Results 961-980 of 3,356 for speaker:Feargal Quinn

Seanad: Report on Child and Family Income Support: Statements (Resumed) (26 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: We cannot sustain a nation when the basic Irish weekly social welfare payment of ¤188 is more than twice the amount paid in the UK and Germany. Jobs fund social welfare and social protection and we must encourage job creation. We cannot have a disincentive. Rather than being concerned about the significant amount being spent on social welfare, we must be concerned about how we can get the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Action Plan for Jobs 2012 and 2013: Discussion with Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (26 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: I welcome the Minister and thank him for what he is doing. He obviously is grabbing hold of many challenges. I wish to raise the issue of licensing reform, particularly, but not exclusively, in retail. It appears to me that all big businesses started as small businesses and to have in place the same legislation for licences for someone who employs 500 people as for someone who employs four...

Seanad Public Consultation Committee: Social Entrepreneurship: Discussion (21 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: I am over here.

Seanad Public Consultation Committee: Social Entrepreneurship: Discussion (21 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: This has been a wonderful morning for all of us present. I congratulate the witnesses on putting this together. I know all three of them as I have met them previously. I remember that wonderful day in Dublin Castle March with Paul O'Hara. Senator Healy Eames was one of those present with me. I got to know Ms Casey many years ago with the ability awards. I got to know Mr. Whelton at a...

Seanad: Future of Further Education and Training: Statements (20 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: The Minister of State is welcome back to the House, having spent several years here previously. I have had a most interesting week. I am following two Dundalk speakers. I found myself in the Dundalk Institute of Technology two days ago. One thing that surprised me about the group I met and the class I lectured to was that they were studying entrepreneurship. It was not a full course but...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: Last night was an emotional one, a night that enhanced the reputation of the Houses of the Oireachtas. The Taoiseach's words came from the heart and were very worthy. Very often our experience of a public apology is that it is tempered by an attempt at protection. The Taoiseach must, therefore, be congratulated. Will the Leader consider allowing a debate on the report of the Joint...

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: I ask that the Leader find time to debate the recent Health Protection Surveillance Centre report, which is frightening. Surveys are done all around Europe, and although there are no accurate statistics for Ireland, it is suggested that between ten and 20 people die each week from hospital-acquired infections, primarily MRSA. This adds up to hundreds each year. One of the problems is that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: ICT Skills Report: Discussion (19 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: I am fascinated by Mr. O'Sullivan's point on over-specialisation. I thought we were moving in the other direction. I understood our education system was too broad, yet Mr. O'Sullivan argues that a general or broad educational base is needed. Mr. Cunningham has explained it very well that a medical student does not decide to be a dermatologist first but rather must study to be a doctor for...

Seanad: Promissory Note Arrangement: Statements (14 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: I call Senator Paul Coghlan, who has three minutes.

Seanad: Promissory Note Arrangement: Statements (14 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: I welcome the Minister of State. This deal is another step in the right direction on the road to recovery. Businesses negotiate all of the time. To that extent, I see this as an everyday deal, but at a much larger scale. It gives us a great deal of breathing space, which is what we need now. I was examining some figures. According to Mr. Cormac Lucey, we will need to pay approximately...

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: This issue needs to be addressed. The danger is that it is not getting sufficient attention because there are vested interests at stake.

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: Yesterday at a conference in Dublin, a number of speakers from the United States stated that the number of foreclosures on mortgages in Ireland was too low. They noted that one of the reasons America has managed to emerge from the mortgage crisis is the high number of mortgage foreclosures in the US. I had not heard this view expressed previously and it dawned on me that there is a vested...

Seanad: Address to Seanad Éireann by Ms Phil Prendergast, MEP. (13 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: Like everybody else I welcome Ms Prendergast back to the Seanad where she played a very active part over a number of years. It is great to see her facing us rather than with her back to me as it used to be. I had the duty of being president of EuroCommerce for three years and vice president for another three years. EuroCommerce represents the 6 million shops in Europe, a sector which...

Seanad: Address to Seanad Éireann by Ms Phil Prendergast, MEP. (13 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: To give an example, the late payments directive comes into operation next month and states public bodies should pay within 30 days but no later than 60 days. I believe the Irish are the worst in Europe in this regard so this will mean 60 days. Will Ms Prendergast comment on this? Where does it come from? How do we manage to do something about it? With regard to the cost of EU legislation...

Seanad: Address to Seanad Éireann by Ms Phil Prendergast, MEP. (13 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: -----and we can do something about it at a European level to give a direction elsewhere. Last week the European Parliament voted on a draft law which stated patients should have faster access to cheaper generic drugs. We are all happy to do this, but I am not sure where we go in this area. Only 4% of European hospitals allow people direct access to their medical records. This could come...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Rural Communities Report: Discussion with Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (12 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: The Minister and his team are very welcome. I have learned much both from the report and from listening to the Minister. Allow me to tell the Minister about something that happened to me some years ago. I was asked to participate in a partnership near to the location of one of our supermarkets. It was because there was a jobs crisis, they were looking for work and I did some thinking...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Rural Communities Report: Discussion with Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (12 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: I urge the Minister to continue on that path. Deputy Áine Collins also has drawn up a great report on mentoring with the co-operative movements.

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: Yesterday I had a visit from three people, including a brother and sister. The woman had donated a kidney to her brother, which ended years of dialysis that he had had to undergo. I asked them what we could do to help and it was very clear he was giving me a list of two or three things. One of the points he made was that there has been a very substantial drop in the number of organ...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: There was a very interesting debate in the European Parliament some weeks ago about the rating agencies. The crackdown on rating agencies it called for is interesting because it is blaming agencies like Fitch, Standard & Poor's and Moody, which have 95% of the market, for taking a lax attitude to the sub-prime debt which arose in 2007-8 that caused the financial crisis. That debate came...

Seanad: Order of Business: Motion (5 Feb 2013)

Feargal Quinn: I second the motion. Senator David Norris was showing off when he said he had been a Member for 25 years. It was my 20th anniversary as a Member last Sunday. I have experience of working on a number of committees, of which one of the most useful was the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service, on which I sat during traumatic times. If some of us are to blame for what went wrong...