Results 3,061-3,080 of 4,608 for speaker:Joe O'Toole

Seanad: Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Bill 2008: Committee Stage. (1 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: The night was going very well but the Minister has scared the wits out of us with his "we are not there yet" phrase. I presume the Minister wants to strike that from the record immediately. He never said "we are not there yet". Senator Twomey asked the Minister to explain the Swedish model. In fairness to the point raised in the amendment and the question asked earlier, what happened in...

Seanad: Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Bill 2008: Committee Stage. (1 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: This amendment contains very important material. If the Minister is not prepared to accept it as drafted, he should give an indication of how he would deal with it. That bank directors are independent is a joke. The copybook of corporate governance of Irish companies is the UK Higgs report. Fifteen years ago AIB decided to be brave and appointed Mr. Higgs to its board as one of its...

Seanad: Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Bill 2008: Committee Stage. (1 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: It would be appropriate to record our thanks to the Minister and his officials.

Seanad: Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Bill 2008: Committee Stage. (1 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Bill 2008: Committee Stage. (1 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Bill 2008: Committee Stage. (1 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: I wish to be associated with those remarks and, in particular, to thank our staff of the House who have done an extraordinary job in trying circumstances.

Seanad: Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Bill 2008: Committee Stage. (1 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: On my behalf and, I am sure, on behalf of other Members and the Minister, I convey congratulations to Mr. David Doyle and the rest of the staff of the Department of Finance who went into the bearna baoil when it was necessary to do so. They made a bold move. We are launching the measure here tonight. Let us all wish it well and all who sail in her. It is a hugely important step. The...

Seanad: Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Bill 2008: Committee Stage. (1 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: I will conclude with one negative comment. The Minister introduced e-Government to the Cabinet table and various attempts are being made in that respect in the Dáil. We had a fine debate here. In my subjective and biased view, it was a finer debate than that in the other House. What we passed here tonight now has to be sent physically to the far end of town, somebody has to do something...

Seanad: Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Bill 2008: Committee Stage. (1 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: It could be printed and we would have it here. It is a very easy thing to do and I ask that it be considered. I thank the Minister for his openness and discussion tonight and I hope the Bill is a success.

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: During the debate last night, we discovered a number of pieces of legislation that will need to be revisited. I ask the Leader to consider the need for a debate on directors' compliance statements. It is a simple requirement that directors of companies of a certain size, such as PLCs and other various listed companies, would be required to sign a statement of compliance each year stating...

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: I would also expect the Leader to express an interest in having this Bill re-entered on the legislative programme and I will progress the matter further in the coming weeks in consultation with the staff of the House. I have raised the following matter many times, including with the previous Cathaoirleach, who, every time I raised it, would get upset and state, "This is not the time to...

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: I look forward to the debate on the regulations coming from Government. The most important decision we made last week was to have that debate this week. The Government should be well aware at this stage of the views of people from all walks of life and all sides of the political spectrum, and within Government itself, that in this situation the banks should be made pay for the commercial...

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: He certainly had a reputation. When I came into the House, Senator Ross had dealt with him for five years before the neophytes like Senator Norris and I arrived.

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: In that regard, he would know him far better than we did. He certainly was a man of extraordinary intelligence, cultured and interested in music in particular. He knew the rules backwards. If he were here today, he would have some interest in the point I raise next, which relates to the second item on the Order Paper. Since that month 21 years ago, in all my time in here, I have no...

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: Apart from the points I have made, in terms of normal parliamentary convention or organisational convention, the power to establish sub-committees has always been vested in a committee. The only people who can be members of a sub-committee are the existing members of the committee. What we could do today is appoint additional members to the select committee and, accordingly, to the joint...

Seanad: Orders of Reference of Select Committee: Motion (7 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Roche, to the House. The Minister of State knows my position on these matters.

Seanad: Orders of Reference of Select Committee: Motion (7 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: That suits my comments. I see the need for a committee such as the proposed sub-committee. I look forward to proposing my colleague Senator Rónán Mullen to represent the independent group on the sub-committee. As long as we ask the people to give a single answer to seven different questions, we will never get the answer we seek. We must contrive, find, invent or develop a way to have six...

Seanad: Orders of Reference of Select Committee: Motion (7 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: Yes, it is a moral question. I want to bring something to the attention of the Minister and the Department of Foreign Affairs. The way we select these people is through the Committee of Selection in both Houses. Standing Order 88 states, "There shall be appointed at the commencement of every Seanad a committee to be known as the Committee of Selection, which, unless it shall have been...

Seanad: Orders of Reference of Select Committee: Motion (7 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: That is a distraction.

Seanad: Orders of Reference of Select Committee: Motion (7 Oct 2008)

Joe O'Toole: I am in favour of that. We should do the same again.