Results 361-380 of 4,414 for speaker:Sean Barrett

Seanad: Gaeltacht Bill 2012: Committee Stage (28 Jun 2012)

Sean Barrett: Níl an translation ag obair.

Seanad: Gaeltacht Bill 2012: Committee Stage (28 Jun 2012)

Sean Barrett: It is operating as a broadcast rather than a translation.

Seanad: Gaeltacht Bill 2012: Committee Stage (28 Jun 2012)

Sean Barrett: I agree with the Minister of State that it is important to cherish Constable Peadar Heffron, a Gaelic-speaking member of the PSNI who is currently recovering from injuries he suffered as a result of an attack by paramilitary elements. I support amendment No. 2 because it draws attention to what I believe to be a defect in the Bill. There are aspects of the legislation which relate to the...

Seanad: Gaeltacht Bill 2012: Committee Stage (28 Jun 2012)

Sean Barrett: Go raibh maith agat. We are invoking the Anglo-Irish Agreement on this side of the House because of the traditions in Northern Ireland whereby Nationalists would discriminated against, not least in the Minister of State's adjoining city of Derry, and disgracefully so, and those rights were put in. I never thought I would be invoking it on behalf of Irish language speakers in this...

Seanad: Gaeltacht Bill 2012: Committee Stage (28 Jun 2012)

Sean Barrett: They have these rights.

Seanad: Gaeltacht Bill 2012: Committee Stage (28 Jun 2012)

Sean Barrett: The Minister's advisers tell him they do not have them but we are asking for court cases, as in the Pearse Doherty case, if we persist in denying people their voting rights, and we will have to use Northern Ireland or international obligations to defend the voting rights of those citizens.

Seanad: Gaeltacht Bill 2012: Committee Stage (28 Jun 2012)

Sean Barrett: I share the concerns of Senator Ó Clochartaigh in regard to expenses. They arise in two ways in respect of the savings alleged under the Bill. The claim is that there will be €100,000 per year savings in expenses by cutting the size of the board from 20 to 12 people, that is, a total of €8,500 per head. Is there any evidence that the existing elected board members of Údarás na...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2012)

Sean Barrett: I agree with everything the Senator has said. To the list of those who have been praised should be added the names of Senators David Cullinane and Ivana Bacik for splendid speeches. As of 25 June, nine more people were killed on Irish roads compared to last year. We have had almost a 40 year reduction in road accidents from 1970, when more than 400 people were killed, down to 186 last year....

Seanad: Mortgage Arrears, Banking and the Economy: Statements, Questions and Answers (3 Jul 2012)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister to the House. This morning the people who used to say "Ulster says "No"" were here and we got on very well with them. They have been replaced by "Ulster Bank says "No"" with equal damage to the wider economy. The section of the Minister's speech dealing with the banking problem was tentative but I take it as a reflection on the banks and not on himself. The Minister...

Seanad: Gaeltacht Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2012)

Sean Barrett: I would like to respond, briefly, to what the Minister of State said about the views I expressed last week. I thank the Minister of State for that and he is welcome to the Seanad. Before this debate began, we had been saying two Gaeltacht counties, his own and County Meath, had performed splendidly at the weekend. A good atmosphere has been set for the debate. My points related to section...

Seanad: Gaeltacht Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2012)

Sean Barrett: The Minister of State was the great defender of democracy two years ago. If he examines the voting lists, he will see that all of his Fine Gael colleagues in this House and the other House supported these democratic rights and were most reluctant to delay them for two years. Now they are being abolished entirely, which is a shame.

Seanad: Gaeltacht Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2012)

Sean Barrett: I would like to remind the Minister of State of some comments he made in the Dáil as an Opposition Deputy. Speaking on 6 July 2010 about the Bill that provided for the two-year delay, he said "ní féidir liom fáilte a chur roimh an mBille". I agree with the position he took at that time. He continued: Is Bille an-ghairid é agus níl ach fáth amháin gur tugadh isteach é, is é sin...

Seanad: Gaeltacht Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2012)

Sean Barrett: Will there be a next election? Is that not the purpose of the Bill? There will not be another election.

Seanad: Gaeltacht Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2012)

Sean Barrett: Deputy Alex White represented the Labour Party in this House two years ago and I ask my good friend, Senator Harte, to read what he said on this issue at that time because it is the opposite to what the Senator has just said, which is another volte face. In terms of who we elect, the former Senator Jerry Buttimer, speaking in this House, stated: Ba mhaith liom tréaslú le baill an bhoird....

Seanad: Rent Supplements: Motion (4 Jul 2012)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister, Deputy Burton, and the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan. As we try to put the pieces together in the country from the position we inherited 14 months ago, this measure will take a great deal of thought. We can go through all the mistakes that we made including the massive infusion of private capital into a stock of housing that, according to The Economist list,...

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Jul 2012)

Sean Barrett: On the Leader's point about the debate yesterday on "shall" versus "may", for Senators who were not present, it was an important debate. The amendment, which I did not table but supported, sought to amend the Bill by substituting the Minister "may" do something to promote the Irish language, as provided for in the Bill, with the Minister "shall" do something about the Irish language. We...

Seanad: Gaeltacht Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (5 Jul 2012)

Sean Barrett: Are the tactics of the Government to ensure we never get near amendment No. 143? That is what the Government is doing.

Seanad: Gaeltacht Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (5 Jul 2012)

Sean Barrett: I agree with much of what the Minister of State said about "Mol an óige" and I fear the consequence of what we are doing to the Gaeltacht in this Bill is the exact opposite. We need spoken language as in the language of Wayne Rooney and the broken English we use in international conferences. That is spoken in the Gaeltacht. If we undermine the Gaeltacht, Irish becomes the book language,...

Seanad: Gaeltacht Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (5 Jul 2012)

Sean Barrett: Yes men.

Seanad: Gaeltacht Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (5 Jul 2012)

Sean Barrett: I hope I did not interrupt the Minister of State as he was about to say he agrees completely with this amendment. I agree completely with what the Senators have said. He will be aware that the fine digest that was prepared for us quotes Mr. Liam Ó Cuinneagáin as saying "ní féidir linn póilíní teanga a chur isteach i monarchana". Perhaps the "póilíní teanga" could be installed in...