Results 3,641-3,660 of 6,030 for speaker:Brendan Ryan

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Committee Stage (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: I am serious. If Robert Mugabe said he would not allow grotty people to live in the area of Harare——

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Committee Stage (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: He bulldozed the shanty towns and dumped everybody out because they did not vote for him.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Committee Stage (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: I fully accept that is an extreme example. The Minister should not laugh.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Committee Stage (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: That is what we would say if somebody else did it against any group other than poor people. If we did it against people because of their skin colour, sexual orientation or anything else, we would say it was a dreadful but, in effect, we are slipping through a form of apartheid — that is what Focus Ireland called it — which our country is beginning to accept. This is based on a belief...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Committee Stage (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: That is what it amounts to. We will have showpiece regenerations——

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Committee Stage (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: No, it is not. I know a good deal about what happens in housing. The Minister has been a thoughtful and imaginative one in this portfolio and he has tried to work the pensions issue with some imagination. I hope he does not give in to the business lobbies which are trying to send him off on a track that would make them a lot of money and not do much for our pensions. It is profoundly...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Committee Stage (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: This issue would benefit from a long debate but I accept we must move on. I will address a couple of matters the Minister mentioned. I do not disagree with much of what he said because we have created disasters in the past and there is a great need to put them right. Appallingly bad management decisions have been taken to demolish buildings, such as St. Michael's estate, which were perfect...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Committee Stage (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: Not unless the Minister is interested in it. I do not believe he will accept any amendments. However, a proposal that this will be reviewed in 12 months or two years and a report provided to the Oireachtas would ameliorate some of the effects of this.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Committee Stage (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: Judging by his facial expressions, the Minister seemed sympathetic to the suggestion of a report on the prohibition on rent supplement being paid in areas of regeneration. Does he have anything to say on the matter?

Seanad: Ethical Foreign Policy: Motion (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: Did we ever say there were?

Seanad: Ethical Foreign Policy: Motion (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: Like locking up 40 members of the Palestinian Parliament.

Seanad: Ethical Foreign Policy: Motion (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: Now we know. In terms of philosophical reflection, one would not disagree with a word the Minister has said. He, however, said that one does not determine what is ethical on the basis of philosophical reflection but on outcomes. I am entitled to ask for evidence of outcomes. He continues to obfuscate on the question of extraordinary rendition. I did not suggest, nor have I ever heard...

Seanad: Ethical Foreign Policy: Motion (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: That is exactly like Switzerland refuelling empty trains that brought people to the death camps.

Seanad: Ethical Foreign Policy: Motion (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: The Minister is extraordinarily touchy. I tried to restrain myself and I will continue to do so.

Seanad: Ethical Foreign Policy: Motion (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: The Minister is right. It is nonsense to suggest that facilitating the refuelling of planes that were used to transport people to regimes where they would be tortured is part of an ethical foreign policy. The Minister blinked because he did not want to say something. The Government says the lady gave it an assurance. The lady has told lies about US policy on extraordinary rendition. She...

Seanad: Ethical Foreign Policy: Motion (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: We spent years trying to obtain information from the Department of Transport on what the airplanes were doing and it refused to provide it. Every single concession was extracted slowly and painfully from the Government. Finally, when the Government had to accept the airplanes had done what we had said they were doing, and that they had been assisted on their way to and from the locations of...

Seanad: Ethical Foreign Policy: Motion (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: Speaking of the nose on the Minister's face, if he were Pinnochio he would have serious problems by now. His nose would have extended considerably. Let us leave the issue of rendition aside. The only person who does not know the reality is the Minister. Everybody else does, including ourselves and the European Parliament.

Seanad: Ethical Foreign Policy: Motion (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: The European Parliament knows——

Seanad: Ethical Foreign Policy: Motion (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: The Member tabled amendments which were voted——

Seanad: Ethical Foreign Policy: Motion (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: I had only started, a Leas-Chathaoirligh, before I was interrupted. All I said was that I did not say there were prisoners being transported but that the Government took the word of a person who is proven to tell untruths. The Minister said her word was reason was believe the US Government. We know it is not true and should not be trusted. Ireland is now in an isolated minority in that...