Results 921-940 of 5,754 for speaker:Gerard Craughwell

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (9 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I will be very brief. Having listened to Senator O'Donnell, I support her position because I recall seeing one elderly lady in a nursing home who did not want to be there, who was perfectly capable of looking after herself and who cried every day.

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (9 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: As I advance in years myself, this measure would give me some degree of security that I might not be dumped at some stage, although why they would do it, I do not know.

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2015: Second Stage (10 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I support this Bill.I am pleased the Government has decided to introduce an amendment to include the Local Authority Members Association, LAMA, as a nominating body. Senator Wilson in particular will be very happy with that. The need for reform of the Seanad is well known by all now, and the Leader has twice brought the group that prepared the report for the Taoiseach on reform into the...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2015: Second Stage (10 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: -----because it creates a biased view of local councillors in this country, the people Senators Wilson, Cummins and various others have spoken about who are working hard to make their communities better places. That is despicable. I have also written to the Garda Commissioner and asked her to carry out what I would regard as a proper investigation without any form of inducement or what some...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2015: Second Stage (10 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank the Minister of State very much.

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I wish to associate myself with Senator Zappone's comments this morning. Cúchulainn was born in County Galway and, for Senator Jim D'Arcy's information, moved to Dundalk later. At the weekend, the newspapers carried a further report on the "Prime Time" programme. I have had a number of calls from county councillors who feel they have been totally undermined and that their honesty and...

Seanad: Seanad Electoral Reform Bill 2013: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Coffey, to the House. I too support Senator Crown. In fact, Senator Quinn's statement that Senator Crown feels he will not be able to stand for election again if he does not see meaningful reform has saddened me somewhat. Senators Quinn, Crown and Zappone have all been pushing for reform. Many would argue that the referendum was based on the belief...

Seanad: Order of Business (16 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I am not sure if Senators are aware that our colleague in County Kildare, Councillor Willie Crowley, was the victim of a hit and run accident last night. His condition is critical and I am sure all Senators will join me in sending our good wishes to him. This morning, representatives of the Organisation of National Ex-Service Personnel and the Irish United Nations Veterans Association...

Seanad: Harbours Bill 2015: Committee Stage (16 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I wish to support Senator Barrett. I am a little confused about why we are bringing local authorities in to run ports. The ports are a specialised area. I would rather see an integrated transport policy, whereby the big ports in use would incorporate some form of rail transfer of assets, etc. I am a little concerned that we are asking too much of local authorities.We have stripped them of...

Seanad: Harbours Bill 2015: Committee Stage (16 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I take the Minister's word that there was a significant period of consultation but everything about this Bill seems to remove the opportunity for locally-elected people to have a serious input into the ports' boards. The boards would have oversight of what goes on. We seem to be empowering chief executives and disempowering elected people, a theme which appears to run right through...

Seanad: Harbours Bill 2015: Committee Stage (16 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: Can the amendments be resubmitted for Report Stage?

Seanad: Harbours Bill 2015: Committee Stage (16 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: Senator Barrett is correct. For the life of me, I cannot believe we would want a harbour that would be managed by a load of "landlubbers", as Senator Barrett has called them. Surely the harbour master - the person who understands the harbour - is the one person we should want to be present at all board meetings. A number of harbours around the country are extremely peculiar in their design...

Seanad: Harbours Bill 2015: Committee Stage (16 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I accept what the Minister has said. The magic word in what he had to say was "employee" because it suggests to me that it is envisaged, as suggested by Senator Barrett, that the harbour master will be standing outside the door with his cap in his hand waiting to see whether his masters inside want to hear his wisdom. These men have developed wisdom over many years. By right, they should...

Seanad: Harbours Bill 2015: Committee Stage (16 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: We will be back on Report Stage.

Seanad: Harbours Bill 2015: Committee Stage (16 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: Amendments Nos. 14 and 15, which were tabled by Sinn Féin, seek to remove the authority of the chief executive officer and to vest that authority in elected council members. I appreciate that the Bill gives the council some powers of oversight. It is most regrettable that we are not in a position to consider amendments Nos. 14 and 15.

Seanad: Harbours Bill 2015: Committee Stage (16 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank the Minister for his patience. I agree with Senator Barrett on this. Where power is invested in a local individual, those autocratic people are suddenly given the power to put a number of puppets in place who will behave as desired. I would have no problem with the local authority chief executive making a recommendation while the final decision rested with the Minister of the day....

Seanad: Harbours Bill 2015: Committee Stage (16 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: Section 22(7)(b)(vi) provides that in considering whether to appoint a person to be a director of a transferred company, the local authority chief executive concerned shall have regard to the desirability of experience of local government. However, we have ensured that those with the greatest experience of local government are excluded. We will be talking about that a little later in the...

Seanad: Harbours Bill 2015: Committee Stage (16 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: Okay.

Seanad: Harbours Bill 2015: Committee Stage (16 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: We are meeting different guys then.

Seanad: Harbours Bill 2015: Committee Stage (16 Dec 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: In fairness, if the harbour was not under the control of the local authority, an elected member of a local authority would have no difficulty being on the board whatsoever.