Results 1-20 of 1,403 for at speaker:Gerald Nash

Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (15 May 2024)

Gerald Nash: I move amendment No. 1: In page 8, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following: “(3) The Agency may, in consultation with a Minister of the Government having functions in relation to a sector of the economy, develop proposals for investment in that sector in order to support economic activity and employment.”. I am sorry for being a little late. I proposed this...

Road Safety and Maintenance: Motion [Private Members] (15 May 2024)

Gerald Nash: Like much of the public infrastructure in this rich country, our roads, cycleways and footpaths are suffering from chronic underinvestment and, tragically, to an extent, the cost is being measured in the lives of road users. There has been a 30% increase in fatal accidents on our roads to date this year while, at the same time, investment in road infrastructure and road safety measures is...

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Management (9 May 2024)

Gerald Nash: 163. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will request the OPW to investigate the provision of flood defences for residents at Marsh Road, Bellurgan, Dundalk, County Louth; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21013/24]

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2024: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 May 2024)

Gerald Nash: Deputy Doherty is right, to a point. Most of us would probably anticipate a scenario where it will be an annual routine for the Government to require itself to bring a resolution to the floor of the Dáil. There are some guardrails, if I can describe them as such, here in the legislation, which cites the figures of 0.8% and 0.4%. There is also a function here for the Irish Fiscal...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Budget Process (2 May 2024)

Gerald Nash: I thank the Minister. Nobody is arguing that we did not have a necessity for additional spending in recent years. The issue is the means by which the Government has presented the spending. The Minister will recall the phrase used by IFAC after budget 2024, when it described the way in which expenditure was presented to the House as a form of "fiscal gimmickry". This was a very serious...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Budget Process (2 May 2024)

Gerald Nash: Nobody is arguing that we did not require additional supports for those who are less well-off and those on modest incomes in terms of battling through the cost-of-living crisis. It is how we have presented it in the House. In recent years the budget has been presented in a very opaque way. Many budgetary items described in recent years as "once-off" have, in fact, persisted. This is the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2024: Committee Stage (1 May 2024)

Gerald Nash: I move amendment No. 2: In page 8, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following: “(3) The Agency may, in consultation with a Minister of the Government having functions in relation to a sector of the economy, develop proposals for investment in that sector in order to support economic activity and employment.”. This relates to the investment strategy that the NTMA...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2024: Committee Stage (1 May 2024)

Gerald Nash: I thank the Minister for his response. I would argue that the way in which I drafted my amendment, amendment No. 2, is broad enough not to necessarily tie any future Government’s hands on what it specifically ought to do in terms of functions with regard to a sector of the economy and the development of proposals for investment in a sector in order to support economic activity and...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2024: Committee Stage (1 May 2024)

Gerald Nash: ...amendment to the requirement to invest in our indigenous SME base because it is not as productive as the SME base of the countries we like to compare ourselves to. It is not as competitive or innovative and with the challenges with foreign direct investment in the future, we have to have a specific remit in that regard and we need to focus the fund on that challenge. It is also a...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Departmental Schemes (30 Apr 2024)

Gerald Nash: That is essentially what the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael McGrath, said to me last week. It seems to me that the only thing standing in the way of including Drogheda in the living city scheme is politics. We meet the criteria for the scheme, which the Minister of State set out. We manifest levels of vacancy and dereliction and higher than average levels of unemployment and...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Departmental Schemes (30 Apr 2024)

Gerald Nash: ...place does. We always overcome them. We often do so in spite of and not because of Government support. Increasingly, we have had to rely on ourselves to address the problems this Government patently ignores. To give an example, to tackle the social and economic problems that formed the backdrop to a vicious criminal feud, it was me as an Opposition Senator and my colleague, Councillor...

Petrol and Diesel Excise Rate Increases: Motion [Private Members] (30 Apr 2024)

Gerald Nash: ...chose to increase the price of petrol and diesel". It did not need to do so but went ahead and did regardless, despite the impact on those who are struggling to make ends meet. It was in that context that on budget night last October the Labour Party moved a motion to seek a deferral of the planned excise duty increases pushed on punters at the pumps at least until budget 2025, in...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (25 Apr 2024)

Gerald Nash: 174. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will address a serious issue at a school in Omeath, County Louth (details supplied) that has seen its allocation of special education teaching hours cut for the second year running, putting enormous strain on the school’s staff and putting the provision of the SET teaching support needed at the school, greatly at risk; and if she...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Special Educational Needs (23 Apr 2024)

Gerald Nash: 319. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason several parents in an area, including one couple (details supplied), have been denied places for their children when they had previously been promised at a school’s ASD unit for the school year starting in September 2024; if she will commit to give the school the resources necessary in order that none of these children are...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: EU Directives (18 Apr 2024)

Gerald Nash: I advise the Minister of State not to rely disproportionately on the efficacy and utility of the JLC system, good and all as it is, for enabling Ireland to reach its obligations under the minimum wages directive, specifically Article 4. The system is important, and I am proud of the role I played in re-establishing its mechanisms, which are important for low-paid workers, but there are...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Living Wage (18 Apr 2024)

Gerald Nash: There is no doubt that some small businesses are experiencing difficulties at the moment. There will be challenges for businesses to wean themselves off the kind of corporate welfare that has been available over the last few years to maintain the viability of businesses. However, this should not be done at the expense of low-paid workers. We have a problem with low pay in this country....

Written Answers — Department of Health: Assisted Human Reproduction (18 Apr 2024)

Gerald Nash: 284. To ask the Minister for Health the number of candidates or patients with addresses in County Louth who are currently on the waiting list for their first formal and direct appointment at the fertility treatment facility for IVF at the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin; the average waiting times for a first appointment at the facility; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17109/24]

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Report on Indexation of the Taxation and Social Protection System: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Gerald Nash: This evening's engagement is with representatives from the Nevin Economic Research Institute and Social Justice Ireland. They are very welcome. The committee has agreed to revisit the indexation of the welfare and taxation system against the background of the recommendations contained in its report on the topic, which was published in July 2022. I welcome: Dr. Tom McDonnell, co-director,...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Report on Indexation of the Taxation and Social Protection System: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Gerald Nash: I thank Mr. McGeady. I am glad he made the remarks he did because it speaks to some observations I was going to make with regard to the question of adequacy of core weekly payments and our system more generally. We have to start looking at our social protection system through the lens of adequacy rather than simply a non-evidence-based way of generating what the rates might be every year....

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Report on Indexation of the Taxation and Social Protection System: Discussion (17 Apr 2024)

Gerald Nash: Do the witnesses agree that the decision to introduce a number of once-off payments, as they were described, to complement the inadequate core payments over the past couple of years to assist households through a very difficult period, was, in itself, an admission that core welfare rates are utterly inadequate? My next question is based on that observation. Where do the witnesses think the...