Results 1-20 of 1,366 for at speaker:Joan Collins

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 May 2024)

Joan Collins: Yesterday, we welcomed some members of the families of the 27 victims of the Dublin bombing and the seven who lost their lives in Monaghan, along with representatives of the Justice for the Forgotten group, to the Dáil for the debate on Sinn Féin's motion for the 50th anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. I welcomed that motion and the families welcomed the fact that the...

Dublin and Monaghan Bombings: Motion [Private Members] (14 May 2024)

Joan Collins: I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this motion. I wish to warmly welcome the survivors, relatives and members of the Justice for the Forgotten group who are in the Public Gallery this evening. I had the privilege of meeting them today for the first time. I have to say that I am disappointed in myself and I apologise to them for not playing more of a role and linking in with them as a...

Challenges Facing the Childcare and Nursing Home Sectors: Motion [Private Members] (9 May 2024)

Joan Collins: That is no problem. I did not hear the Minister of State say that. I generally feel that what we are seeing in our childcare and nursing home sectors are the same old repeated failures of this Government and successive governments under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, with the PDs wagging the tail of the dog a few decades ago with their neoliberal agenda of privatisation of our public...

Progressing Special Education Provision: Statements (9 May 2024)

Joan Collins: I received an email from the Dublin 12 Campaign 4 Autism Inclusion about today's debate. The group asked me to raise special education provision in the Crumlin and Drimnagh areas. They feel they have been forgotten, even though a special needs school, for which they campaigned, opened in Crumlin recently. They say that Dublin 12 still needs autism classes, especially at secondary schools...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Charitable and Voluntary Organisations (2 May 2024)

Joan Collins: That is interesting. I raised this issue on Leaders' Questions again a couple of weeks ago. The way the funding seems to operate with section 10, section 39 and section 56 organisations and all the private charitable status groups makes it difficult to see where an 80% increase in an area has to be met through existing funding. My understanding is the Department of Health has the funding....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Charitable and Voluntary Organisations (2 May 2024)

Joan Collins: Pre-2009 and the crash, all these workers were linked in with public sector pay and got increases as public sector workers got their increases. That is my understanding from talking to people in the canal drugs task force and other task forces. That link was broken in 2009. I am sure the Minister of State will agree it is a serious issue that these workers have not had their pay restored...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Health Services Staff (2 May 2024)

Joan Collins: The Minister replied to me last May saying that the HSE had established a community nursing national oversight group in 2022. What has that group done? We have known that there is a crisis in public health nursing for the last two, three and four years. What are we doing to fundamentally resolve that issue? It is a postcode thing. Children in areas like Drimnagh, Crumlin, Walkinstown and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Health Services Staff (2 May 2024)

Joan Collins: It sounds a bit like "Groundhog Day". I have been raising this issue for the last year. I raised it in last March and April in relation to the Curlew Road, Armagh Road and Old County Road health centres. We were told that two teams were to be put into Armagh Road, or rather that there were 4.6 public health nurses between Armagh Road and Curlew Road and they were going to be put into the...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: International Agreements (25 Apr 2024)

Joan Collins: I was not. I checked with my office to make sure. I was at a meeting at 2.15 p.m. and I checked in my office before I walked in the door.

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: International Agreements (25 Apr 2024)

Joan Collins: Okay. I was just about to look for a deferment. I am raising Ireland's position on establishing the United Nations framework convention on international tax co-operation. Last month, at a statement in Paris urging EU countries to support the new UN framework convention on international tax co-operation, we learned that global tax abuse will cost the EU €1 trillion over the next...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: International Agreements (25 Apr 2024)

Joan Collins: I will have to read that reply again as it got very convoluted. I will read it in detail because I want to come back to the Minister of State on it. It does not look to me as though Ireland's taken position is as positive as he has stated. All OECD members were part of the 48 countries that voted against the UN resolution. Those countries represent 15% of the world's population and are...

Acknowledgement and Apology to the Families and to the Victims of the Stardust Tragedy: Statements (23 Apr 2024)

Joan Collins: I want to start by quoting the headline of the article by Kitty Holland on "The full story of the Stardust fire", which is, "Jesus Christ, the doors are locked". That is what the survivors from the Stardust fire have been saying for more than 40 years. They were not believed. They were ignored and, as Antoinette Keegan has said, they have been systematically abused by the Irish...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (18 Apr 2024)

Joan Collins: ...children's developmental health checks. I raised this issue on several occasions last year with regard to the Curlew Road and Old County Road primary care centres. I have recently been informed that the same problem exists at the centres in Islandbridge and it continues at Curlew Road. A lack of public health nurses is stopping children's developmental checks from taking place. I was...

Disability Justice: Motion [Private Members] (17 Apr 2024)

Joan Collins: I am sharing time with Deputy Harkin. I thank People Before Profit-Solidarity for presenting this Private Members' motion to the Dáil. I welcome the news that the Government is planning to scrap the Green Paper on Disability Reform. The proposals were widely condemned by a broad coalition of disability, mental health and carers' groups. I am glad the Government has recognised, as...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2024)

Joan Collins: I thank the Taoiseach. It has been 15 years since the crash. Until 2021, many of these workers had not even received a pay increase. The staffing community of voluntary organisations who are awarded the pay increase of 8% have not received it and have not been paid to date. That is outrageous. Why has it not been paid and when will it be paid? This needs to happen urgently. It...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2024)

Joan Collins: I agree with the last two speakers on the documentary last night on the O'Shea report but I want to raise the following issue. Earlier this month, we learned that health and social care staff with community and voluntary bodies are still awaiting pay increases agreed last October. I am referring to section 10, section 39 and section 56 workers. There was an agreement for an 8% pay increase...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Impact of Means Testing on State Pension and Other Social Welfare Schemes: Discussion (10 Apr 2024)

Joan Collins: I thank the witnesses for their presentations. I really appreciate them and they have highlighted some aspects I was not aware of. They also made clear some issues I was aware of, particularly relating to the average earnings and the input to the budget. We still have not got an explanation, as Ms Loughran said. I will dovetail a bit to the PBO report we discussed earlier on universal...

Taoiseach a Ainmniú - Nomination of Taoiseach (9 Apr 2024)

Joan Collins: There is a lot of fanfare about this being a new start for Fine Gael, this Government and the country. In reality, what we see is the same old stale, out-of-touch political system that has been in power since the foundation of the State. We can play political musical chairs and give everything a fresh look but this is just two sides of the same coin. It is another Taoiseach for Fine Gael...

Accommodation for International Protection Applicants: Motion [Private Members] (21 Mar 2024)

Joan Collins: I thank the Social Democrats for bringing this motion to the House. It is a worthy motion and worthy of good debate. We are watching the Government stand over a rapidly worsening crisis of accommodation for international protection applicants and Irish people. Time and again, the Government has missed the targets it has set for itself. It has become a national disgrace. We are failing...

Accommodation for International Protection Applicants: Motion [Private Members] (21 Mar 2024)

Joan Collins: At that time, there were not proper facilities in place. The camp on Mount Street existed because of the failure of the State to provide appropriate accommodation and the camp at Crooksling has quickly become another failure of the State to provide appropriate accommodation. Tents are not appropriate accommodation and the Minister knows that. I know he wants to try to resolve it but we...