Results 181-200 of 244 for long speaker:Paul Gavan

Seanad: National Training Fund: Statements (28 Feb 2019)

Paul Gavan: ...like Germany, one sees that there is a much wider range of apprenticeships available. These are hugely beneficial not only to the people involved, but to the economy overall. It is what good long-term economic planning should be about. With regard to recent national training fund developments, I am worried about the decision to give greater power and say to big business in terms of how...

Seanad: National Minimum Wage (Protection of Employee Tips) Bill 2017: Committee Stage (20 Feb 2019)

Paul Gavan: ...chain of restaurants in Ireland. When I got the job, I started my training period, during which I was told I would receive no tips. Other members of staff told me that they were incentivised to make my training period last for as long as possible so they would get to keep my tips. Then when I passed through training, I was told a percentage of my tips were taken for breakages. A...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (7 Feb 2019)

Paul Gavan: ...for more than 14 months, nine Catalan political prisoners, including six former members of the Catalan Government, the former Speaker of Parliament and two civil society leaders, are facing a long trial before the Spanish Supreme Court. They face the grave charges of rebellion, disobedience and embezzlement of public funds. I ask for a debate on Catalonia because of the importance of...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Second Stage (6 Dec 2018)

Paul Gavan: I welcome the Minister of State and, in particular, I welcome this Bill. It has been a long journey. Senator Devine put it very well in terms of the need to salute everyone and not just the people who have been involved in recent months. I salute Senator Noone and all of my colleagues on the committee. We had a much easier task than that faced by the people who stood up to be counted at...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Second Stage (6 Dec 2018)

Paul Gavan: ...depths of some of the debate in the Dáil. I truly hope we do not have to put up with filibustering. By all means, let us debate and respect each other's comments but filibustering at this stage of this long national conversation is uncalled for. I hope we do not find ourselves back in a "Doctor Who" tardis whisked back to 1955. Can the Senators believe some of the amendments in...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Second Stage (6 Dec 2018)

Paul Gavan: ...three days. I would appeal to colleagues across the Chamber to work constructively with us to get that done. Let us do the very best we can for the women of Ireland who have waited for far too long for recognition and justice. In years to come, we will look on that time between 1983 and this year as one of the darkest periods of our history. It is hard to believe that Government after...

Seanad: Commencement Matters (Resumed): Protected Disclosures (20 Nov 2018)

Paul Gavan: The Minister is very welcome. Ennis Educate Together national school was founded in 1998. In recent years there have been revelations about shocking and long-standing failures of school management. There are also serious questions for the school patron, and it gives me no pleasure to say that as I have long been a firm supporter and advocate of Educate Together. These revelations have...

Seanad: Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Second Stage (20 Nov 2018)

Paul Gavan: I welcome the Minister and this important Bill. I know it has been a long time in the making and that consistent and persistent work has been done by my colleagues in the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, my own union, SIPTU, Mandate and Unite. I acknowledge the work of the former Minister of State, our colleague, Senator Nash, and the important report from the University of Limerick on zero...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Nov 2018)

Paul Gavan: ...great deal on which we can all agree. The first is that the 35,000 to 40,000 Irishmen and Irishwomen who died should be remembered. They have been written out of the history of this State for too long. I hope we would also be able to agree on the nature of that war, a pointless, futile exercise with needless deaths and a generation butchered and damned, as the song says. The conflict...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Equine Identification Scheme (4 Oct 2018)

Paul Gavan: ...and cities across the State, which interestingly is largely associated with working-class areas of Limerick city, Cork and Dublin, as well as areas of rural Ireland, such as Tipperary, which have long been forgotten by this Government. If these horses were roaming around Montenotte in Cork, Foxrock in Dublin or the North Circular Road in Limerick, I suspect we would quickly see a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: School Facilities and Costs: Discussion (Resumed) (30 Aug 2018)

Paul Gavan: ...has consistently been the case. I can go back as far as 1979. Things have got worse since my parents were put in that position. My second question is simple. Extortionate interest rates have been around for a long time. Does anyone know why successive Governments have refused to act on the issue? I know it has come up several times in the past. I cannot remember what the answer...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: School Facilities and Costs: Discussion (29 Aug 2018)

Paul Gavan: ...cutting waffle when we see the crisis the witnesses have just described, the level of underfunding and how reasonable the witnesses' requests are. As has been pointed out, the one day per week has long been in place in the North of Ireland. The witnesses' views on that will be useful. All of us here will probably agree with them but when real politics engages again in September and next...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Schools Building Contractors (4 Jul 2018)

Paul Gavan: ...national school in Mullingar and the Mercy Convent primary school in Naas. The Minister of State will not disagree that Mr. Porfireanu, who is with his family in the Gallery, has been waiting too long to receive money that he worked hard to earn. This is an example of a migrant worker, working here legally and being exploited by an unscrupulous employer, one which continues to be...

Seanad: Order of Business (29 May 2018)

Paul Gavan: ...months and the way our own people got behind the repeal campaign.Among the questions people asked afterwards was whether I celebrated and whether it was appropriate to celebrate. I did celebrate, along with a number of others, in Limerick on Saturday afternoon. To be clear, I was not celebrating abortion but the fact that this awful amendment - this symbol of oppression - is finally to...

Seanad: National Archives (Amendment) Bill 2017: Second Stage (29 May 2018)

Paul Gavan: ...to release the records earlier than prescribed under the 100-year rule. This was six years ago, and this Bill would have been a fitting place to allow for the release of the 1926 census records. This has long been sought by genealogists and it would definitely enhance our tourism as the access to our diaspora's roots improves. I hope the Minister strongly considers amendments to achieve...

Seanad: Marine Protection: Motion (23 May 2018)

Paul Gavan: ...on this issue. I want to talk about microbeads. They are causing immense problems in our oceans. Senator O'Sullivan was the first to bring this to the attention of the Chamber. I am not sure how long ago it was at this stage but it was last year. We are promised that legislation is coming. I am not convinced. These microplastics are being put into everyday products such as soaps,...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Hardship Grant Scheme (15 May 2018)

Paul Gavan: ...indication of a date and that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, has signed off on the funding for this. The Minister of State will not disagree that these men have been waiting too long. Let us do the right thing.

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Hardship Grant Scheme (15 May 2018)

Paul Gavan: ...I will be back asking the same question again, which I do not want to do. I recognise that the Minister of State has been working towards resolving this issue, but these men have waited a long time. Are we talking about weeks or months? Surely we are not looking beyond the summer. I ask the Minister of State to give me an indication.

Seanad: Europe Day 2018: Statements (10 May 2018)

Paul Gavan: ...growth and prosperity. However, that growth came to a crashing halt in 2008. Today, the European Union is facing unprecedented challenges, many of which are as a direct result of the failures of long-standing EU policy and the thoroughly undemocratic nature of the EU bureaucracy itself. The past decade in particular has seen the EU tie itself to a neoliberal vision which has had...

Seanad: Project Ireland 2040: Statements (Resumed) (2 May 2018)

Paul Gavan: I would like to begin by genuinely welcoming the fact that we have reached a time in Irish politics where long-term strategic capital and infrastructural planning has become part of the political discourse. This in itself is a good development. For far too long, we have staggered from Government to Government and budget to budget, with Ministers expected to think short term in order to...