Results 25,581-25,600 of 26,857 for speaker:David Cullinane

Seanad: Regional Development (13 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: The purpose of this Adjournment matter is to evaluate the performance of the national spatial strategy and Waterford as the gateway city to the south-east region. A recent ESRI report entitled, Enterprise and Labour: Hubs, Gateways and Inter-regional Specialisation, measured the progress made in the ten years since the publication of the national spatial strategy. The figures give rise to...

Seanad: Regional Development (13 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: I thank the Minister of State for his response, which cites better alignment and prioritisation of scarce infrastructural investment, better governance locally and in the region, and the promotion of more sustainable patterns of development. It does not deal with the critical ingredients we need, such as positive discrimination by the enterprise agencies, their performance for the region and...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: I thank the Leader for undertaking to examine my request yesterday for a debate on the issue of poverty. I hope it will happen in the coming weeks. Like Senator Rónán Mullen, I have concerns about the report of the Economic and Social Research Institute which was subject to some discussion in the House yesterday. The inferences flowing from it were that the 440,000 people out of work in...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: The author might stand over it, but the ESRI has withdrawn it and stated it cannot stand over its findings.

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: The ESRI is a Government-funded body, yet we are told that the report was subject neither to internal nor external peer review, the accepted norm for all such reports, and that although it was available on the ESRI website for three weeks, it did not adhere to the process of refereeing, to which this type of academic research was usually subjected. The question arises as to whether the...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences Against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (12 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: I wish to comment on a number of points. In his response, the Minister mentioned unhelpful media coverage and the range of different opinions expressed in the media. I agree that these are unhelpful but that is outside our control. In this House we are concerned about the direct question, and Senator Hayden's comments go straight to the heart of the issue. The Minister stated earlier,...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences Against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (12 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: They may be summaries. Perhaps some of the uncertainty has come from us being guided by what is in the document. The Ombudsman for Children and other parties have made submissions on this. I fully accept the Minister's response, which was very comprehensive and should allay any concerns we have. Some states in the United States go further. They specifically deny both clergy-congregant and...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences Against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (12 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: I fully agree with what the Minister said in his response, but there can be occasions where a child who has been abused may in the course of making his or her confession, confess that to a priest, and this is where a difficulty may arise. Responsibility lies with the priest. That was the point I was making, not that the abuser would report the priest.

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences Against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (12 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: I wish to make a supplementary point, as I forgot to raise the issue of reasonable excuse. The Bills Digest made an interesting point, in that a number of submissions called for a detailed list of what constituted reasonable excuse. Rape Crisis Network Ireland, RCNI, stated: "The phrase "reasonable excuse" needs more elaboration generally, with an open list of situations which do provide a...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences Against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (12 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: I wish to raise a number of issues, the first of which relates to privilege. I refer again to the submission made by the Ombudsman for Children who made a number of interesting observations and dealt with two forms of privilege - legal privilege and clergy-congregant privilege, an issue we discussed on Second Stage. She called for section 2 to override legal professional privilege and...

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: I welcome Dr. Nada Dhaif to the Gallery and offer my party's support to the medics in Bahrain who are facing trial. I hope they will receive justice. I also concur with the sentiments expressed by Senator Darragh O'Brien and others on this issue. I call for a debate on poverty, an issue Senator Ó Clochartaigh and I have raised on a number of occasions in recent months. The third...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences Against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (12 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: I welcome the Minister back to the House. I commended him for bringing forward the Bill on Second Stage as it is long overdue. It is a complex issue that throws up many problems that are difficult to resolve through legislation. That is a problem the Minister faced when framing this Bill. This is one of those issues, but I have purposely not tabled any amendments because I will use the...

Seanad: Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: I hope that the process is speeded up in the way the Minister of State describes. I wish her well in that regard and welcome that Limerick City Council approved the construction of 79 new houses. She also mentioned an implementation plan. I support local consultation but I think we can agree that extensive consultation has already taken place with the relevant agencies. The problem is...

Seanad: Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: Yes.

Seanad: Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: I move amendment No. 2: In page 4, line 33, after "Minister," to insert the following: "in consultation with the Houses of the Oireachtas, relevant agencies and local authorities".

Seanad: Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: I move amendment No. 3: In page 5, lines 4 and 5, after "centralisation" to insert "or localisation". This amendment seeks to insert the words "or localisation" after the word "centralisation" on lines four and five on page five. The intent of the Bill is set out in section 5, paragraph (d), which refers to "the desirability of regionalisation or centralisation" but it does not mention...

Seanad: Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: If it is default position, it should be easy for the Minister of State to accept the amendment.

Seanad: Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: There was no misunderstanding. I accept the Minister of State's point that Members are dealing with existing local government powers. However, this section of the Bill outlines the purpose for which bodies may be established under the 1971 Act. The Bill's digest sets out for the first time the nature of the services that may be provided by any body that would be established under the Act....

Seanad: Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: Yes.

Seanad: Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2012: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jun 2012)

David Cullinane: I move amendment No. 4: In page 5, line 11, to delete " 'services' includes—" and substitute the following: " 'services' not already being provided by boards may include—". I will not speak for too long on this amendment because I want to hear the Minister of State's response before coming back to it. In some respects, this amendment is related to the first two amendments which sought a...