Results 121-140 of 198 for like to work speaker:Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Joint Sitting with the Joint Comittee on Justice, Defence and Equality
Pro-Social Drivers Programme: Pro-Social Ireland (10 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: ...meeting of committees. I will make a very brief commentary, because Deputy Pringle and I are Deputies for Donegal and all the public representatives in the county have huge admiration for the work of Pro-Social Drivers. I am from the Inishowen peninsula. As mayor of my home town of Buncrana, I had to comment on a road tragedy on television. I remember going through the figures on...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Naval Service Operations (9 Jun 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Like me, the Minister would have been proud of the words of the President, Michael D. Higgins, when he was in Lebanon regarding Europe's failure to deal with the refugee crisis and the unacceptable catastrophe of thousands of people drowning in the Mediterranean. Italy and Malta cannot be expected to shoulder the responsibility. This is a European responsibility. I note that there has been...

An Bille um an gCeathrú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Cearta Geilleagracha, Comhdhaonnacha agus Cultúir) 2014: An Dara Céim [Comhaltaí Príobháideacha]: - Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution (Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) Bill 2014: Second Stage [Private Members] (19 May 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I commend Deputies Pringle and Healy on this Private Members' Bill. Sinn Féin supports the proposed amendment to the Constitution. A total of 85% of the members of the Constitutional Convention voted in favour of amending the Constitution to strengthen the protection of economic, social and cultural rights, and a majority of the convention voted for a constitutional provision along the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (29 Apr 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: We are sitting as a joint sub-committee on petitions to record the decisions of the committee. The committee has received a total of 137 petitions to date since the launch of the petitions system. The secretariat has been examining them, first, to establish the admissibility of the petitions and, second, to assess how best to progress a petition for consideration by the joint sub-committee....

Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (22 Apr 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Like Deputy Collins, I welcome the fact that the Government has addressed the concerns we had through amendments Nos. 42 and 43. I will set out a relevant example for amendment No. 44. Not long ago, the former Secretary General of the Department of Justice and Equality, Brian Purcell, came before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality. He restrained himself from...

Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Report Stage (12 Mar 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I wish to speak to amendment No. 47. We discussed this at length on Committee Stage and I appreciate that the Minister has put in an amendment to strengthen the area of statutory declarations. This is a serious debate and organisations such as Treoir have been to the forefront in highlighting the issue. There is inequality as between a father and a mother as things stand. There must be...

Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Second Stage (24 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I am very happy to see the much anticipated and long-awaited Children and Family Relationships Bill reach the floor of the House today. I am only sorry it has taken so long to get here. As we all know, this Bill is the biggest change to family law in the State's history, finally taking account of the diversity of modern Irish families, and this can only be celebrated. The reality of an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Effects of Gangland Crime: Discussion (18 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: The committee was carrying out work separate from this recently and it was pointed out that there had been a noticeable increase in drug use and so on as the economy appeared to be on the upturn. Ms Metcalfe's evidence was powerful in this regard; it is almost as if she is starting again on the same challenge. Have any of the witnesses reflected on the failure of the war on drugs...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Effects of Gangland Crime: Discussion (18 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: ...view one way or the other, but what I know for sure is that what we are doing now is failing and has been failing for a long time. We have talked about the Portuguese model, but it might be useful to look at other models in the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Spain. It is not that people are told that taking drugs is fine, but the focus is shifted from a criminal justice perspective to...

Select Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Personal Insolvency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (11 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I move amendment No. 5:In page 23, between lines 38 and 39, to insert the following:“Report by Minister 18. Within one month of the coming into force of this Act the Minister shall lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas a full review of the Principal Act.”. The intent of the amendment is clear. We are anxious to see a full review of the Act laid before the Houses of the...

Personal Insolvency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Second Stage (3 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: ...Act has been reopened. In 2012 when this legislation was first debated, mistakes were made by an arrogant Government which decided it was better off trusting the banks rather than listening to those who work at the coalface with people in debt. We cannot let another opportunity slip past us. This time the Government must listen to those in debt and those who work with them. On the...

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (4 Dec 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: The Government has come under extensive public pressure on water charges. It has been forced to introduce the proposed lower rates. This was not something it wanted to do; it was something in which the Government had no choice. Next Wednesday, the Government will be faced with even larger protests. Today, however, it could take the opportunity to do the right thing and scrap water charges...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Garda Inspectorate Reports (18 Nov 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Like the Minister, I imagine, I have spoken to many members of An Garda Síochána since the report was published. Broadly, they welcome it. They have made the interesting observation that there was nothing in it that they could not have told us about resources. I am referring specifically to the issue of rosters. There has been significant criticism of the rostering system, the...

Garda Síochána (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2014: Second Stage (21 Oct 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: ...enough. Unfortunately it has not been included here either, however, I am assured that it will be established in other new legislation in the coming weeks. I, and my party, will be continuing to push for this as we believe that it is integral to the reform of policing in this State. For example, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC, did not have the ability to oversee...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission: Commissioner Designate (8 Oct 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: My next question relates to the direct provision system. Ms Logan has raised this issue and I am sure she will have noted that there has been a marked increase in focus on it in Parliament. It was the subject of a Private Members' motion last week that extended over two nights. It appears we are nearing the point where, collectively, everybody is agreed that this system needs to change...

Disability Services: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (16 Jul 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: In these Houses all of us pledge allegiance to the 1916 Proclamation that hangs in the foyer. Therefore, we believe in a republic - a new republic - one where all citizens are equal, regardless of the colour of their skin, disability, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, where they live or what they do. Creating the conditions for establishing an equal society means recognising that many...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Report on “A Good Death”: Office of the Ombudsman (16 Jul 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: The issue of private versus public hospitals was raised. During a previous interaction between the committee and the Ombudsman, he raised with us the need to ensure that all public services, whether delivered by a private or public company, come under the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman, which is an issue that arises not only in Ireland but throughout Europe. It is an issue on which the...

Mental Health Services: Motion [Private Members] (1 Jul 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I commend this motion as for too many years, the whole area of mental health has been the Cinderella of the health service. Over the years while growing up and in common with many people, when visiting different towns I wondered what was this big house or what was the history of that big building. One often was told that it was the psychiatric hospital, which was where people were put out...

Cooke Report: Statements (19 Jun 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: In the shadowy world of modern surveillance, it is extremely difficult to definitively prove that surveillance has taken place. As said in various media interviews, it is not like in the old movies where one can unscrew one's telephone and find a bug or take the mirror from the wall and find a bug behind it. It is very difficult to prove but what we can say with certainty is that such was...

Offences against the State (Amendment) Act 1998 and Criminal Justice (Amendment ) Act 1998: Motions (19 Jun 2014)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Here we are again. At the same time every year we debate this. Every year we in Sinn Féin oppose it and argue for more time to debate it and every year we are denied and the motion passes. We all will be aware of the background to the Offences against the State Act and I am not going to rehash it yet again today. This legislation undermines human rights, civil liberties and...