Results 5,941-5,960 of 5,982 for speaker:Gerard Craughwell

Seanad: Adoption (Identity and Information) Bill 2014: Second Stage (19 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: Sorry, got pregnant some time after her husband died. The woman was taken from the farm that she had been left, she was placed in a mental hospital, her two sons were sent to Letterfrack and her daughter was sent to America. The child that was born as a result was sent to be fostered. It so happened that a relation of mine who happened to be in Merlin Park Hospital met the child 75 years...

Seanad: Adoption (Identity and Information) Bill 2014: Second Stage (19 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: It is funny that I wish to discuss exactly the same issue. I still hold my belief that we do not need to soften the mortgage market but I take on board the suggestion that we would be able to insure 10%. However, I ask the Leader to set aside time to debate the private rental market because unless we control the rental market, as the mortgage market becomes tighter, rents will only go up....

Seanad: Irish Airlines Superannuation Scheme: Statements (18 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: Why was it allowed to?

Seanad: Irish Airlines Superannuation Scheme: Statements (18 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: Have the trustees been replaced?

Seanad: Irish Airlines Superannuation Scheme: Statements (18 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: The first thing we tell young people when they get a job is to get a pension. We tell them the pension will guarantee their comfort in their old age. As we get older, we become vulnerable. I am particularly aware of it as I get older myself. It is totally unacceptable to hit the most vulnerable people in our society. These people have already been hit. Any of them that invested in blue...

Seanad: Horizon 2020: Statements (18 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: I welcome the Minister of State. I hate to be the one to put a bit of a damper on things with my comments and hope I am wrong. For the first two years of Horizon 2020 I understand that €15 billion will be laid aside. The Seventh Framework Programme had nearly €11 billion in 2013 which did not include funding for a competitiveness and innovation framework but that is now...

Seanad: Horizon 2020: Statements (18 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: My colleague, Senator Quinn, suggested there should be a one-stop-shop. One of the things that I have found about funding in this country is that there is a multiplicity of funding sources and sometimes it becomes so confusing that one loses track of where one is going. Therefore, I support the call for a simple one-stop framework to access funding. Higher education institutes will be the...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: On the issue of what happened at the weekend I was appalled by what I saw. I believe there is still a crime of incitement in this country and I believe that those who bring people onto the streets have a responsibility to ensure that those people behave themselves properly. What went on at the weekend in this country does not reflect the democracy in which we live. I am sick and tired of...

Seanad: Commemoration Planning: Statements (13 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: Will the Minister remember the groups that do not have PR consultants? Some poor unfortunates cannot afford them.

Seanad: Commemoration Planning: Statements (13 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: I compliment the Minister on the document produced today. It is not too late; in fact, it is rather timely. Sometimes, if the lead-in is too long, we can miss some of the important issues. Last year we saw commemorations of the 1913 Lock-out. When I attended the events at the GPO, the general public were incensed at being left standing outside for over 45 minutes while a few dignitaries...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: When the Deputy Leader uses Scotland as an example, she should be aware that schools there pulled out of the system.

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: I want to address the issue of teachers as addressed by Senator Paschal Mooney. We are at a very delicate stage in negotiations between both sides which have moved a considerable distance such that not a lot divides them. I would hate anything to be said by anybody at this stage that would derail what are very sensitive negotiations. The teachers of Ireland have driven the economy to where...

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: The Minister of State has referred to the fact that the Taoiseach will put a group together to consider this issue. I am naturally suspicious of groups put together by anybody, anywhere, anytime. Should a group be put together, it must include Members of this House and, second, the names of the proposed members must be placed before us to be debated. For far too long decisions have been...

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: That is outrageous.

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: I beg the Minister of State's forgiveness as with my novice status, I forgot to recognise him formally. I agree with Senator White. I only needed nine politicians to sign a nomination form and it took me the best part of 12 weeks to get them so I cannot begin to understand how difficult it must be to get past the most discerning group of politicians one would ever find. I would not...

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: We should be examining the process of educationalists and people involved with culture electing people to the education and cultural panel. People involved with the trade union movement and in business should be involved with the labour panel, for example. Those involved with agriculture should have a say in who is elected to the agricultural panel. I would like to see some reform of the...

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: I am broadly in support of the notion of a Bill to reform the Seanad, although I have some serious difficulties with some of what is in this Bill. We are probably suffering from an Irish problem, which is that if we have not got it right first time we put it back on the shelf and wait 40 years before taking it down again and brushing the dust off it. Anybody who has ever been at school...

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2013: Committee Stage (12 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: Having recently been elected to the Seanad I saw just how difficult it was even to get a nomination. My election was no triumph of democracy, it was a triumph of pragmatism. At the end of the day I thank God for that pragmatism, but if we are going to reform the Seanad let us start by tearing this Bill to pieces, rebuilding it and making it into something we can all work with.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Overview of Banking Sector: Permanent TSB (12 Nov 2014)

Gerard Craughwell: I will go back to the issue of tracker versus variable mortgage rates. Mr. Masding should correct me if I am wrong. One could have two next door neighbours working at exactly the same job, in exactly the same value home, with exactly the same mortgage, with one on a variable rate and the other on a tracker rate, and the difference in repayment could range to several hundred euro per month,...