Results 2,621-2,640 of 4,465 for speaker:Jim Walsh

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Mar 2012)

Jim Walsh: Some Members of the House should listen to the debates that take place in this House. Like other Senators, I am encountering people who are in distress because they are unemployed. They are trying to provide for their families in difficult circumstances. Many of them are over-leveraged and unable to meet the repayments on their personal debts. The least we owe them is to listen to each...

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Mar 2012)

Jim Walsh: We should support the Government's efforts as long as that is the route being taken. There is a suspicion that the Taoiseach might have made a mistake at his first Council meeting last year by conceding a particular item. I do not know if that is the case. I ask the leaders of the groups in this House to come together to draw up a composite motion, along the lines I am suggesting. I hope...

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Mar 2012)

Jim Walsh: I am asking for that to happen. I support the call that has been made by others for a debate on the Mahon tribunal. I will make no comment on it, because I have not read it, other than to say that the Leas-Chathaoirleach and a small number of other people were in this Chamber when we set it up in September 1997 by asking a body of highly-paid professional people - we understood they were...

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Mar 2012)

Jim Walsh: -----the exorbitant fees demanded by those who participated in these tribunals, and pursued by some of those who chaired them, were nothing short of scandalous.

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Mar 2012)

Jim Walsh: We should be prepared to say they were a disgrace.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Mar 2012)

Jim Walsh: Expenditure is going to be cut anyway.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Mar 2012)

Jim Walsh: We need to cut expenses.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Mar 2012)

Jim Walsh: It is a disgrace.

Seanad: Privacy Bill 2012: Second Stage (28 Mar 2012)

Jim Walsh: I second the motion. As Senator Norris pointed out, he and I were very much ad idem on the debate in this House previously on the Defamation Bill 2006 and the Privacy Bill 2006. I think I referred to it, and he himself made an insinuation in that regard, as something of an unholy alliance because we have differing opinions on many other topics. Nonetheless, this is something which, at the...

Seanad: Privacy Bill 2012: Second Stage (28 Mar 2012)

Jim Walsh: I have raised in this House my concerns with regard to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. We have allowed a situation to develop where former senior executives of the national broadcaster play significant roles on that body and where people who are doing business and in contracts with RTE are on the body. This raises a question or a perception as to the operation of the independence of...

Seanad: Human Rights Issues (18 Apr 2012)

Jim Walsh: Go raibh maith agat agus cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. This day last week the Secretary General of the UN, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, honoured the victims of the Rwandan genocide and stressed that the only way to prevent such atrocities in the future was to learn from history. He went on to say that the International Criminal Court has become an effective deterrent for would be perpetrators of grave...

Seanad: Human Rights Issues (18 Apr 2012)

Jim Walsh: I thank the Minister for his response. I am encouraged by much of what he has said. However, I ask him to convey to the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade my concern at the comment that a French court is still considering the matter. Two weeks ago the matter was disposed of by a French court who ruled that the extradition was lawful and should proceed. I concede it may...

Seanad: Garda Deployment (18 Apr 2012)

Jim Walsh: Go raibh maith agat, a Aire. Go raibh maith agat freisin, a Sheanadóir. Molaim thú as ucht an Ghaeilge flúirseach atá agat. Baineann tú úsáid as go minic.

Seanad: Order of Business (23 Apr 2012)

Jim Walsh: That is a matter for the French.

Seanad: Order of Business (23 Apr 2012)

Jim Walsh: What are their borrowings?

Seanad: Order of Business (23 Apr 2012)

Jim Walsh: May I raise a somewhat different matter? This morning, a sub-committee of the British-Irish interparliamentary group, the sovereignty sub-committee, met and dealt with a presentation by Department officials with regard to the decade of commemoration that is now starting. The Seanad could usefully engage in a debate on this and on the programme coming before us. The matter is being...

Seanad: Thirtieth Amendment of the Constitution (Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union) Bill 2012: Second Stage (23 Apr 2012)

Jim Walsh: As others have said, my party has decided to support the fiscal stability mechanism treaty and we are doing so in order that we can continue to access the European Stability Mechanism. However, my view differs from that of the Minister of State. I do not believe there is much of a chance of Ireland being able to go back to the markets at the end of the current programme period. The...

Seanad: Thirtieth Amendment of the Constitution (Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union) Bill 2012: Second Stage (23 Apr 2012)

Jim Walsh: There was nothing about public service numbers, public service pay, the social welfare system and the rate of social welfare payments or wasteful expenditure throughout the public service. None of those targets was identified. If this treaty is to be passed - I wish to see it passed - the issue of combining banking debt with sovereign debt is considerable. As a country we are culpable for...

Seanad: Order of Business (24 Apr 2012)

Jim Walsh: She is not attacking her. It is all in the media.

Seanad: Order of Business (24 Apr 2012)

Jim Walsh: Last Wednesday and Thursday there was a debate in the Dáil on the issue of abortion. Diverse views were expressed in that debate. There was subsequent acknowledgment that the debate was conducted with great civility. Today, we are fortunate to have the opportunity to hear someone who has campaigned internationally against the abuse of forced abortion, particularly in a number of Asian...