Results 381-400 of 445 for speaker:Eoghan Harris

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Nov 2010)

Eoghan Harris: I congratulate the Minister for Health and Children in bringing in the first set of real reforms to the public sector. I understand what Senator O'Toole is saying but I must say some of the unions are stretching the credibility of the Croke Park deal to a great extent. First, SIPTU's demonstration on Monday night last in Letterkenny to protect the local hospital does not argue that they are...

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Nov 2010)

Eoghan Harris: We should not have to beg managers who have no work to do in the public sector to reform and to move on. When there are 400,000 people out of work, are we seriously expected to pay workers to move from one secure job to another in the public service, to pay teachers to accept an authentic performance management system and an exit process to move incompetent teachers out of the system, to pay...

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Nov 2010)

Eoghan Harris: If, as the political pundits seem to agree, there will be a change of Government at the next general election which may be soon, then I hope the new Government, represented by the Opposition parties here, will remember the old principle of clawback in the media, that whatever they give they take back with interest. Nothing will change for the new Government in terms of bad press coverage,...

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Nov 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Nov 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Nov 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Some weeks ago a prominent academic in Northern Ireland revealed that there was soft support for the dissident IRA from no less than 18.4% of the Nationalist community. In that ominous context, it is beyond belief that RTE News would put out two minutes last night, at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., of what amounted to an inflammatory montage of what looked like police brutality. Everyone in the trade...

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Nov 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (16 Nov 2010)

Eoghan Harris: I came in today hoping I would hear serious criticism of the Government's policy over recent days and all I get is the green flag being wrapped around by everyone, especially by the Labour Party, and talk about economic sovereignty. James Connolly stated that if one took down the Union Jack from Dublin Castle and put up the green flag, it would make no difference. What is this blustering...

Seanad: Death of Member: Expressions of Sympathy (17 Nov 2010)

Eoghan Harris: As we all heard and know, Senator Kieran Phelan was probably the most well liked Member of this House. Being well liked is not enough in politics, however. One must have character too. Senator Kieran Phelan had the same toughness and grit of character behind his affability. It was a toughness of spirit that he shared with the woman he helped to put in Dáil Éireann, the Minister for...

Seanad: Order of Business (23 Nov 2010)

Eoghan Harris: The great Wesleyan preacher, John Wesley, used to say when he came into a room full of different Christian denominations arguing with each other, "Come brothers, let us reason together". Senator Fitzgerald has shown us how to reason together in this Chamber today. The situation is pretty simple. We — some of us anyway, bankers and politicians — got ourselves into a mess, but to argue...

Seanad: Order of Business (23 Nov 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (23 Nov 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (24 Nov 2010)

Eoghan Harris: I find the comments from most of the parties surreal at the moment. There is a consensus in this House to ignore two important factors. Very soon Fine Gael and the Labour Party will be in Government. They will have to face, as Senators Healy Eames and Butler have pointed out, not a dig-out, but a loan, a bank overdraft that has to be paid for. If it is paid at 5% and the full facility is...

Seanad: Order of Business (24 Nov 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (24 Nov 2010)

Eoghan Harris: They were cut.

Seanad: Order of Business (8 Dec 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Like everyone else in Ireland, I care for my country, as do my colleagues in the Seanad. In the closing days of this Seanad we should reflect on the crisis in Irish politics, which is the lack of respect for politics and politicians. Our primary task should not be to score points against each other within the political system. All politicians have a duty of care to the Irish people and to...

Seanad: Order of Business (9 Dec 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Except for one.

Seanad: Order of Business (9 Dec 2010)

Eoghan Harris: I did not get a chance to read the OECD report yesterday, but having acquainted myself with it a bit more, I would like to call on the Leader for a debate on education. The problem with debating education in this House traditionally has been that there are so many teachers in both Houses of the Oireachtas that the debates always descend to a level of letting the Government spend more money,...

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Dec 2010)

Eoghan Harris: Long before the recession began the media continually made all of the progressive and reform movements and politicians responded. We bring politics into disrepute by speaking every day about last night's "Prime Time Investigates" or last week's "Today with Pat Kenny" programme. Politics can have no currency if it continually follows the media. We follow the media because every progressive...

Seanad: Order of Business (16 Dec 2010)

Eoghan Harris: I ask the Leader to convey to his party that it should consider the difference between the verb "Is" and the verb "Tá", the former being a permanent position and the latter being a contingent condition. People put up with minor corruption when an economy is booming but the smallest bonus in the public sector arouses major public anger. Everything must be considered in context now. The...