Results 581-600 of 6,030 for speaker:Brendan Ryan

Seanad: Foreign Conflicts: Motion. (21 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Foreign Conflicts: Motion. (21 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: Not a chance.

Seanad: Foreign Conflicts: Motion. (21 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I doubt if the world is sincere about avoiding conflicts like this in the future, but if it is it must put an end to the arms trade. Every one of the conflicts in the course of my adult life has been spectacularly exacerbated by the determination of a small number of powerful rich countries, of different claims in terms of ideology, to sell weapons to countries they neither needed nor could...

Seanad: Foreign Conflicts: Motion. (21 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: That has nothing to do with it.

Seanad: Foreign Conflicts: Motion. (21 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: If law was based on the judgment of participants, there would be no law at all. Law is applied universally, even-handedly and independently and if there is no independence, there is no law. This action in the Middle East implies there is no law, except the law of brute force.

Seanad: Foreign Conflicts: Motion. (21 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: There is no law.

Seanad: Foreign Conflicts: Motion. (21 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I thank you, a Chathaoirligh, I was feeling very threatened. I refer to the statements that America is our closest friend and is the champion of freedom in the world. Senator Norris stated previously that America subverted democracy in Iran and Guatemala in the 1950s. In the 1960s it subverted democracy in Chile, in the 1970s it participated in the subversion of democracy all over South...

Seanad: Foreign Conflicts: Motion. (21 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: Central and eastern Europe collapsed because of the remarkable vision of a Soviet president.

Seanad: Foreign Conflicts: Motion. (21 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I did not witness US intervention when Soviet tanks crushed the people of Hungary in 1956 or when they crushed freedom in Czechoslovakia in 1968. In both cases the US decided its own interests were better served by leaving tyranny alone.

Seanad: Foreign Conflicts: Motion. (21 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: We had a Government in the 1980s which was not afraid to tell the US what it thought of its foreign policy. It was a led by Garrett FitzGerald and Peter Barry was Minister for Foreign Affairs. They told Ronald Reagan in Dublin Castle that what he was doing in central America was wrong. We do not always have to toady up to the US when it engages in actions that are wrong. One does not get...

Seanad: Foreign Conflicts: Motion. (21 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I move amendment No. 2: To delete all words after "Seanad Éireann" and substitute the following: –Notes the decision of the United States, the United Kingdom and others to launch a pre-emptive military strike against Iraq in defiance of the United Nations Charter; –Condemns the threat or use of war, especially before diplomatic alternatives have been exhausted; –Notes with alarm the...

Seanad: Order of Business. (26 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I join other Senators in saying that the new format of the Order Paper is a disgraceful example of environmental waste, particularly in a country with a waste crisis of unmanageable proportions. I gather the Leader made some reference to it. There are two pages wasted on the cover. This must add up to 800 pages produced every day. I do not recall discussion of these changes by any committee...

Seanad: Order of Business. (26 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: Cheltenham Charlie delayed the Finance Bill 2003 to facilitate his attendance and his enthusiasm for horse racing, and now we have an early signature motion. This is a gross undermining of the spirit of the Constitution. (Interruptions).

Seanad: Order of Business. (26 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: This is not the spirit in which the business of this House should be conducted. Can we have a debate on crime levels? Figures published this morning showed an increase in the number of public order offences. This is not scaremongering. We are talking about increases of 50 and 60% in a year for some categories. If this trend continues, we will have uncontrollable streets. The Minister for...

Seanad: Order of Business. (26 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Health Services: Motion. (26 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I move:

Seanad: Health Services: Motion. (26 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: Did the Government do that on its own?

Seanad: Health Services: Motion. (26 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I do not dispute what happened, but I am unsure about the attribution.

Seanad: Health Services: Motion. (26 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I think the Minister has more influence with the ICTU but I am willing to support him.

Seanad: Health Services: Motion. (26 Mar 2003)

Brendan Ryan: That is almost eight years ago.