Results 121-136 of 136 for long speaker:Gary Gannon

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Industrial Disputes (7 Oct 2020)

Gary Gannon: ...last year. It is not fair to tell school secretaries who are living off €12,500 a year that they should wait until the pandemic is over when they have been involved in this dispute since long before it began. That is manipulating the situation to the benefit of the State. It is unfortunate that this has been done. Will the Minister do what her predecessor had already agreed?...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Industrial Disputes (7 Oct 2020)

Gary Gannon: ...stoppages on Friday, 23 October, Monday, 2 November, and Friday, 13 November, followed by an indefinite strike commencing on Monday, 16 November. The continuing dispute with the Department is due to a long-standing two tier pay system that leaves most school secretaries earning just €12,500 a year with irregular short-term contracts that force them to sign on during the summer...

Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment: Motion [Private Members] (7 Oct 2020)

Gary Gannon: ...to happen very quickly. We rid ourselves of private hospitals and had a single-tier health service because we were told we could not have a dual health service in the middle of a pandemic. For a long time, people who argued and advocated for a ban on evictions were told such a ban would be unconstitutional. Overnight, however, we had a ban on evictions. We then had a recognition that...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Sports Funding (1 Oct 2020)

Gary Gannon: I do not doubt for a second that we want sport to be funded and to continue in this country but the League of Ireland was in a precarious place long before the pandemic hit and it is now at a point where we do not know whether there will be a League of Ireland next season. I have spoken to Shelbourne and Bohemians, which are in my constituency, and to clubs throughout Dublin. They have told...

Child Poverty: Motion [Private Members] (30 Sep 2020)

Gary Gannon: ..., Deputy Whitmore, on bringing forward this motion on child poverty. It is an issue we all care deeply about and hope to address in the lifetime of this Dáil because we have waited far too long. More than 200,000 children are at risk of poverty, 90,000 children are living in consistent poverty, and behind every one of those children there is a parent, often a mother, who is...

Protecting Jobs and Supporting Business: Statements (16 Sep 2020)

Gary Gannon: .... It meant that workers could maintain a connection with their employment. It was a worthy time in dealing with the pandemic. However, gradually darker clouds have set in and, suddenly, we are no longer all in this together. There are new slogans now. We are now being told that we must learn to live with the virus. Learning to live with the virus seems to be a way of acknowledging...

Workers' Rights: Motion [Private Members] (16 Sep 2020)

Gary Gannon: I thank Deputy Joan Collins and the Independent group for bringing forward this very appropriate and apt motion. The motion is five paragraphs long and within those five paragraphs is a very clear roadmap for how we can make better the lives of workers throughout this country who are experiencing an anxiety that is being accelerated by the fact there does not seem to be a sense the...

Future of School Education: Motion [Private Members] (28 Jul 2020)

Gary Gannon: ...understaffing of our schools have compounded the issues concerning the reopening of schools and we cannot ignore it anymore. All we have seen in recent months is a crystallisation of realities that existed long before then. We cannot continue to expect education to solve societal ills, to provide opportunity and to be a magic bullet, if we continuously underfund it, pass the costs on to...

Social Welfare (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (28 Jul 2020)

Gary Gannon: ...It was done promptly and it gave a sense of safety to people. It acknowledged that the previous welfare rate of €203 was simply not enough to live on. Many of us had been advocating that for a long time. It recognised that to afford decency to people so that they might feed their families and not have to worry about the next bill coming through the door, it was an appropriate...

Debenhams Ireland Redundancies: Motion [Private Members] (22 Jul 2020)

Gary Gannon: .... I am a proud representative of the Dublin Central constituency which has a Debenhams store on Henry Street. I also take an interest in business in the inner city because that is where I grew up. We have all known for a long time that commercial footfall in Dublin Central as a whole was lessening and people were choosing to drive out to the shopping centres on the M50 or, worse for the...

Employment Rights: Motion [Private Members] (15 Jul 2020)

Gary Gannon: ...made by some of our most vulnerable workers that is unquantifiable. We will speak of a debt that remains unpaid. That contribution from our workers and the debt the State owes them for the manner in which their labour has been undervalued was prevalent in our society long before Covid-19. We hope and expect the motion we have tabled will give Deputies throughout the Chamber the...

Vote 33 - Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (Revised) (9 Jul 2020)

Gary Gannon: .... In recent years, they have asked for their plight, including unsafe and inappropriate conditions, to be raised. My colleague sitting to my right, Deputy Boyd Barrett, has been raising it for a long time. I ask the Minister to meet these professionals from the industry. Last week, the Covid committee had a presentation from engineers and other people who make their living through...

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response: Impact of Covid-19: Education – Return to School and School Transport (2 Jul 2020)

Gary Gannon: ...to suggest having SNAs appear. The Chairman said that my party has a representative on the committee. I have five minutes to speak whereas members of other parties may speak for twice as long. If my party's contributions to the procedural committee were as valid as those of others, we would probably not have less time than others.

Estimates for Public Services 2020 - Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Revised Estimate) (28 May 2020)

Gary Gannon: .... There should be no more austerity on the table. So many people experienced austerity in the past decade and have not yet recovered. They have nothing left to offer. Whether in the short or long term, there should be no more conversations about austerity. We need to fiscally stimulate our economy by investing in our people, providing legislation that protects our workers and...

Covid-19 (Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht): Statements (14 May 2020)

Gary Gannon: ...comes that we can gather in groups with our friends or families it will be our artists, through their music, drama and artistic content, that will be the focal point of that much needed and much longed-for gathering. We are going to rely on our artists to help us laugh again. Undoubtedly, when the time comes that we can honour and pay homage to our front-line workers and those who have...

Social Protection (Covid-19): Statements (2 Apr 2020)

Gary Gannon: ...our newly acquired public healthcare, public childcare and a security of tenure that has been a lifeblood for so many families during this period of crisis. Health, housing and childcare, for so long the big three insoluble issues, have improved drastically in a very short space of time, proving that the political leadership which had been needed for so long was in fact lacking. The job...