Results 301-320 of 445 for speaker:Eoghan Harris

Seanad: Order of Business. (11 Mar 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Behind the call for a debate on Tallaght Hospital lies a wider question of responsibility and authority. While Senator Buttimer correctly identified the source of the problem as the HSE, he draws the wrong conclusion in believing the Minister should go. Senator O'Toole is right in believing a Minister cannot be held responsible for stuff that goes wrong down the chain. I repudiate the...

Seanad: Order of Business. (20 Apr 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business. (20 Apr 2010)

Eoghan Harris: I listened with great interest to the long debate earlier which highlighted a number of issues and I want to touch on a few of those as they came up. First, the notion of good news and bad news is very relative. Obviously, the newspapers' account of increases in the salaries for bank staff or senior executives is very good news for Mr. Boucher. He gets his good news and other people get bad...

Seanad: Order of Business. (20 Apr 2010)

Eoghan Harris: He will certainly not be bothered by anything that happened in that regard. In regard to the banks, the banks are in all but name now part of the public service. The thing to do is benchmark them. Their top men should be paid the same as the top men in the public service are paid and the rest of them should be paid pro rata. They should be treated fundamentally as nationalised industries....

Seanad: Order of Business. (20 Apr 2010)

Eoghan Harris: -----that the Marx and Engels notion that the capitalist system would wither away gently and that the state would finally find itself directing the economy is coming to pass in this country. We are now one of the purest communist states on earth.

Seanad: Order of Business. (21 Apr 2010)

Eoghan Harris: I understand the reason Senator Buttimer must protect and advance his party's cause. We all hold different views of the cause of the recession. Mine is well known - I believe it was driven fundamentally by low interest rates. Be that as it may, we are stuck where we are. While I have no objection to the pursuit of the alleged guilty parties, in dealing with the issue and trying to roll...

Seanad: Order of Business. (21 Apr 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Be that as it may, there is significant consensus in Irish politics about our ideology. It is not generally remarked upon but in Ireland we agree the best system for economic activity is capitalism, mediated strongly by social democracy. In other words, capitalism is like hard players but there are also corrupt and dirty players. The business of the State is to act like a tough referee on...

Seanad: Order of Business. (21 Apr 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business. (22 Apr 2010)

Eoghan Harris: The philosopher Plato imagined the perfect republic. To ensure there was no back-sliding, he imagined a class of guardians. The Romans who were wiser people asked, quis ipsos custodiet custodes - who will guard the guardians? That question is apposite this morning in the context of two examples of failure on the part of our guardians. There has been much talk about the responsibility of...

Seanad: Death of President of Poland: Expressions of Sympathy. (22 Apr 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Like other Independent Members, I commiserate with the people of Poland and I associate myself with the sentiments of other Senators. As Senator Twomey said, it is important the great state of Poland enjoys harmonious relationships with its neighbours to the east and west. Out of the tragedy of the terrible plane crash has come a new dawn of glasnost and openness between the former Soviet...

Seanad: Order of Business. (27 Apr 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Women's Participation in Politics: Statements. (27 Apr 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Follow that.

Seanad: Women's Participation in Politics: Statements. (27 Apr 2010)

Eoghan Harris: I am sharing time with Senator Norris and as he is counting already, please do not interrupt me again. I welcome the Minister of State. I have long been a great admirer of hers, both as a Deputy and Minister of State. I am delighted she has carried on her tradition of plain speaking because there is incredible hypocrisy in considering the question of the access of women to politics. Lip...

Seanad: Order of Business (12 May 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Tell that to Senator Buttimer.

Seanad: Order of Business (12 May 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Senator Ó Murchú was correct to say we should not overstate yesterday's demonstration. It was valuable, in that it threw into sharp relief the behaviour of the mass of the Irish people. We should take more pride in the fact that what is probably one of the greatest structural crises we have ever had is being dealt with by the people. Apart from two sets of demonstration - one by the old...

Seanad: Order of Business. (13 May 2010)

Eoghan Harris: I ask the Leader to consider having a debate on moving on. By this I mean that there is an ideological division in the country which has become clear to those of us who work in newspapers. On the one hand, one has those who want to continue fomenting anger and looking back, while at the same time trying to moving forward. They give one a dialectic in that they want to move back and forward...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 May 2010)

Eoghan Harris: It was good to hear such consensus in the House in the matter of pensions. The Taoiseach is on record as saying he believes in Cabinet Government. That is a good thing, because there is far too much of the presidential style in western European politics, and it is good to have Cabinet Government. This presupposes, however, that the Ministers appointed do not suffer from "political...

Seanad: Role of Broadcasting Authority of Ireland: Statements (18 May 2010)

Eoghan Harris: I wish to share time with Senator Quinn.

Seanad: Role of Broadcasting Authority of Ireland: Statements (18 May 2010)

Eoghan Harris: I welcome the Minister. I am not a great fan of either the Broadcasting Act or Broadcasting Authority of Ireland because I have direct personal experience of them. I worked for 25 years in RTE and was often accused of being up to certain political activities there. I was mostly accused of being zealous on behalf of the Government's own instruction, section 31. I was zealous in...

Seanad: Role of Broadcasting Authority of Ireland: Statements (18 May 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.