Results 61-80 of 445 for speaker:Eoghan Harris

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: If a murder trial was parsed and analysed and things allowed to be said by defendants and everyone else that were said about the Taoiseach, there would be no justice in the world. I am surprised that Fine Gael and the Labour Party do not understand the dangers inherent in allowing a Taoiseach to be tormented without due process because nobody is safe in Fine Gael and the Labour Party from...

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: It is very wrong for Fine Gael and the Labour Party to pretend they do not know that, to take one example of the distortions caused by tribunal reporting, there is hardly a cumann in the country, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, or the Labour Party, which at some stage has not made sums of money available to bury somebody——

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: ——to marry somebody, to help someone out of a hole.

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I cast no aspersions.

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I am pointing out that the Celia Larkin affair whereby the St. Luke's constituency office loaned her money——

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: ——is reported——

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: ——as if no cumann in the country had ever made financial arrangements of a difficult nature——

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: ——whereas in fact cumanns regularly make irregular and other arrangements, to bury, marry or help people out.

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I would also point out that the death by 1,000 cuts which is being inflicted on the Taoiseach could just as easily been applied to the former leader of Fine Gael, Mr. Garret FitzGerald, with his special arrangement with Allied Irish Banks, and who would not have been able to survive that kind of pressure and scrutiny.

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: How would his motives have been represented?

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: In its passion to put down the Taoiseach Fine Gael is digging itself a deep grave.

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: On a point of order——

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: On a point of order, the two last speakers have described my tempered remarks as a "rant"——

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I support Senator Fitzgerald's call for the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to look at the issue of the retirement age for gardaí. I call for a general debate on age in Irish society, not just simply in terms of restrictive employment practices, etc. but in terms of its wider parameters. Last night in Cork I attended the three-hour testimonial to Dan Donovan, one of the...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Report and Final Stages (11 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I concur with Senator Alex White on his distinction between opinion and fact. I was indisposed during the earlier Stages of this Bill but, on the occasions on which I could have contributed, I felt I would have been regarded as having had a vested interest. However, I must speak on the question of fact and opinion simply because I have been astounded in recent weeks by the absolute...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Report and Final Stages (11 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Report and Final Stages (11 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I still find it difficult to believe that a group of legislators who are responsible for changing the libel laws would speak as Senators Norris and Mullen have and appeal to the Minister to circle the wagons around elected politicians. If the average member of the public could see what goes on in The Irish Times or the Irish Examiner every day and the way the libel laws are used to protect...

Seanad: Defamation Bill 2006: Report and Final Stages (11 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: We have a Press Council and a press ombudsman and between those two bodies any politician here who is worried about himself or herself is well protected from simple lies. What we are talking about is the constant racket of money making, particularly on the part of the most powerful people in society who are the first up to charge the newspapers with defamation or libel. I have never heard...

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I strongly support Senator O'Toole's remarks about the question of politicians' trips. Normally, I find myself in agreement with Senator Fitzgerald on almost everything. I understand that in the pursuit of prudent expenditure of public money she would want to look out for that, and quite rightly so. I want to deal with the more general point. I have noticed in recent times, perhaps...