Results 2,761-2,780 of 4,608 for speaker:Joe O'Toole

Seanad: Civil Marriage: Motion (27 Feb 2008)

Joe O'Toole: I acknowledge the important points he has made. B'fhéidir nach n-aontaím le gach rud atá ráite aige, ach tuigim an tábhacht a bhaineann le mór-chuid dá bhfocail. Tá sé thar a bheith tábhachtach go bhfuil sé sin ráite againn anocht. I welcome the Minister of State to the House. These issues are important. When I first came to Dublin I did not understand the issues of equality...

Seanad: Civil Marriage: Motion (27 Feb 2008)

Joe O'Toole: I do not always agree with everything he says and I have taken issue with some of the matters he has tabled tonight but that is not the point because I believe these issues should be discussed. I always think of these debates in terms of how the loyal, perhaps Christian, honest, gay citizen of Ireland hears this debate. Do people feel we are representing that person here? Senator Ó...

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Feb 2008)

Joe O'Toole: I will also speak on a point raised by Senator Fitzgerald, the funding of primary schools. It is a good time to remind the House this Government promised during the election that the capitation grant for primary schools would be doubled but this has not happened. This is the outcome. Parents and teachers met around the country, organised by the INTO, prior to the last election. Meeting...

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2008)

Joe O'Toole: As a member of the committee referred to by Senator Fitzgerald, I am a solid supporter of its Chairman, Deputy Cregan and will defend his right to the death to say what he has to say. However, the letter does not represent the views of the committee and this should be corrected. The committee should not be drawn into the personal views he is entitled to hold and the criticisms he is...

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2008)

Joe O'Toole: This is a serious issue. With the costs of maintaining helicopters and changing planes, one must have some level of sympathy for them.

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2008)

Joe O'Toole: This is a serious issue, particularly with the recent demand from the CIF that construction workers should take a 30% drop in salary and agree to a pay-freeze for the foreseeable future. We should give this serious consideration because the workers in the construction industry, ungrateful wretches that they are, have shown little consideration for the hardship reduced profits have forced upon...

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2008)

Joe O'Toole: The construction industry is an issue. Over the past five years the Seanad has debated difficulties with the construction industry, first-time buyers being screwed and their parents being oppressed, suppressed and being taken advantage of by profiteering, greedy and grasping builders. The builders now have the cheek to tell us that the people working for them should take a reduction in...

Seanad: Fairtrade: Statements (4 Mar 2008)

Joe O'Toole: I welcome the Minister of State and congratulate him on his good work in drawing attention to various aspects of Third World development and his openness to meeting various groups. It is very encouraging to many of us who are involved in various Third World and developing world initiatives and related matters that the Minister of State makes himself available to meet people and tries to see...

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Mar 2008)

Joe O'Toole: I concur with the points made concerning the reports due to be issued today on developments at Tullamore Hospital. During the course of the discussion of the issues that gave rise to the reports, there was a rush to judgment regarding the role of an individual who, it appears, has been found not to have been responsible. This serves as a good lesson about the ease with which a person's...

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Mar 2008)

Joe O'Toole: What secrets on autism and other issues must be related at a private meeting and kept from the rest of us?

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Mar 2008)

Joe O'Toole: I do not have the slightest problem with Fianna Fáil Party members meeting Ministers. The issue is whether new information is available of which we all need to be made aware. I want to know what those attending the meeting were told about the implementation of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act. Having discussed this issue several weeks ago, Senators are no wiser...

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Mar 2008)

Joe O'Toole: It has not come in yet.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2008: Second Stage (5 Mar 2008)

Joe O'Toole: I seek to share time with Senator Rónán Mullen.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2008: Second Stage (5 Mar 2008)

Joe O'Toole: I welcome the Minister to the House and I listened carefully to his speech. I envy him his ability to get to grips with the minutiae of this brief. I find it hard to concentrate on this so I presume he mostly told us the truth.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2008: Second Stage (5 Mar 2008)

Joe O'Toole: I wish to raise an issue that I tried to raise in the past year, previous to the Minister becoming the incumbent of his high office. The Minister is a practical man and I do not believe he will disagree with me on this subject, though his answer may be another matter. I am referring to the issue of a spouse employed by a spouse, which will often happen in accountants' offices, veterinary...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2008: Second Stage (5 Mar 2008)

Joe O'Toole: However one looks at adult dependant allowances and contributory pensions, these spouses lose out. They have certain entitlements but there are also the issues of personal satisfaction, recognition and identification. I came here to raise this single matter and I ask the Minister to respond to it. How can this issue be justified? If the Minister feels this situation is wrong I ask him to...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Mar 2008)

Joe O'Toole: I also wish to refer to the Portlaoise report. Looking at it from a disinterested point of view in terms of trying to take the patient and emotion out of it, extraordinary questions must be asked on both sides of the House about the process. This is not a matter solely for the Opposition benches. I do not want to make this into a political issue. However, I want to know how the risk...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Mar 2008)

Joe O'Toole: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Mar 2008)

Joe O'Toole: The Leader must use Mr. O'Leary's taxi to get here in that amount of time.

Seanad: Death of Former Member: Expressions of Sympathy (11 Mar 2008)

Joe O'Toole: I extend condolences from the Independent benches to the former Senator Kit Ahern's family and party. I never served with her but knew her quite well. She was a pleasant woman and a great conversationalist. She never visited the House without going out of her way to speak to any of us with Kerry connections or from Kerry. I used to always tell her, like I tell all people from that part of...