Results 3,561-3,580 of 4,608 for speaker:Joe O'Toole

Seanad: Order of Business (21 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: That is right.

Seanad: Order of Business (21 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: On the basis of the Leader giving a very clear indication that we will be taking this issue next Wednesday, I do not intend pressing it.

Seanad: Property Services (Regulation) Bill 2009: Second Stage (21 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Power. I compliment the advisers in the Department on their very extensive and difficult work. Much work has gone into the Bill. It has been very slow coming and Senator Ross and I have been shouting for it for the past five or six years. The Cathaoirleach spoke on this issue on a number of occasions. It is important to consider the genesis of...

Seanad: Order of Business (26 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: I would like to take up the Senator's point. We will have a good opportunity to discuss the Ryan report tomorrow and I look forward to doing so and putting on the record some things about which I was challenged last week. In the meantime it is very important for us to articulate a clear view that in terms of responsibility, the congregations - the 18 orders - and the State should share the...

Seanad: Order of Business (26 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: -----until such time as we make up the amount that will be needed. I know they are not marketable at the moment. I do not want them sold, disposed of or liquidated, I want them transferred into our ownership to allow a 50-50 share of responsibility and cost all the way through. No fair-minded person could object to that. I do not know how many people are aware that we have two ambassadors...

Seanad: Order of Business (26 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: We need to ask hard questions of the head of state in the Vatican, who is also the head of the Catholic church wearing a different hat. There is a state within a state there and questions need to be put and answered. I would like the Minister to come to the House and explain to us how we find ourselves in this position. In the meantime I would prefer us to close down our embassy in the...

Seanad: National Asset Management Agency: Statements (26 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I pushed hard for the debate because at the time I thought there was a need for discussion of the different views put forward, particularly by Fine Gael, the Labour Party and consultants outside the House. I listened with some fascination to the entire proceedings of the joint committee and the debate was exactly what should have taken place a...

Seanad: National Asset Management Agency: Statements (26 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: No, I think Fianna Fáil needs a bit of a rest.

Seanad: National Asset Management Agency: Statements (26 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: I will let Senator Daly play the politics.

Seanad: Order of Business (27 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: On the issue we will discuss further today, whatever about the length of time from now until the end of July, about which I will listen to what the Government has to say, and which sounds long and may not be too long, the one point on which I and everybody in House completely agree with Senator Fitzgerald is that this is a time for political action. If there is to be a report, whenever it...

Seanad: Order of Business (27 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: When it came for the order to pay up in 1996 that €100 million had been reduced to €4 million. That is what we are facing. The order has already set up a trust. I do not have confidence in what Brother Edmund Garvey stated in the past couple of days. First, the Government should ensure the order pays up, as the order is leading us to believe without saying so. Second, if there are...

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: This is a sensible and useful amendment which strengthens the legislation enormously. There should be no difficulty supporting it.

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: I move amendment No. 18: In page 14, before section 11, to insert the following new section: 11.—The following section is substituted for section 45 of the Act of 2003: "45.—The Act of 1990 is amended by inserting the following in Part X: 205E—(1) In this section— 'amount of turnover' and 'balance sheet total' have the same meanings as in section 8 of the Companies (Amendment) Act...

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: In thanking the Minister for her comprehensive response, I gently point out that she is wrong on all points. Some of the Minister's comments were embarrassing. I also point out to my colleague, Senator Ryan, that I used the words "form a judgment" to explain how the legislation would work and they do not feature in the Bill. In his response to the Company Law Review Group, the Director of...

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: Is the director of a company which is dumping materials in an unauthorised dump supposed to know about the practices in which his company is engaged? Must I engage a consultant to tell me about this kind of thing?

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: No, it is not. The Minister has been given a false trade on this matter. I will resign my seat if she can provide information to support her contention that this measure would cost millions of euro. I have been listening to a similar argument since 2002. We must abandon the idea that companies must engage consultants to tell then they are complying with the law. Consultants are precisely...

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: The Minister is arguing that company directors will have to wheel in consultants if they want to be able to state their companies are compliant with the law. We may as well close down the whole system if that is the case. That is the precise argument used in 2003 and there is no basis for it. People act within the law to the best of their ability. If my company contracts another firm to...

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: I thank the Tánaiste for going through that. I do not know why she felt I had criticised her personally. If I did, it was not my intention. I do not take that road. I hold the Tánaiste in the highest regard and I do not need to go down the road of personal criticism, as she well knows. The Tánaiste has crystallised the point of disagreement between us. She cannot stand over a...

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: I am sorry to bore the Minister by going over the same points, but obviously Senator Walsh was——

Seanad: Companies (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 May 2009)

Joe O'Toole: ——not listening to any of the debate, so I will have to put it on the record again for him. My amendments, such as the exemption, reduce the number of companies covered by the Minister's proposal. I am raising the required level of turnover for the companies limited by shares from €15 million to €25 million per year, and making a number of other changes which I will not discuss. It...