Results 4,261-4,280 of 4,608 for speaker:Joe O'Toole

Seanad: Order of Business. (1 Jul 2010)

Joe O'Toole: I refer to the story in The Irish Times today on legal fees. I declare an interest in that I am vice chairman of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board. The Leader has been involved in this issue since 2002 when he chaired an inquiry into the insurance industry. I have been involved in the issue for many years and the idea is to keep the cost of claims reasonable. We have been fought...

Seanad: Order of Business. (1 Jul 2010)

Joe O'Toole: Senators could come over to this side of the House.

Seanad: Order of Business. (1 Jul 2010)

Joe O'Toole: Indeed they should.

Seanad: Order of Business. (1 Jul 2010)

Joe O'Toole: Where is the Seanad reform Bill?

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Jul 2010)

Joe O'Toole: I raise an issue which has concerned me all week, that is, the protest taking place outside the gates. I have been organising street protests all my life, but there are rules. It is unacceptable for any group to harangue, harass and threaten not only Members but also visitors to the Houses. Yesterday I saw a Member and her family being harassed and threatened by the people involved. I ask...

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Jul 2010)

Joe O'Toole: We must consider where we are going. I welcome the points made by Senator Fitzgerald on the Civil Partnership Bill. It is important that it has been passed by the Dáil and I look forward to it being brought before us next week. However, the bishops have a right to express their view. As a public representative, I welcome the views of any group, whether it be bishops or penitents, what...

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Jul 2010)

Joe O'Toole: We should be brave enough to say this and I am prepared to say it to their faces. If I had had a microphone yesterday, I would have gone out and challenged them.

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Jul 2010)

Joe O'Toole: The Catholic hierarchy should recognise that, despite what they had said, the Bill was passed without a vote. This shows they are more in tune with the homophobic so-called Christians outside the gates than with the public representatives of the people. That should be a concern for everyone. It would be worthwhile to move them away from the gates, sit them down and read to them the Sermon...

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Jul 2010)

Joe O'Toole: That is a welcome relief.

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Jul 2010)

Joe O'Toole: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Jul 2010)

Joe O'Toole: I also believe the House should adjourn to discuss the massive changes to the national development plan being proposed. My concern should be shared on both sides of the House. The changes would have a negative impact on badly needed infrastructural development projects and on the economies of local areas in terms of job creation and certainly would have safety implications, as outlined by...

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Jul 2010)

Joe O'Toole: I strongly support the points made by Senator Fitzgerald. I have lost count of the number of times that I have raised these issues, including the EPSEN Act and that fact that its implementation has not so much been put back but that it has not commenced. We welcomed this legislation on all sides of this House when it was brought forward. We were assured it would change the position of...

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Jul 2010)

Joe O'Toole: -----on the issue of the civil partnership legislation over the next two days. Members should not be surprised if the Whip seems a bit soft on this side of the House in the next two days.

Seanad: Order of Business. (13 Jul 2010)

Joe O'Toole: In discussing the issue of where we are with the banks and the economy, we should consider the growing list of FitzPatrick, Mansfield, McNamara, etc. and put to bed one idea. Whatever criticism there has been of the Government, it has not sought to bail out builders and developers. Let us get that out of the way for the moment because that distracted from our focus. It is right that we all...

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Jul 2010)

Joe O'Toole: The points made by Senator Fitzgerald are very useful. I felt the silly season had opened up full time this morning when I received a Bill from my Kerry colleague, Senator Mark Daly, and the two Green Party Senators that would require mobile phones to carry a sign stating they emit radiation. It reminded me of my youth when people invented luminous watches and the view was that we could all...

Seanad: Death of Former Member: Expressions of Sympathy (14 Jul 2010)

Joe O'Toole: I speak on behalf of Members on the Independent benches who wish to be associated with all that has been said in tribute to the late Joe Doyle with whom I served in the Seanad. He was a Member of the other House for a brief period from 1987 and left the Seanad in 2002. At all times I found him to be a generous, open and humorous man. He was a great man to make a cutting comment out of the...

Seanad: Order of Business. (29 Sep 2010)

Joe O'Toole: On a number of occasions in the last session the fact that we should be discussing what is happening on the industrial relations scene with regard to unions, management and various social partners was raised in this House. Proposals came from both sides, from Senators MacSharry, Bradford and others, that we should have this discussion. In the meantime the Croke Park agreement has been...

Seanad: Order of Business (30 Sep 2010)

Joe O'Toole: Much of this material will be discussed during today's important debate. I welcome the fact that we are having the debate on a day when it is highly topical. This is something we have always sought and I look forward to the contributions from Members on all sides of the House. However, Senator Fitzgerald has raised a very important issue. Questions are being raised which we must examine...

Seanad: Order of Business. (6 Oct 2010)

Joe O'Toole: I also raise the question of the reason the House did not sit yesterday. While I acknowledge the Leader comes under pressure from the Government, all Members were under the impression that the Seanad would sit three days a week from the outset of this session last week. It is embarrassing, gives snowballs to those who are critical of the House to throw at Members and completely...

Seanad: Order of Business. (6 Oct 2010)

Joe O'Toole: Who will ask the reason for this and examine what they are saying? I ask the Leader for a date, on which the Minister of State with responsibility for the public service will come to the House to explain to Members some simple matters such as the objectives in this regard, the exact numbers he expects to cut from the public sector, the exact number of millions of euro that must be saved and...