Results 201-220 of 784 for speaker:Jimmy Harte

Seanad: Order of Business. (7 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: We all disagree at times.

Seanad: EU Fiscal Compact Treaty: Statements, Questions and Answers (7 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: To put people's minds at rest, we want to know that it is a genuine European treaty and is not being pushed by the markets. People in the Opposition and outside the political arena are using the treaty to claim that the markets are pushing everything. We need clarity from the Minister of State and the Minister for Finance that the treaty is not being pushed by the markets, but for the right...

Seanad: Investment in Education: Motion (8 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: The Senator does not accept it.

Seanad: Investment in Education: Motion (8 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: The Galway tent took care of all that.

Seanad: Investment in Education: Motion (8 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: That is not correct.

Seanad: Investment in Education: Motion (8 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: As a former student of psychology I have read a good deal of Piaget. There is an expression of Piaget's to the effect that only education is capable of saving our societies from possible collapse, whether violent, or gradual. That was written in 1934 by the French educational psychologist. Perhaps those in the Fianna Fáil Party should have read that five, six, seven or 12 years ago when...

Seanad: Investment in Education: Motion (8 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: I am now in a position-----

Seanad: Investment in Education: Motion (8 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: I am now in a position to explain to the people in Donegal why cuts are inevitable.

Seanad: Investment in Education: Motion (8 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: I am fighting for my local rural school in Donegal to get the best deal for it. We have been in talks with the Minister and his officials. An appeals procedure is in place and we hope this will be done in a practical and fair way. The retrospection has been in place for years. Those in Fianna Fáil had ample time to do that and they did not do it. They should take the blame instead of...

Seanad: Investment in Education: Motion (8 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: It is not nonsense. If one looks through-----

Seanad: Investment in Education: Motion (8 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: I am immune from crossfire. It is nothing new to me.

Seanad: Investment in Education: Motion (8 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: Senator Ó Domhnaill has been subject to a good deal of crossfire and he has deserved it.

Seanad: Investment in Education: Motion (8 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: It may sound like a cliché but the Minister, Deputy Quinn, has been handed a poisoned chalice. We are in a position whereby we are fighting for rural schools, DEIS programme schools, secondary schools and, ultimately, for the pupils. My daughter is eight years old and I have to explain to her that if there are cuts to the school it has to be done because of the financial situation in the...

Seanad: Investment in Education: Motion (8 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: He does.

Seanad: Investment in Education: Motion (8 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: I agree with Fianna Fáil on the importance of rural schools in this country. No disrespect, but Sinn Féin has told us it is closing schools in Northern Ireland. The Minister there, John O'Dowd, closed-----

Seanad: Investment in Education: Motion (8 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: The Minister did not cut any budget. The difference is that two rural schools closed in County Armagh. The Minister, John O'Dowd, said: In recent years, however, both schools have suffered from declining enrolments with only 10 children enrolled ... in Aghavilly and only 16 enrolled ... in Keady. I have therefore decided to close the schools, as I am confident that the children's...

Seanad: Investment in Education: Motion (8 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: The point is that it seems Sinn Féin is justified in closing rural schools in Armagh, but once over the Border - in Louth, Monaghan or Donegal - it turns around and has a totally different attitude to education.

Seanad: Investment in Education: Motion (8 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: No rural schools are being forced to close in Donegal. I make this point for the benefit of the Fianna Fáil Members as well as Sinn Féin. I agree with much of what is in the Fianna Fáil motion. However, we are in a position where there is an inevitability with regard to what will happen. I would love us to be in the position in which Fianna Fáil was ten years ago when it had a surplus...

Seanad: Investment in Education: Motion (8 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: I commend and support the amendment to the motion. Perhaps in five or ten years time we will look back and say the Government did the best it could at the time for the future of our children. That is our concern. As Jean Piaget said, the importance of education cannot be overlooked. I welcome the Minister to the House and look forward to his response. We are in a difficult position and I...

Seanad: Investment in Education: Motion (8 Feb 2012)

Jimmy Harte: What about the builders who still have a lot of money?