Results 561-580 of 6,030 for speaker:Brendan Ryan

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (20 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: Is the Senator asking for it?

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (20 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: But—

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (20 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: The Senator should ask the Opposition first.

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (20 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: This Bill is fundamentally wrong. I have followed the debate in the House or on the monitor in recent weeks and nothing that I have seen on television or read in the newspapers offers evidence of a threat of any kind to the workings of government. I would not wish to be involved in anything that would seriously hinder the efficient work of government. However, the Minister seems to have...

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (20 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: Revised is to understate it. It will be reversed, of which the Government can be certain.

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (20 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: When it is reversed, everything that the Government is so carefully concealing from public view will become a matter of public record again. My party drove this legislation through an unwilling Oireachtas when the previous partner in government which conceded everything resolutely refused to concede on freedom of information. Deputy Quinn, my former party leader, described in detail in the...

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (20 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: It was not.

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (20 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: The programme for Government in 1992 contianed a commitment to consider a freedom of information Act.

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (20 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: Everything is under consideration all the time. There was no commitment in the programme for Government in 1992 to introduce a freedom of information Act because Fianna Fáil refused to do it. The Government has had five years of living with the Act and the first chance it got after the general election it walked away because Fianna Fáil did not want it. That is what the Bill is about. In...

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (20 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: Yes, but I think the Minister is on record as saying that there is excessive devotion to her. I have my god, the Minister has his and perhaps goddesses are nicer.

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (20 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: It was guillotined on Committee Stage.

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (20 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I will be here for a long time yet.

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (20 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: It is a fact that Committee Stage was guillotined.

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (20 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I encourage Senators to rant.

Seanad: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2003: Report and Final Stages. (20 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: He said he would make some tweaks.

Seanad: Tributes to Deputy Head Usher of the Houses of the Oireachtas. (20 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I arrived here 22 years ago, brash, noisy and threatening everything—

Seanad: Tributes to Deputy Head Usher of the Houses of the Oireachtas. (20 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: —and secretly terrified at the same time. In many cases, one really has no idea of what is in store, particularly if one arrives, as I did, from an independent background without a tradition of political involvement. It is people like Tony who begin to give one a sense that one has actually come somewhere that has an important role. He has an ability to be there and at the same time to be...

Seanad: Tributes to Deputy Head Usher of the Houses of the Oireachtas. (20 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: They all have to look in a number of different directions at once. It has been a blessing to have somebody as calm, trustworthy, reliable and as easy to get on with as Tony, who at the same time never did anything but uphold the dignity of the House. It is, was and will continue to be a privilege for all of us to have somebody of that quality working with us. I wish him every happiness, long...

Seanad: Order of Business. (21 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: Leaving aside whatever differences we have on the war in Iraq, I call upon all Members of the House to appeal to the media not to turn war coverage into a glorious game of "Star Wars". We must keep emphasising in the debate on Iraq that it is people who are at the receiving end. The war is not just about images. I wish to state this now rather than in the heat of debate. Whatever anybody...

Seanad: Order of Business. (21 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: We agree most of the time.