Results 801-820 of 4,414 for speaker:Sean Barrett

Seanad: Taxi Regulation Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 60: In page 54, subsection (4)(i), line 30, after ?matters.? to insert the following:"These shall include representatives of the Competition Authority and the National Consumer Agency.".This is an attempt to have the consumer listened to in the debate in order that successful economic policies cannot be overturned by people who do not want competition or by committees...

Seanad: Taxi Regulation Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: No, although I will have comments on Report Stage, as the consumer is being ignored. The entire Bill is anti-competitive, and the more we go through it, the more obvious that becomes.

Seanad: Taxi Regulation Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: I told people in the bus industry about this as they had not been told. It is a surprise that one would seek to change the regulation of the bus industry under a taxi Bill and people in the bus industry had not been notified of this by the Department.

Seanad: Taxi Regulation Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: As I stated earlier, if the bus industry is to be affected by a taxi Bill, we should inform representatives of the bus industry. There are issues to be sorted out in that respect.

Seanad: Magdalen Laundries Report: Statements (27 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch. I always value her contribution to this House. I hope that the next time they meet in the Lazy Daisy Café in Notting Hill ? it will be famous now ? she can say that 60 Senators and 166 Deputies will be there with her in spirit. I agree with everything other Senators have said. Owen Skeffington, one of my predecessors, tried to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Port of Cork Company: Discussion with Chairman Designate (27 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: I welcome Mr. Mullins and wish him every success in his new role. Deputy Dooley referred to the planning decision in Ringaskiddy and I share his surprise and bewilderment at it. There has not been a railway line anywhere near there for 60 or 70 years. It was bizarre. Even if it could be reinstated, how would it go through the city of Cork? Deputy O'Donovan mentioned the railway line in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Port of Cork Company: Discussion with Chairman Designate (27 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: An issue is how slow places in Cork Harbour are to change their use, for example, the Irish Steel site. Does the harbour authority have the power to develop assets? I am delighted it is getting one back from NAMA. Cobh has substantial railway frontage which is not really used. Is it of any use to the harbour?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Port of Cork Company: Discussion with Chairman Designate (27 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: Does it have scope for rail freight?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Port of Cork Company: Discussion with Chairman Designate (27 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: Industry surveys confirm what Mr. Mullins says. The last ones I saw from Chambers Ireland found that the ports were the least complained about part of the Irish transport system. We can compliment the incoming chairman on inheriting that record. They are unsung but extremely valuable. I wish the chairman designate every success

Seanad: Business of Seanad (28 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: The importance of the Seanad in scrutinising and initiating legislation has been shown vividly in recent times. The personal insolvency legislation was amended 181 times on Committee Stage and 155 times on Report Stage in this House, as the Minister, Deputy Shatter, engaged with Members. Yesterday, we reached 64 amendments on the Taxi Regulation Bill. It was remarkable that on a number of...

Seanad: Business of Seanad (28 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: I referred to the issue of regulatory impact assessments on legislation before it reaches the House. Could the Leader attend to that issue?

Seanad: Address to Seanad Éireann by Ms Emer Costello, MEP (28 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: I welcome Deputy Costello. The first person speaking in this series, Mr. Gay Mitchell, MEP, indicated that this process is probably the closest form to European-style interaction, and it can be contrasted to the adversarial system in the Dáil. I hope Ms Costello feels at home, as people are discussing ideas here rather than calling for resignations. I will certainly not be doing that. The...

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Mar 2013)

Sean Barrett: In The University Times today there is a story that in the negotiations on the reconfiguration of teacher training in Ireland the Church of Ireland College of Education will not be allowed to retain its name. The inclusion of "Church of Ireland" in the title does not threaten anybody; rather, it enriches the island as an example of the diversity enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement and the...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Bill 2012: Second Stage (5 Mar 2013)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan. This is a pretty sad day in many ways. We have decided to attribute all the blame for the things that happened in this country between 2008 and 2010 to the Members of the Oireachtas. The number of people in this country has increased by 341,000, according to the census, but they will be represented by eight fewer Members of the Dáil....

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Mar 2013)

Sean Barrett: I join in our colleague's welcome for Professor Huxley, an Englishman who, in a great tradition, believes in fairness in the way the United Kingdom treats this country. I raise the article by Thomas Molloy in the Irish Independent yesterday in which he stated that electricity prices here are the second highest in the European Union after Cyprus. He estimated they were 40.25% above the EU...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Mar 2013)

Sean Barrett: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Finance (Local Property Tax) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Second Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Sean Barrett: Following on from Senator Cummins, in many ways we wish we were not here but at this stage of our consideration of the Bill we have added, under the agreement, ¤10 billion to taxation, and public expenditure is still rising. We discussed that on the last occasion the Minister of State was in the House. We have become a high tax society. This is different from saying we will substitute the...

Seanad: Early Intervention and Economic Benefits: Statements (6 Mar 2013)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister, as always. When she comes to this House everybody is stimulated by what she has to say to us. We are looking at starting out with a new public service looking after the preschool group in a much more systematic way than we did previously. We are trying to do it from the perspective of a country that is broke. I think it was in articles in the Sunday Business Post...

Seanad: Early Intervention and Economic Benefits: Statements (6 Mar 2013)

Sean Barrett: Have we made child care too expensive by excessive regulation? Are the requirements so high? In a society with 14.8% unemployment, it is a contradiction that a service like child care should be so expensive. What is the logjam that enters into the Minister's mind when she confronts the situation? I thank the Minister for raising all these issues and bringing them to the Seanad in a series...

Seanad: Seanad Electoral Reform Bill 2013: Second Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Sean Barrett: No.