Results 4,141-4,160 of 9,159 for speaker:Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: (Resumed) Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (18 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: That is fair enough.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: (Resumed) Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (18 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Can the Minister give us more information on what is meant by "indiscriminate in nature". We live in a world where there is an evolution of weaponry. Does the Minister have a list of what weaponry is acceptable or indiscriminate in nature?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: (Resumed) Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (18 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: We are pursuing the same or similar information from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, but I thought they might have provided the Minister with the information today.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: (Resumed) Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (18 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Can we take the Minister's reply to those questions first, and I will then let the Deputy back in?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: (Resumed) Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (18 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I call Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: (Resumed) Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (18 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: As long as the Deputy needs.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: (Resumed) Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (18 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: As it is now 5.10 p.m., we have approximately 15 minutes left.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: (Resumed) Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (18 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: When we visited Shannon Airport, we were told a diplomatic note was required for military aircraft. For civil and chartered aircraft, guidance would be sought. The US Department of Defense would notify the Minister's Department that there would be X amount of troops on an aeroplane and so on and he would then seek guidance from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on the matter. In...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: (Resumed) Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (18 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade issues the diplomatic note. The gardaí whom we met at Shannon Airport told us that they compared a military aircraft with a diplomatic note to an embassy. Once a diplomatic note had been issued, as far as they were concerned, they had no jurisdiction, unless someone could prove with a degree of evidence that a crime was happening which, of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: (Resumed) Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (18 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: If the Minister does not mind, we are nearing the close. I will allow Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett to ask a final question. He will be followed by Deputy Seamus Kirk who has been waiting patiently.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Use of Irish Airspace and Landing Facilities: (Resumed) Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (18 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: When we met the management of the Shannon Airport Authority, it was at pains to point out that the overall percentage of US military personnel aircraft passing through Shannon Airport was low. This is confirmed by the Minister's last statement that the percentage of such traffic is approximately 4% of the airport's overall business. I understand the Minister has another commitment. I...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: White Collar Crime (19 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: 2. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality her views on the strategy of An Garda Síochána, working in partnership with other State agencies, and the resources available to them; if she will tackle white-collar crime, in view of the recent revelations that 350 Irish persons held 892 of the controversial HSBC accounts in Geneva, worth a total of €3.1 billion. [7170/15]

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: White Collar Crime (19 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: This question relates to a statement in the strategy of An Garda Síochána on white collar crime and follows the revelations that 350 Irish persons held 892 accounts in HSBC Geneva, at this stage, a notorious bank, worth a total of €3.1 billion.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: White Collar Crime (19 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: The Minister will recall that I raised this with her not long after her appointment, in June 2014. It followed the alarming comments of Mr. Remy Farrell SC at the Bar Council's annual conference where he outlined his concerns. If I might backtrack, I re-read an article by Dr. Elaine Byrne last night. With Ansbacher, there were 289 cases of illegality and not one person has been...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: White Collar Crime (19 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I will deal with it in a supplementary.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: White Collar Crime (19 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: Returning to the occasion to which I referred, Mr. Farrell SC stated that the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation had been swamped since 2011 and that of the cases it had reached only one in ten ended in prosecution. Mr. Ian Drennan, at the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, has spoken about having only one forensic accountant when there was need for at least five. There are...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Garda Operations (19 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: 5. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the plans of An Garda Síochána and the resources available to it to tackle the criminal gangs involved in diesel laundering, cigarette smuggling and petrol stretching across the island. [7371/15]

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Garda Operations (19 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: This question is about the plans of An Garda Síochána and the resources available to it to tackle the criminal gangs involved in diesel laundering, cigarette smuggling and petrol stretching throughout the island.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Garda Operations (19 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: In April 2013, I made a speech in this House in which I referenced the presentation of Retail Excellence Ireland to the justice committee. It had brought to our attention that 12% of all diesel sold in Ireland was illegal. Nineteen oil laundries were detected and closed and 690,000 litres of oil were seized. It also made the point that almost 25% of the cigarette market is sourced from the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Garda Operations (19 Feb 2015)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: The second message I wish to send, as a Sinn Féin spokesperson on justice, is that the people involved in these activities, despite comments from some journalists, just one or two, are not the IRA that supported the peace process and that have gone away. They are not republicans. They are criminal gangs. I am saying very clearly today, as a Sinn Féin spokesperson for justice,...