Results 81-100 of 4,414 for speaker:Sean Barrett

Seanad: Road Traffic (No. 2) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (29 Sep 2011)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Minister and Members on the other side of the House for their consideration of my amendment. Reasonableness applies and Senators have pointed to the circumstances that would apply. My fear is that this provision will be used as an excuse, but I can see how difficult it is to nail down those whom we want to nail down.

Seanad: Road Traffic (No. 2) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (29 Sep 2011)

Sean Barrett: I join the Members of the House in thanking the Minister. This is a major issue. In the period prior to our being given the number of road deaths, I believe 600 people used to be killed on our roads in the decade before that. It is a success story to reduce the number of road deaths below 200. That is an achievement by everybody concerned. As Senator O'Sullivan said, there were lobbies...

Seanad: Sport: Statements (4 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of State and his enthusiasm. How can one stand up in this Chamber and follow a speech by someone like Eamonn Coghlan?

Seanad: Sport: Statements (4 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: We fancy ourselves as being very good at the horse sector but is it badly organised? Are we getting value for the taxpayers' money which the Minister is in charge of assessing how well it is spent.

Seanad: Sport: Statements (4 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: Could high performance athletes be encouraged to do school visits as a quid pro quo for their awards?

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: Arising from the report today from the Royal Irish Academy on the lack of foreign languages here - apparently, apart from Scotland we are the most single language country in the world - and our failure to join the European Union linguistically when committing to it in 1973, will the Leader take up this issue with the Minister for Education and Skills? I gather that the proposals to have...

Seanad: Presidential Elections: Motion (Resumed) (5 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the imminent constitutional convention. It is gratifying to see the extent of the restoration of democracy at Stormont. During a recent visit there, I listened to the Minister for Education, Mr. John O'Dowd, answering questions in the Chamber. It recalled for me the hope expressed by George Mitchell that he would one day bring his son to the Visitors Gallery in Stormont and hear...

Seanad: Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Statements, Questions and Answers (5 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister and it is always interesting to hear his views. I welcome the mention in his speech of auctioning of the broadcasting spectrum. Auctions are important beauty contests which lead to massive legal costs afterwards because those judged to be not beautiful enough tend to have large numbers of lawyers. A straight auction properly organised by the Department, with the...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: With regard to the metro north question raised by my friend, Senator O'Brien, there have always been serious difficulties with the lack of economic appraisal of that project. I did a "Prime Time" programme with Miriam O'Callaghan and the former Minister, Eamon Ryan, and we found most of the documents in the economic appraisal were Tippexed out. It is regrettable that the engineers went...

Seanad: Statements on Finance (6 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister and assure him of my support in the vital task he is undertaking. It is essential that we restore the country's finances to order. Senator O'Keeffe referred to the Minister, Deputy Noonan, and his colleagues, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, and the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Brian Hayes, as the Celtic troika....

Seanad: Investment in Science, Technology and Innovation: Statements (11 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: Absolutely not.

Seanad: Investment in Science, Technology and Innovation: Statements (11 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of State and recall having a great debate with him in Fermoy several years ago on the future of the economy. I am sceptical about virtually everything the Minister of State said. I wish he had not taken on baord the policies of the previous Government. An awful lot of money has been wasted in this area since 1998. It is unsuccessful in employment terms. This June,...

Seanad: Investment in Science, Technology and Innovation: Statements (11 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: -----and the Minister of State's Department should do that along with the Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. If we are to get the public finances back in order, this is an area in which we must question much of what happened over the past decade. I refer briefly to the recent university rankings. Did the quality of lecturing go down? Did the quality...

Seanad: Investment in Science, Technology and Innovation: Statements (11 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: I apologise for taking some of the Minister of State's time. I got carried away.

Seanad: Dormant Accounts (Amendment) Bill 2011: Second Stage (12 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: I will be brief. I endorse what the Minister said at one point in his speech. Everyone in the House welcomes the use of these unclaimed moneys for the betterment of the less well-off in our society. Such work for the public good must continue and that is the Bill's intention, which I commend. It is important not to have a slush fund of some kind with high administration overheads and the...

Seanad: Public Policy and Planning: Statements (13 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: I join Senators Conway and Mooney in welcoming and praising the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe. It is extremely important to have a strong Central Statistics Office, CSO. It is also important to recognise its great level of expertise and its many achievements worldwide. The person missing from this debate - I am sure he is looking on from some vantage point - is the late Garrett...

Seanad: Public Policy and Planning: Statements (13 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Public Policy and Planning: Statements (13 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: Is that agreed? Agreed.

Seanad: Order of Business. (18 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: I wish to refer to the second editorial in The Irish Times today, namely, the Battle of Clontarf mark II. Some 3,000 people attended a protest on Sunday against Dublin City Council's proposal to build a 9 ft. high barricade along the seafront from the railway bridge at Clontarf to the wooden bridge to access the Royal Dublin golf club. As speakers, including Roddy Doyle, said at the meeting...

Seanad: Central Bank and Credit Institutions (Resolution) (No. 2) Bill 2011: Second Stage (18 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: I shall seek to be economical. There is a general welcome for the Bill. As always, I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, when he comes in to this House. I agree with much of what Senators MacSharry and Michael D'Arcy have said. Looking at where we stand, I would have concerns that the pillar banks represent a duopoly. I do not know why we chose that form of doing things. To...