Results 21-40 of 20,370 for speaker:Brian Stanley
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)
Brian Stanley: They own the field.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)
Brian Stanley: I will come back to that. I welcome ESB Networks. It has reached 4,000 workers now. My time was taken by the Cathaoirleach.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)
Brian Stanley: I do not mind because he was pursuing the same issue. On ESB Networks and its number of workers, the ESB had a great record of doing connections in the past. People would apply for a connection and within a week or two weeks, the crew cab or van would be up there connecting it. The ESB had a workforce of approximately 9,000 at one stage. It went down to almost 2,000 two years ago. The...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)
Brian Stanley: I read those figures. Will that continue? Is it the aim of the company?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)
Brian Stanley: It is clear that the over-dependence on private contractors did not work very well in some areas from what I have seen.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)
Brian Stanley: On data centres and housing, it is projected that we will probably end up with between 200,000 and 250,000 new homes between now and 2030. In a few words, if the demand by data centres increases - at the moment they account for approximately 22% or 23% of our electricity demand - to more than 30% or up to 35%, will ESB Networks be able to supply the additional 250,000 houses that are...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Housing Delivery, Service and Supply: Discussion (1 Jul 2025)
Brian Stanley: Is it not something-----
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)
Brian Stanley: I will try to keep my questions direct. I do not want to be abrupt with the witnesses but it would be good if the answers could be kept short because time is very short. Professor Tonra set out the four changes this will bring about in a very clear way. On the last one, he said the Bill specifies "the kind of multilateral force with which such deployments might serve, including the UN, EU,...
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)
Brian Stanley: In the first paragraph of his statement, he says "Significantly, the credibility of the NATO alliance has been - perhaps fatally - undermined". Does he stand by that statement?
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)
Brian Stanley: To clarify, he sets out here that NATO could be one of those regional bodies and he clearly sets out the credibility of it is possibly fatally undermined.
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)
Brian Stanley: I thank Professor Tonra. I am in favour of military neutrality. I do not have a big issue with the change from 12 soldiers to 50. I understand the logic of that, whether it is 12 to 30 or 40 or whatever for rescue missions and the other areas set out. It seems like a practical measure. On page four of the document Professor Tonra submitted, he states peacekeeping needs have changed...
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)
Brian Stanley: Why?
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)
Brian Stanley: He does not think it is a fundamental change.
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)
Brian Stanley: The Irish people who took that at face value, twice, which took the referendums from one third in favour to two thirds in favour and actually flipped over twice on it and got them through. Does Professor Tonra think it is okay to disregard that from a democratic point of view?
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)
Brian Stanley: It is not fundamental; it is a major change.
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)
Brian Stanley: On circumstances, when I was growing up, there was the threat from the Cold War. It was not long after the Cuban missile crisis. There were a whole lot of very dangerous things happening. I know there are a lot of nutters in positions of power at the moment but there has never been a time in my lifetime when there has not been danger. Whether it was the illegal invasion of Iraq, the...
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)
Brian Stanley: I would like a yes-no answer. Does Professor Tonra agree the trust of the people would be broken if we do this without giving them a say? Would the trust of every citizen of this State, me included, be broken after those two treaties if this major change, to use his term, is pushed through without a referendum?
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)
Brian Stanley: We have to respect the witnesses who come in. They have obviously come in from different positions and that is the reason we have them here. As a member of the committee, however, I was not aware until a half an hour ago of Professor Tonra's involvement in lobbying. He is entitled to do so but I want to hear his point of view, even though I disagree with him on probably a lot of what...
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)
Brian Stanley: Professor Tonra made the statement very clearly. I read it twice last night. He said that Ireland's traditional neutrality will similarly be unaffected by the proposed amendment.
- Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)
Brian Stanley: That is defined in our-----