action: Statements (17 Sep 2020)

Bríd Smith: ...catastrophe for this and future generations. Even the fall in the CO2 emissions that are occasioned by the mass lockdowns across the industrialised world showed us that emissions declined by 5% to 7%. In reality, that is a blip in terms of what is needed. The concentrations are rising steadily and we are now at 411 parts per million, which is the highest in 3 million years. I hope...

Estimates for Public Services 2020 (Resumed) (28 May 2020)

Bríd Smith: ...is really milking the system and profiteering from the pandemic. They will not notice who really won the lottery. I refer in this case to the owners of the private hospitals, who are receiving €115 million per month for the allowance of the beds to the system which we absolutely need. People like Larry Goodman and Denis O'Brien are seriously profiteering from a cost four times...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Dec 2019)

Bríd Smith: ..., I will read some passages from it: Light, heat and power are fundamental requirements to participate in society and a prerequisite for social inclusion. ... [Last] year, SVP spent more than €5 million helping people with the cost of energy - an increase of 20% on the previous year. We are therefore concerned about the current and future impact of energy price increases on the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Future Funding of Public Service Broadcasting: Discussion (10 Dec 2019)

Bríd Smith: ...on the level of contribution received from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection in lieu of the free TV licence, as part of the household package, amounted to a reduction of €5 million in RTÉ’s funding for the first year and has subsequently risen. Has Ms Forbes calculated how much was lost by RTÉ with this measure? In another discussion on...

Early Exit from Peat for Electricity Generation: Statements (6 Nov 2019)

Bríd Smith: ...take this opportunity to relay some of their most pressing concerns. Inadequate levels of finance have been allocated to a just transition to secure jobs and work on bog rehabilitation. The budgetary allocation of €31 million is inadequate for a number of reasons, as was the manner in which it was allocated. The €31 million will be raised through an increase in carbon...

Financial Resolutions 2019 - Financial Resolution No. 9: General (Resumed) (9 Oct 2019)

Bríd Smith: ...that tens of thousands of jobs will be lost if there is a no-deal Brexit but instead of taking measures to create jobs, the Minister has used the crisis to benefit his rich friends. Some €80 million in a full year will be given to support small businesses and agriculture but instead of tying any grant to a guarantee that jobs will be defended and retained, the Minister is giving...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Carbon Tax: Discussion (25 Sep 2019)

Bríd Smith: ...in carbon tax and it incentivises them to say, "I would love to get new windows and solar panels, and get the house retrofitted", but they cannot access it. They do not have the €40,000 or €50,000 upfront to say, "There is my contribution to doing up my home, now give it back to me." It does not work like that. There is a cohort of middle Ireland caught in the middle. It...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action: Climate Action Plan: Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment (19 Jun 2019)

Bríd Smith: ...loans being available left, right and centre to people, the vast majority of people in this country - in middle Ireland, as it is often described - cannot afford to take out loans of €40,000, €50,000 or €60,000 to retrofit their homes. Middle Ireland cannot afford to borrow to buy an electric car in the morning and start paying back the loans. Most people struggle to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment: Scrutiny of Petroleum and Other Mineral Development (Amendment) (Climate Emergency Measures) Bill 2018: Discussion (3 Jul 2018)

Bríd Smith: ...Records are broken routinely. The five warmest years in the global record have all come in the 2010s. Globally we are 1o Celsius above the pre-industrial average temperature and heading fast to 1.5o Celsius. Climate change is creating millions of climate refugees globally and impacting with devastating consequences on the lives of millions more. It is also threatening the earth's...

Strategic Communications Unit: Motion [Private Members] (20 Mar 2018)

Bríd Smith: We will support the motion and its idea of disbanding the strategic communications unit. It was ironic that, despite spending €5 million on slick PR and gathering the best and brightest minds in communications and social media, the Taoiseach revealed in a few minutes of hubris in Washington the reality of how the Government and the elite worked. Either the Government is not spending...