Results 1-20 of 197 for long speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Parental Leave (30 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...of these forms of leave, in particular parental leave. With paternal leave I think there is a cultural barrier we need to get over. There are the financial pressures and I think we have gone a long way towards easing that. There are workplace pressures where your employer may not be particularly excited about you taking up your full entitlement. There is also social pressure. The lads...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: European Year of Skills 2023: Discussion (Resumed) (30 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...between 2021 and 2023. Is that figure is correct? Are we researching why people are dropping out of these craft apprenticeships? Are we doing anything in terms of retention measures? On lifelong learning rates, we are nominally chasing the likes of Sweden. I have old figures from 2018 where its rate was up at approximately 30%. We were at approximately 12.5%, although I know some...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: Inland Fisheries Ireland (25 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: It resulted in very long meetings.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (24 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: I again raise a long-term and ongoing issue at Heilbhic Pier in Gaeltacht na nDéise just outside Dungarvan. For a number of days each month when the tide is at its lowest, the RNLI boat cannot launch. It cannot exit the slipway. The harbour is silted up. I have been around the houses on this. It has been a case of pass the parcel. I have put questions to the Department of...

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (18 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...by at least 300% but it is not at the capacity that is needed to meet its new obligations. Is the Department sanctioned to spend in terms of extra staffing and can it get the staff it needs? What are the long-term plans for increasing capacity in the Department?

Public Accounts Committee: 2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (18 Apr 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: One of the issues that makes the provision of long-term accommodation under the temporary protection directive more challenging is the fact we do not really have clear sight of what is going to happen beyond March 2025 when the directive falls out of force. Looking at some of the long-term solutions, my local authority has been looking at projects that would not deliver within 12 months....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Statutory Instruments: Department of Social Protection (20 Mar 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...in relation to an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks. It is imperative that they comply with any such direction. Witnesses are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable or...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Social Welfare Statutory Instruments: Department of Social Protection (20 Mar 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...to means testing of medical cards. That is another barrier to people getting involved. The Cathaoirleach also draws attention to the fact that, for older people, there are a lot of benefits that go along with having a younger person in the house. He would be anxious that any barrier preventing older people from being involved in the scheme would be removed. The Cathaoirleach also has...

Report of the Joint Committee on Autism: Motion (7 Mar 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...already had that pattern established. It was a valuable exercise. Probably the most powerful session we had was when the autistic self-advocates came and sat in the Seanad Chamber. It was a long and split session. We heard from people personally and that helped us travel a long way along the road to an autism-friendly Parliament. The apparatus of the Parliament had to prepare for...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Fuel Poverty (7 Mar 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...done by that committee in the area of energy poverty. I have spoken strongly about the fact that we have responded in the short term and cash was the way to do that in the short term. We have long-term plans for the retrofitting of housing stock, which is absolutely where we should be headed in the longer term, but we need to do something in the medium term to reach those people the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Energy Poverty: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...Friends of the Earth as it is a common recommendation. I am very interested in - and we discussed this at the committee previously - the middle piece, the energy transition. Retrofitting is a long-term goal, although not for everybody as some are getting there already, but it is going to be a while before we reach all housing stock. I am interested in what we can do in that medium term,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Energy Poverty: Discussion (Resumed) (28 Feb 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...and the capacity of a Department to deliver multifaceted supports to people. Also, it strikes me that with the full range of levers we are talking about in the short term, medium term and long term, I see how the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications fits in on things like retrofit, whereas those short- and medium-term supports are something which come through the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: North-South Student Mobility: Discussion (Resumed) (27 Feb 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...away. We have a similar problem in the south east. The Cathaoirleach will be well aware of this issue too. People go away for their education, meet their partners and very often it takes them a long time to get back to the south east, if they manage to get back at all. It is exactly the same for Northern Ireland. Let us compare this situation with that of the Dublin population,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Energy Poverty: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...get to it. I am a great admirer of EnergyCloud Ireland's work. I spoke last week about how we tackle fuel poverty and how we build that into the energy transition must be a short-, medium- and long-term project. In the short term, we have done money transfers. That can be done instantly, and that was the correct way to proceed in the very immediate term. In the long term, we should be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection: Energy Poverty: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Feb 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: If EnergyCloud is installing this device in my home, how much does it cost? I know it does not cost the householder anything, but how much does it cost? How long does it take? What information do we get back from the device?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: School Meals Programme (20 Feb 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...-motivated. My question was about the schools that missed out on the April 2023 deadline. Like Deputy Ó Laoghaire, I want to see this in all schools. I have always been of the opinion, and it has long been Green Party policy, that when the State has them, we should feed them. It has a huge impact in areas of disadvantage. It is right and proper that we focus on those schools...

Second Anniversary of War in Ukraine: Statements (20 Feb 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...later. I acknowledge the solidarity of peoples all across Europe for those defending their homeland from Russia's illegal aggression, and that should be acknowledged, but it is absolutely nothing alongside the courage and commitment of those Ukrainians directly engaged in the conflict and the defence of their homeland. If Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose greatest battle up to then had been...

Ceisteanna - Questions: National Security (20 Feb 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: For a long time, we have traded on the fact that we are physically very remote, and that insulates us from the kind of cross-border aggression we have seen in eastern Europe. However, cyberwarfare does not know boundaries in the same way. I would like to see that we are adequately supporting and resourcing the National Cyber Security Centre. I know it is difficult for the Taoiseach to...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Feb 2024)

Marc Ó Cathasaigh: ...part of it - is timber. Our use of timber in construction in Ireland is far lower than that of our counterparts, in Scotland in particular. It can be literally home grown, locks up carbon for the long term, and should sit well with modern methods of construction for rapid-build social homes, for example. The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, instituted a new inter-departmental and...