Results 81-100 of 445 for speaker:Eoghan Harris

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: Not everyone likes to travel. People speak of travel nowadays as if it were a luxury to get on a plane. Everyone travels nowadays. Such trips are quite hard work for the people concerned and are tiring. Nobody who is past the age of 24 wants to be flying around the world to meet the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. It is necessary work for the Irish people. It is bad for politicians to...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: Given the amount of criticism public bodies get in this country, I am sure the Leader, on behalf of the House, will be keen to record his appreciation of the manner in which the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment discharged its public duty yesterday. Despite having to operate in the middle of a media firestorm, it held its nerve and advised the Minister to retain the poetry of...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: There are very few moments of this nature in Irish history. It is very easy to join a consensus, add to the media firestorm and support those who wish to stone Cathal Ó Searcaigh. The founder of Christianity would not have been found in such a mob. Media mobs are easy to assemble. They have been assembled for all sorts of people in Irish society, from the Taoiseach down. It is difficult...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: It was as important as the decision to open Croke Park or any other decision that took moral courage. I say "well done" to those who make the decision, which we should salute.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2008 (Certified Money Bill): Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (13 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I welcome the Minister to the House. He is famous for his ability to think on his feet. I am baffled by the procedure and do not know where what I want to say fits into the recommendations but I crave the Minister's indulgence to make a few points that are part of the wider hinterland of the Bill. These concern the simplification of information about the tax code. The Taoiseach's...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2008 (Certified Money Bill): Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (13 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I know that and I asked for some latitude.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2008 (Certified Money Bill): Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (13 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: The Minister indicated that he is willing to deal with this if the Leas-Chathaoirleach will give me a few minutes.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2008 (Certified Money Bill): Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (13 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I know the Minister takes this seriously. I am concerned that Revenue seems to press most strongly on those who are tax compliant because it is easier to deal with them. Those who are not tax compliant are more trouble than they are worth. The Revenue Commissioners need powers and I would give the Criminal Assets Bureau all the powers it needs to track down criminals. I am fully in favour...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2008 (Certified Money Bill): Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (13 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I have a recommendation. Tax simplification is vital for small businesses and the current tax treatment for private individuals and for the small business sector places a significant burden on them in making their returns. I ask the Minister to consider extending tax relief at source and a systematic public information campaign in respect of tax. I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach and the...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2008 (Certified Money Bill): Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (13 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: Again, this is a VAT related issue. All charges between VAT-registered entities should be free of VAT on the production of the requisite certificate. This is not dissimilar to what happens in many other European countries. Utility charges is a good example. This would do much to help prime the pump that is so badly needed at this time of economic correction. I ask the Minister to...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2008 (Certified Money Bill): Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (13 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I congratulate the Minister on the mastery of his colleague's brief and on his latitude in answering questions with his usual liberal effectiveness.

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I will try to take Senator Prendergast's concise contribution as my role model. From time to time I am challenged about the Seanad's purpose and it is very hard to defend its role when so many Members spend this valuable time rambling about their local constituency issues at great length without any order or apparent regard for the public's lack of interest in such matters, which are matters...

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: Young men are a hierarchical group. They respond to strength and male role models whom they respect. The place they are likely to meet such role models is not in a quilt making session but in a new corps established by the best elements of the Army and run by rangers on detachment who could teach them it is possible to be men without being violent.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I strongly agree with a point made on the Opposition side and strongly disagree with a point made on the Government side. In both cases they should be non-partisan issues. I was impressed by Senator Donohoe's contribution on the economy. It was in the great tradition of Alan Dukes's Tallaght strategy. There is an economic recession in the US and we have little control over economic...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Mar 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I strongly disagree with Senator Callely's contribution on Iraq. Iraq was under the control of a very evil dictator which it is no longer. The latest opinion poll taken there showed the people of Iraq are very hopeful about the future. We should not talk down Iraq either. I will not say the Iraq war was worth it but it was not an ignoble war. It was a war to depose a dictator and the...

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Apr 2008)

Eoghan Harris: In light of all the Taoiseach has done to promote pluralism in Northern Ireland, it would be a pity if he did not distance himself from the uses put by some SDLP councillors to the money made at a recent breakfast lunch fundraiser in the Carrigdale Hotel in County Louth. The Taoiseach may not be aware that some of the proceeds of that breakfast were being used to pay the fines of a group of...

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Apr 2008)

Eoghan Harris: This also illustrates another point: the danger of being carried on the coat tails of Sinn Féin policies in any matter. The SDLP allowed itself to be carried in that local area on the coat tails of Sinn Féin, much as some of the people who opposed the Lisbon treaty are allowing themselves to be carried by Sinn Féin fronts in the campaign and which led to the attack, which I deplore...

Seanad: Order of Business. (30 Apr 2008)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business. (30 Apr 2008)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.