Results 7,461-7,480 of 24,330 for speaker:Jerry Buttimer
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: We all welcome the positive atmosphere in Salzburg last night. Whether it is a backstop or a two-tier backstop all of us who wear the green jersey, north, south, east or west, want to see a positive outcome from Brexit.
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: The Cathaoirleach is here almost as long as Senator Leyden. I hope I get to be here as long as him and I might become a bit of an expert in something at that stage.
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: It is important to recognise that there is now a better atmosphere, in terms of a calm, respectful and firm view that we want a Brexit deal. All in this country and on this side of the negotiations want the commitments the United Kingdom has already made. That includes the backstop guaranteeing there will be no hard border on the island of Ireland. I commend the Tánaiste on his...
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: I suggest that Senator Leyden put down a Commencement matter for the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to come in on that. I will certainly have the Minister-----
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: I do not have any particular view. I am open to what the Senator is considering but it is something we need to discuss further. If the Senator wanted to take it a bit further perhaps the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade could come in for a Commencement debate on it.
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: No, I will not apply for a British passport. I am quite happy to have my own Irish passport. I am very happy to travel with my Irish passport. Has Senator Leyden applied for a British passport?
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: Does he intend to?
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: I will not be. I am quite happy to have my Irish passport and to travel as an Irish citizen on that passport. Senator Craughwell never ceases to come up with interesting angles on the presidential election. I remind him-----
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: The Senator did mention the Presidency.
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: To be fair, if that was the case the Senator should also have commended the Uachtarán on taking a pay cut at the beginning of his term in office.
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: I am not going to discuss the Presidency.
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: Could I remind Senator Craughwell that this Government and the last Government have been unwinding the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI?
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: The Senator should let me finish. If he wants to have a debate let us hear all the facts. This Government and the last Government have been unwinding the cuts imposed. Pay restoration is happening.
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: Pay restoration is happening. I did not see or hear Senator Craughwell come into the House today or any day and welcome the fact that he and many other public servants have received a pay increase, and will receive further pay increases of between 6.2% and 6.4%, since we started the process of unwinding FEMPI. It would behove the Senator more to recognise that by 2021 or 2022, FEMPI will be...
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: I accept and have always spoken, as one who has been a public servant all my life, of the importance of the public sector, of the massive imposition that men and women who work in the public service had to endure in the turbulent times of the economy being wrecked by the Fianna Fáil Party-----
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: If I may finish – I did not interrupt the Senator at all – there was a top-up given to some ministerial advisers, in some cases signed off by the then Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, and a second by the present Minister, Deputy Donohoe. There are cases made. I have always made the point, and am on record as saying, that there should never have been a...
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: I have always made that point and I do not recoil from that. It is, however, a bit unfair of Senator Craughwell to come in here and castigate Government when he fails to recognise that FEMPI is being unwound and pay restoration is happening.
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: The Senator can "come on" all he wants to. That is the reality.
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: That is the reality.
- Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2018)
Jerry Buttimer: The Cathaoirleach ruled on Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell’s point. The only contribution I will make is to side with the Cathaoirleach in that the language we use in this Chamber in particular should always be parliamentary and such that we should not be afraid to use it outside here. I concur with the Cathaoirleach in that. Senator Warfield raised a very important matter. I did not...