Results 501-520 of 605 for speaker:John Whelan
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (18 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: The Minister has copperfastened the matter and embedded it in legislation.
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (18 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: We accept that the original establishment of Irish Water was an unmitigated debacle and disaster. It was a carousel of cronyism and consultancy fees, but this has been stripped down and put right. The Minister's intervention will be a lasting one. We should not be here today trying to pass this legislation, as the establishment of Irish Water and legislation on metering should have...
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (18 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: We had water charges previously but they were called rates. It is rich for people today to speak of the playing politics, because rates were abolished with one stroke of a pen to steal an election in 1977, the previous occasion on which Fianna Fáil bankrupted the country. As a result of that measure, county councils did not have a penny for water and sewerage systems, so lead pipes...
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (18 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: I am putting facts on the record. The reality is that it would cost €2 billion per annum for 20 years just to maintain, restore and upgrade a system that is creaking and breaking at the seams. Do people want us to strip this money from housing, hospitals and schools? The funding must be found somewhere and, whether we like it or not, the only mechanism is to set up an entity similar...
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: He is only a young lad.
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: All year.
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: Sinn Féin will be in government forever after the next election.
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: All of us must pay our way, including-----
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: -----newspaper workers and tradesmen and so forth.
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (19 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: I have been here throughout.
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: First it is costing too much, now it is too little. Is that it?
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: That is what the Senator is saying. The Senator cannot make up his mind about anything.
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: It is called listening.
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: I commend the Minister for bringing this proposal on a public water forum into the revised legislation. As I said in the one contribution I made on Friday - others spoke 20 or 30 times - when the Minister-----
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: We are not just here to filibuster, talk around in circles, repeat and contradict ourselves ad nauseam.By the time we got to 3 a.m. I think some Members were inebriated-----
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: -----from the exuberance of their own verbosity and self-importance.
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: I was rudely interrupted in speaking to the amendment to section 7 regarding a public water forum and I wish to set the record straight. I resent those interruptions. I said that it occurred to me that certain people in the House were inebriated by the exuberance of their own verbosity.
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: For the record, I was-----
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: I am trying.
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (22 Dec 2014)
John Whelan: I wish to clarify-----