Results 7,201-7,220 of 9,827 for speaker:Thomas Byrne
- Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: I supported him 100%. We were all in the front row at his funeral, Minister.
- Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: I supported him 100%.
- Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: I gave him every support he needed in the teeth of vicious opposition from the Minister.
- Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: The approach of the Department and the Minister to social welfare is characterised by a complete and utter lack of fairness and by targeting certain groups for disproportionate hits to their income. They have done this with maternity benefit and adoptive benefit. They have picked out groups and said, "We can get a lump out of them and we can say then that we have kept our promise not to cut...
- Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2013: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: The Christmas bonus equated to a 2% cut in social welfare payments at the time while the wealthiest civil servants were subject to double digit percentage pay cuts and higher earners had to pay much more tax. There was a fairness across society. People were hurt and they had to pay more but we did not target particular groups. The Labour Party is aware of this. We heard about the loaves...
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: For the Independents.
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: We have already been doing it.
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: I wonder how.
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: It was a nice grenade to throw into the Seanad referendum campaign.
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: Can the Minister not acknowledge that there is no extra cost involved at all?
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: It needs to be made clear that we are not looking for money
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: It was not a criticism of the Ombudsman, but of the Seanad.
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: There was a Dáil debate------
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: Fianna Fáil will be supporting the Bill. In particular we believe the changes to severance pay are needed. There was no reason to have that type of severance pay in the first place. It is a simple change that requires to be made. We also recognise that costs must be saved on the party leader's allowance and the funding to political parties. We accept and will support that but it...
- Seanad: Oireachtas (Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed) (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: We should be debating issues as we did yesterday.
- Seanad: Order of Business (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: We brought in proper Toyota cars in 2010.
- Seanad: Order of Business (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: We brought in the Toyota Avensis in 2010.
- Seanad: Order of Business (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: We were the only ones buying cars.
- Seanad: Order of Business (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: We voted against the Order of Business.
- Seanad: Order of Business (6 Nov 2013)
Thomas Byrne: Yesterday I raised the issue of not debating the motion to appoint the Ombudsman and Information Commissioner, and I was given the excuse that this was discussed at the relevant committee. However, there was a full debate in the Dáil yesterday. The Seanad has equal powers in this function to the Dáil. Why are we handing that power over to the Dáil? We had a referendum a few...