Results 3,881-3,900 of 5,763 for speaker:Gerard Craughwell

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre Review: Discussion (22 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: There was a ransomware attack on the UK health system on 12 May 2017. It beggars belief that our health service was still operating with machines and software that were so out of date that they were an easy target. This brings me back to the point I have been trying to make all along, namely, that we do not do security seriously. The Minister of State outlined the various different...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: Today, the new Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Major-General Seán Clancy, takes over an organisation that is in very poor shape. I wish him the very best. There is a new Secretary General in the Department and I know that she will work with him to try to rebuild the force. My colleague spoke about front-line workers and of how those who worked in the medical sector should be...

Seanad: Air Navigation and Transport Bill 2020: Second Stage (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I welcome the Minister of State and I welcome the Bill she is bringing before the House, although at this point it does not go far enough, and we will talk about that shortly. As Senator Buttimer has pointed out, the last two years have been a very difficult time for the aviation industry. Indeed, the Oireachtas transport committee has spent an extraordinary amount of time looking at the...

Seanad: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I welcome the Minister to the House and thank him for taking the time to meet the women of honour today. I will place on record the concerns my former colleagues in the Defences Forces have. The nature of the complaints being brought forward by the women of honour, brave women that they are, and the things they talk about tend to happen behind closed doors and in secret. The few...

Seanad: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I will get another chance to have a go.

Seanad: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I might be sent overseas.

Seanad: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: There is a bit of a difference between the categories.

Seanad: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: Will the Minister address the commencement of the Bill?

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I join with Senator Boylan on the issue of animals. My dog of 11 years died recently and I wanted to replace him. As one cannot find pups in the various rescue centres at the moment, I decided to search online and discovered that puppies are being sold for up to €3,000 each. Let us think about the outrageous amount of money that can be earned from one litter of pups. There also are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Work of Front Line Defenders in Afghanistan: Discussion (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank the guests for attending. It is not easy to come in and tell the stories they had to tell. I will deal first with Afghanistan. There are a couple of issues with it. One is that we have had many statements from sources like the UN Security Council expressing concern for women and girls. These are words. Words mean nothing, at the end of the day. There are thousands of young...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Work of Front Line Defenders in Afghanistan: Discussion (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: On the Afghan issue, the collapse of the local defence organisation suggests that no matter how well they were trained, they were amenable to the Taliban taking over. On getting the news out from Afghanistan on social media, I am sure that will not survive for much longer if things remain as bad as they are. I will get back to Colombia. In a post-conflict situation, which we know all...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank the speakers. It has been a most informative morning. We are in the process of trying to put together our cybersecurity network in Ireland. We have an abysmal system in place with an acting director in place and no director appointed.. We are in a pretty sorry state for a country that hosts some of the largest information technology companies in the world. Are we putting the cart...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank Mr. Lowry. Today we have spoken a lot about the use of the digital Covid certificate. It is only anecdotal, and I have nothing to back it up, but after the majority of the population registered for the Covid vaccination we suddenly saw a spike in scam calls to mobile phones and so on. I have always wondered whether there was a correlation. Has any research being carried out into...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank Mr. Fraser for attending the meeting. It is good of him to appear before the committee. He spoke a great deal about process and procedures. Indeed, he spoke at the finance committee in June 2021 about his belief that process and procedure are the way we should do business. I assume that, as the most senior civil servant in the country, he is an expert in process and procedure....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: As the most senior civil servant advising the Taoiseach and the Cabinet, I assume Mr. Fraser has meetings on a weekly or more frequent basis with Government advisers, the chef de cabinet and perhaps Ministers, and I am sure he is well used to a situation where eleventh-hour issues come before the Cabinet, for example, a couple of hours before a Cabinet meeting something urgent arises that he...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: Mr. Fraser was aware of it before the Cabinet meeting. Did he not feel the need to advise the Taoiseach?