Results 921-940 of 6,030 for speaker:Brendan Ryan

Seanad: Irish Nationality and Citizenship and Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2003: Second Stage. (22 Oct 2003)

Brendan Ryan: Perhaps the Cathaoirleach will reprimand us both.

Seanad: Irish Nationality and Citizenship and Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2003: Second Stage. (22 Oct 2003)

Brendan Ryan: No names were mentioned.

Seanad: Irish Nationality and Citizenship and Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2003: Second Stage. (22 Oct 2003)

Brendan Ryan: If something I said was in breach of the rules of the House – I do not know what it was that I said because no one will tell me—

Seanad: Irish Nationality and Citizenship and Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2003: Second Stage. (22 Oct 2003)

Brendan Ryan: —I will withdraw it. However, I will simply make one positive statement that Garret FitzGerald was perhaps the most honourable, ethical Taoiseach this country ever had.

Seanad: Irish Nationality and Citizenship and Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2003: Second Stage. (22 Oct 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I have great respect for the Cathaoirleach. If he believes that I cannot say that about the person in question, I withdraw it.

Seanad: Irish Nationality and Citizenship and Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill 2003: Second Stage. (22 Oct 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I have finished.

Seanad: Order of Business. (5 Nov 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I would counsel caution on things like golf courses. The citizens of the greater Cork area have been deprived access to the Old Head of Kinsale—

Seanad: Order of Business. (5 Nov 2003)

Brendan Ryan: —because of an extraordinary succession of decisions by the High Court and Supreme Court in the case of the property rights of perhaps the most exclusive golf course in the country. I do not know if Senator Callanan is a member, but he obviously knows more about it than I do. I am not prepared to accept that golf courses are necessarily eco-friendly if the price of that eco-friendliness is...

Seanad: Order of Business. (5 Nov 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I do not want to see that sort of tourism if it means excluding local people from services. Earlier this week the heads of the Irish universities raised, as they have done on a number of occasions, the question of cutbacks in third level education. It is probably correct to say that primary education is more important, which it is, but the truth is that all levels of education are extremely...

Seanad: National Development Plan Mid-Term Evaluation: Statements. (5 Nov 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I suppose having a national development plan is better than not having one. That is a positive note on which to start. I wholeheartedly and enthusiastically agree with Senator Morrissey that it appears that our national capacity to manage projects is more akin to a Third World country than a country that has aspirations to be a leader of the modern technological revolution. This morning I...

Seanad: Insurance Industry Reform: Motion. (5 Nov 2003)

Brendan Ryan: It breaks my heart to disappoint Senator Leyden.

Seanad: Insurance Industry Reform: Motion. (5 Nov 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after " businesses today;" and substitute the following: –Notes that only 20 of the 67 recommendations of the Motor Insurance Advisory Board have so far been implemented by the Government, –Notes that all other legislation promised has been delayed in spite of many promises, –Notes that the Government has so far failed to bring any real...

Seanad: Insurance Industry Reform: Motion. (5 Nov 2003)

Brendan Ryan: A bit like Senator Leyden himself.

Seanad: Order of Business. (6 Nov 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I enthusiastically support Senator Quinn's request for a debate on competitiveness. However, I hope people will read that study in some detail. There is a tendency to assume competitiveness means inflation when it is a much more complex measure, about which I am quite sceptical. If people want to talk about it, I hope they will discuss the full report which mentions public institutions as one...

Seanad: Order of Business. (12 Nov 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I support Senator O'Toole on the prisons issue and on what was said here yesterday. I am at a loss to know who will run the two prisons to be withdrawn from the supervision of the Irish Prison Service. Will it be a management consultant? What is going on? I am discomfited by Ministers who produce diversions. For the past 12 months the smoking ban controversy took the heat off the Minister for...

Seanad: Order of Business. (12 Nov 2003)

Brendan Ryan: It is unclear what motivated the decision to go the route chosen by the Government. Neither business, commercial nor other logic supports it. Ideology is a factor, but that is a bad basis on which to make pragmatic business or political decisions. One should pick what works. All the published advice says this is not a good business decision. We do not know what other advice is available...

Seanad: Courts and Court Officers (Amendment) Bill 2003: Second and Subsequent Stages. - National Drugs Strategy: Motion. (12 Nov 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I support the motion introduced by Fine Gael. However, I am always concerned by the huge emphasis placed on illegal drugs. I work in the third level education sector. For every third level student whose life is damaged by illegal drugs, ten are probably damaged, psychologically or physically, by alcohol. I say this as a lead-in to supporting the Fine Gael motion. As one who is more than...

Seanad: Order of Business. (13 Nov 2003)

Brendan Ryan: There is a fundamental point here, that is, that the Tánaiste chose to debate this issue outside the Houses of the Oireachtas before she debated it in them.

Seanad: Order of Business. (13 Nov 2003)

Brendan Ryan: That is profoundly wrong, and I would say that regardless of who was the Tánaiste and who was in Government. A process has developed over the last 20 years where the last place members of Governments choose to make serious announcements is in the Houses of the Oireachtas. There is a fundamental issue here about where governance and accountability lie. I do not want to get into the debate on...

Seanad: Order of Business. (13 Nov 2003)

Brendan Ryan: It is a speech and I will justify my right to make one. This is a fundamental issue whether Senator Callanan understands it or not. It is about ethics and what we understand to be right and wrong. I do not have a monopoly on this issue but the Houses of Oireachtas is the place where these matters should be decided and not on the basis of advice from civil servants to the Tánaiste to be...