Results 3,981-4,000 of 24,398 for speaker:Jerry Buttimer

Seanad: Appropriation Bill 2021: Second Stage (16 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: I welcome the Minister of State to the House. This is an important Bill. I welcome this debate, as many Members of the House have done. We should not have shoehorned it into the last day of term, although I know why it was done that way. I will raise three points, the first of which is a matter that Senator Kyne prompted me to raise. The Minister of State has been a member of local...

Seanad: Appropriation Bill 2021: Second Stage (16 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: The Senator should wait until he hears what I will say next. Then he will definitely come back to me. I like Senator Gavan as a person and I have great time for him.

Seanad: Appropriation Bill 2021: Second Stage (16 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: I heard him speaking about a lack of accountability and holding Government to account. I ask Senator Gavan, wearing both his trade union hat and his public representative hat, to hold his former president, Gerry Adams, to account. The Senator should ask Mr. Adams to apologise to the people he sullied with his video this week. I say that as a republican and as somebody who wants to have...

Seanad: Appropriation Bill 2021: Second Stage (16 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: I will.

Seanad: Appropriation Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: I wish to speak about supports for the hospitality sector. The Acting Chairperson might guide me on where in this section I might do so.

Seanad: Appropriation Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: I will be. I raised this matter under the Social Welfare Bill and will do so under that Bill again tomorrow. Given that the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, is in the Department of Finance, it is important in the appropriation of moneys that we consider the proposal from the Irish Hotels Federation regarding how the hospitality sector is not able to avail of the employment wage support...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (15 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: I support Senator Warfield as well. I have three requests today, the first of which relates to the vaccination programme. I ask the HSE to reopen the vaccination centres in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, the Munster Technological University and Clonakilty in County Cork and to redeploy staff to those centres. It makes no sense that those centres are closed in light of the fact that we are...

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: I welcome the Minister of State. She is here as a Minister in her own right and I have had the benefit of working with her in a committee. We had differing views but she is a competent and capable person with whom I have worked closely and grown to respect and admire in her brief in the disability sector, where she has done powerful work. It ill behoves any of us to make references to...

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: Well okay, but they get a half day on Wednesday so it is two and half days. I am not going to have a row with the Senator. My point is that if we are seriously looking at how we can prevent the spread of the disease, that is one part of our arsenal. The people who work in our vaccination centres deserve great credit. There have been issues arising from a breakdown in communication which...

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: Senator Keogan is correct. At one level, it is no business of a journalist to be inquiring as to the vaccination status of any Member of the Oireachtas. It is an intrusion of privacy and I fully concur with her. I answered the question for one reason. I am a proponent of vaccination, whether it is the HPV vaccine or the Covid-19 vaccine. I am a big believer in vaccination. We are role...

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: I was not saying that.

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Ambulance Service (14 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I thank the Cathaoirleach for allowing me to raise the important matter of the HSE advanced paramedic motorbike unit in Cork. There are two such motorbikes operational in Cork. The key words are "operational" and "Cork". They have been in use for only two of the last 52 weeks. Why have they been unused and lying idle? I am asking the...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Ambulance Service (14 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: I thank the Minister of State for her response. I also want to thank the members of the NAS in Cork for their work and commitment. The response is positive in so far as it contains a commitment to resume the service. While this is not the Minister of State’s area of responsibility, I ask her to ensure that we receive a resumption date. A definite date is required because, as we all...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: I ask the Leader to arrange a debate on the new road safety strategy 2021-2030, which the Minister of State, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton is bringing to Cabinet today, in the new year. This is an important strategy with an overarching aim to reduce road deaths, which we will all support. It is worth noting for the information of Senators and road users that since the first road safety...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (9 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: Hear, hear.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (9 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: I begin today by congratulating and thanking Cáit Hayes, who is retiring from the staff of the Houses of the Oireachtas. Cáit has spent 35 years working here, with distinction, in many different roles. Those of us who have got to know her over the years recognise the value and interest she had in the Parliament that is the Oireachtas, in representing us abroad and at home. I...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (9 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: I welcome the Government's decision and announcement earlier to extend the EWSS and to make changes to the Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS. It is very important that we continue to support our hospitality sector. I echo the call by Senator Black and others that the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Martin, be asked to come to the House for a...

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Second Stage (9 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Second Stage (9 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: Does the Senator really believe that? Incredible.

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Second Stage (9 Dec 2021)

Jerry Buttimer: The Minister is very welcome to the House. I begin by referencing an article by Ms Caitlín Griffin that was published in theIrish Examineron 12 September: "1,346 cases of Covid confirmed as expert says mask-wearing is needed in primary schools". The one thing we have learned is that this pandemic or virus has a trajectory all of its own, as the Minister has said. I like Senator Keogan...