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WHAT ARE OUR politicians doing in the halls of Leinster House?
TheJournal.ie lets you know with our guide to what’s coming up in the Dáil, Seanad and various Oireachtas committees today.
DÁIL
Taoiseach Enda Kenny will be in the hot seat for Leaders’ Questions first thing at 10.30am and then the juicy stuff – the legislation which would establish the framework for a banking inquiry to go ahead returns to the Dáil for its final stage and must wrap up by 1.30pm.
Legislation to remove legal uncertainty around repossession of a property when it is a family home – ie, letting a court adjourn in some cases to see if a better personal insolvency solution can be found – is also in the chamber for the final stages.
The last to conclude tonight will be the Ministers and Secretaries Amendment Bill to give statutory effect to fixed ministerial expenditure ceilings.
Education and Skills Minister Ruairi Quinn takes questions at 2.30pm – there should be some interesting written questions in there, considering recent events – with topical issues at 3.45pm taking in issues as diverse as J1 visas for students, funding for Finglas Primary Care Centre, US surveillance in the EU and housing adaption grants.
Sinn Féin are using private members time for the Equality Status (Amendment) Bill 2013, which we mentioned here yesterday.
SEANAD
The Seanad has a committee at 11.45am questioning Training and Skills junior minister Ciarán Cannon about the winding down of FÁS and responsibilities for further education and training transferred to SOLAS. Acronym central.
There will no doubt be more impassioned speeches about the potential to abolish Seanad Éireann at 1.30pm – you may recall Senator David Norris, who has been quite ill, making a most furious speech about it last week – and cutting the legs out from under Enda Kenny in the process. “Watch him from 13:00 on this:
via videoist/Youtube
Senator Feargal Quinn – he of supermarket fame – is bringing the second stage of his private member bill about making an enhanced level of food labelling info available to consumers at 4.30pm.
COMMITTEES
Great idea. Word of advice though. Drop the “not for profit” bit. You can do a whole lot with profit, the more profit the better.
When I hear not for profit I always think of large salaries & spending money randomly without benefit so it’s all gone by the end of the year.
If you set out to make a profit, you can do so much more with it, including finding future development of the product/s.
Well done. Everyone should be so very proud of you.
not for profit doesn’t mean no one gets paid or you can’t reinvest?
If you want to profit from the homeless great but “I’m out”
Well said OU 812 – Not for profit, then for what…??
For-profit businesses are why most of us have an income and a roof over our heads. Don’t be so quick to knock them.
This should be given out on the soup runs for those who do not want to or can’t access hostels etc. the government should sponsor it’s development.
This is quite like the American coat that becomes a sleeping bag at night. Saw on an article a few weeks ago. Good idea.
Fair play – what a great idea. Well done.
Well done to the student, while your all finding fault with her project your’re forgetting she is a school student that came up with this idea! Abit ahead of the adults I think !
Let the government buy them off you and hand them out to the homeless until they can find a better solution. Its the least they could do.
Perhaps Ming could make himself usefull and promote this idea……!!
Or Alan Kelly who is actually in government and made certain promises to the homeless! Maybe address your smart comments toward him.
Excellent work! This will most likely save many lives.
However I don’t like the idea of making it easy for the homeless to stay on the streets. They are motivated and driven off the streets for the issues addressed by this product.
This may just make things more comfortable for the homeless and junkies to stay on the streets. Here come the red thumbs!
So they’ll now think “why bother getting a house now, who needs education, a family, comfort, good health or safe protection from other homeless people, junkies and rapists, why would I want any of that now, I’ve made it, I’ve got my 1m wide strip of padded foil…”
I agree James it is a good temporary ‘Tech Fix’, but not the answer to the problem.
How do they get off the streets then if not to a coffin?
There is no rush to get them all a bedsit I think.
It looks like the covers that they put on boxes of bananas to keep them from getting too warm ,beleave it or not as Mr Ripley would say.
Saw this yesterday at the exhibition and it is a wonderful idea with great potential, well done Emily and all at Desmond College.
“The wrap itself is waterproof, inflammable, retains heat and has reflective strips to make it more noticeable.”. Inflammable?? Shouldn’t that say fireproof?
@Alan breen they both mean the same thing
Jimmy Murphy no they don’t,
@alan breen you’re right, inflammable means burns easily.
No Jimmy Murphy, they are polar opposites. Inflammable means easily set alight.
It says ‘non-flammable’.
If want to take this further take a read about the one in Detroit called the Empowerment Plan. The designer of the costs now trains and employs the homeless to make the costs/sleeping bags for others …fantastic!
http://www.empowermentplan.org
Good luck..
Just wondering what kind of the hostel can b so bad that homeless people choose sleep on the street instead?
Vadim, anecdotal evidence from homeless people who have used hostels, tells of drug use, robbery and intimidation. It appears there is little supervision in the dormitories.
Thanks for explaining. So this kind of hostels r only for homeless people.
Hostel won’t take druggies or troublemakers.
Perhaps there needs to be Garda on overnight to put a stop to certain activities.
Fantastic idea , can’t wait to see them littered all over Dublin’s inner city, makes a change from seeing abandoned sleeping bags I suppose .
I always said children were the future!
Eh was that not Whitney Houston ?
My apologies Alan Breen
Let those who refuse reasonable offers of help make their own way in life or death. Most of you would decry locking these people up for their own protection so why or how is this any different? Take the foil blankets of get no soup? Also I’d have concerns about giving any foil based product to addicts.
have your say