Results 81-100 of 5,497 for speaker:Gerard Craughwell

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: Neither can I.

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: On that, we should directly contact the European side on this and get it to identify where those boats are and take them out of service while lives are at risk. Moreover, in preparation for what we are doing, we should write immediately to the Departments involved and ask for all the documentation they have on this case. If we allow this to go on, holes will be found and stuff will be...

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I might just come in on that. From a personal point of view, I might as well state my own position. I am against the notorious hate speech Bill. However, we constantly get requests in this House that, when legislation goes through, we would have the President refer it to the Supreme Court, but that is the most dangerous thing we could do. Once legislation has gone through the Supreme...

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: Actually, it passed the 90-day limit, as well as the 180-day limit.

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: It has passed that limit altogether. There is a misconception among the public that once it passes the 270 days, the Bill falls. I believe that the Bill passed 322 days, with effect from yesterday. However, it remains on the Order Paper in the Seanad, and as long as it is on the Order Paper, it can be debated. The only way it could fall is the way the judicial appointments Bill fell. It...

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: For clarity, the route is that the Bill has passed the Dáil and it has come to the Seanad. If it is amended in the Seanad, it will go back to the Dáil. If those amendments are accepted in the Dáil, the Bill then passes the Houses of the Oireachtas. It does not come back to the Seanad for a second time. It goes to the President for signing. I am not sure whether the OPLA...

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I am not sure whether the OPLA would want its advice published, but at least it may give us a formula of words to use.

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank the Chair.

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: This is a really sensitive matter. For me, the site where the bodies lie today is a sanctuary. These men were executed and were buried in situ. I can understand the desire to move them elsewhere, the complexities involved, the fact that there may be other bodies there, the quicklime and everything else, but I also understand that the group has the full backing of every county council in...

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: On the Chairman's point about the relatives, if the relatives are supportive of this, nobody should prevent it. We should be arguing as to how big a deal we make of this. It is huge in our history, and it might refocus this country in the context of where we came from.

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: It is the Minister for local government, surely.

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I might add one caveat to all this. I fully understand what the campaign wants to do, and I support the relatives in particular. If the bodies are to be exhumed and moved, a fitting memorial should be erected within Kilmainham Gaol to mark the spot from which they are exhumed. Like it or lump it, this is our history. I know there will be people watching who will be saying "That Brit", but...

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I agree with Deputy Buckley.

Committee on Public Petitions: Business of Joint Committee (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: Will we consider the petition without him or will we call him?

Committee on Public Petitions: Business of Joint Committee (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: It is important that we hear from him because, judging from the amount of correspondence I am receiving from people who either are involved in the Prison Service or have left it, there seems to be a serious problem in that organisation that needs to be addressed. In this public forum, I encourage any member of the Prison Service who has an issue to come forward and let their issue be known -...

Committee on Public Petitions: Business of Joint Committee (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: That is good. Thank you, Chairman.

Committee on Public Petitions: Business of Joint Committee (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: It is the problem we have hit here all afternoon, which is that almost every query that has come before us has three or four Departments involved and nobody takes responsibility.

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: We will just take the ones that are mentioned in the petition.

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: We might include the nurses on the basis that they have a system in place and see what they might add to the discussion.

Committee on Public Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (21 Mar 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: We could get all the documentation we want but at the end of the day, it may be of no use to us. I know that Deputy O'Donoghue, who has an engineering background, might understand some of it but I would certainly be out of my depth. From that point of view, we need an expert.