Results 2,221-2,240 of 4,414 for speaker:Sean Barrett

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Minister of State and I appreciate his commitment in this regard. He and the Minister, Deputy Kelly, probably got to this issue too late as the bandwagon was up and running. I admire what the Minister of State has tried to do and I have complimented the Minister as well in this regard. I objected to this section, which outlines that one person will pay €160, two or more...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: I am asking this House to do it. I suspect this section will be approved, so it will be a sad evening. This reminds me of when I was leaving Canada and I went to see one of my supervisors. He asked if he could give some advice for my career and I was delighted. He told me never to give in, as every time I gave in, a piece of him died. Tonight, a bit of the Labour and Fine Gael parties...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister, Deputy Kelly, back to the House. I am impressed by the Minister and the Minister of State's attempt to try to introduce some humanity into this. We all appreciate the dreadful situation they inherited. This concerns late payment charges of €30 and €60. Earlier, we discussed the imposition of these charges on people with very low incomes. In respect...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: I welcome what the Minister has said about the need to deal in a fair and kindly way, as best we can in these constrained circumstances, with those who cannot pay. This is a poll tax of €260 on a couple and €160 on a single person for what was previously financed by progressive taxation. We have changed the basis for financing the water business, and that presents serious...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: Last week, the Nevin Institute showed that living standards have decreased by 20% during this recession. It is worse for those on low incomes, who have taken a bigger fall. In dealing with other Ministers, I have come across a school of the new right in the Department of Finance. They say that what is wrong with the Irish tax system is that so many people are exempt. I had discussions with...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: Let us go after the vets and people like that. I hope the Minister, MABS and community welfare staff will help deal with this. It is a new trend in taxation that will cause poverty, although I know this Minister is committed to tackling it. He will certainly have my support in that regard.

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: Is it a good jacket?

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: There are many problems with this conservation measure. First, it is not related to conservation. The memorandum states that people get €100 per household which people "can use to assist with water conservation in their homes". They could use it to buy watering cans, garden sprinklers or to buy €100 worth of Ballygowan water. I am unsure what it is supposed to be conserving....

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister. Section 7(2) states there will be a forum of at least 12 and not more than 60 members. As this is the Government that tried to abolish this House of 60 Members, I welcome the Minister on the road to Damascus. He will recall all of the reasons the Government and, in particular, his Department - the lead Department in this instance - gave in favour of abolishing this...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: The Minister did not want the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to be involved. He did not want street democracy; he thought people were going for a walk around town. This is the eleventh attempt by him to find people who might agree with him to sit on the forum. I am against the forum and the section, but if we have to have a forum, the one proposed by Sinn Féin would be...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: Or any other day either.

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: Yes.

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: Irish Water seems to be an organisation that brings 250,000 people onto the streets at regular intervals. This House and the Comptroller and Auditor General, a constitutional officer, should be looking at it. This House is protected by the Constitution. We know that the Government tried to get rid of it, but the people decided otherwise. That is why the Comptroller and Auditor General is...

Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)

Sean Barrett: We have not reformed defects in the permanent government which is why we could repeat all the mistakes again. The Irish Water crisis is this Government's issue in the way that the banking crisis was the issue for the previous Government. This Government has decided to hang its hat on that appalling edifice as the previous Government was codded by bankers. I ask the Minister of State to...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (15 Jan 2015)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Governor of the Central Bank, my former colleague in Trinity College Dublin, TCD, and I thank him for his report and presentation. What the Governor refers to as the window dressing is when there were back-to-back deposit transactions between a subsidiary of Irish Life and Permanent and Anglo Irish Bank for €7 billion to make Anglo Irish Bank's books look better. Did...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (15 Jan 2015)

Sean Barrett: It is a quote from the Governor; he wrote that. It is in order-----

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (15 Jan 2015)

Sean Barrett: I am trying to inquire about €7 billion. It was passed between Irish Life and Permanent and Anglo Irish Bank. Was this sanctioned by the Central Bank?

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (15 Jan 2015)

Sean Barrett: Professor Honohan states on page 42, "Though few would now defend the institutional structure invented for the organisation in 2003...". Was this not the organisational structure the Central Bank wanted? Stephen Kinsella has written on how the McDowell report suggested a completely new organisation outside and independent of the Central Bank and how the Central Bank raised hell on high...

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis: Context Phase (15 Jan 2015)

Sean Barrett: Professor Honohan shows on page 64 that having lobbied so hard the Central Bank devoted remarkably few resources to this task, which it did not want to be carried out independently, as per the McDowell report. The Central Bank had two people for AIB and Irish Life, three for Bank of Ireland and Anglo Irish Bank and only 15 people in all. There are approximately 1,200 staff in the Central...