Results 1,121-1,140 of 4,414 for speaker:Sean Barrett

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: The Government is preparing important whistleblower legislation. We should also include in it provision for non-whistleblowers. Perhaps they should be called whistle inhalers or whistle swallowers. At the weekend, a major figure in one of the banks said he knew the tapes existed but said nothing because no one asked him. That opting out should not be allowed in the new legislation. In...

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: Hear, hear.

Seanad: An Bille um an Dara Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Deireadh a Chur le Seanad Éireann) 2013: Céim an Choiste - Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: As today.

Seanad: An Bille um an Dara Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Deireadh a Chur le Seanad Éireann) 2013: Céim an Choiste - Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: That is shameful.

Seanad: An Bille um an Dara Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Deireadh a Chur le Seanad Éireann) 2013: Céim an Choiste - Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: Hear, hear.

Seanad: An Bille um an Dara Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Deireadh a Chur le Seanad Éireann) 2013: Céim an Choiste - Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: Shame.

Seanad: An Bille um an Dara Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Deireadh a Chur le Seanad Éireann) 2013: Céim an Choiste - Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: Who will be happiest if the Bill is passed? The answer, of course, is the Cabinet, senior bureaucrats and bankers. In other words, the people who avoid checks and balances all the time. This is their Bill and that is why I know both the Seanad and the people will reject it. I welcome the Minister of State. In Trinity College we welcome all visiting teams to College Park in order that we...

Seanad: An Bille um an Dara Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Deireadh a Chur le Seanad Éireann) 2013: Céim an Choiste - Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: On Friday last, my research assistant - who is well known to the Minister of State - presented to the Department some 400 pages of photocopied articles relating to the regulation of banking. He is one of the people the Government is seeking to fire. If I am not a Senator, I cannot keep him in employment. He delivered those articles free of charge. His costs are included in the...

Seanad: An Bille um an Dara Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Deireadh a Chur le Seanad Éireann) 2013: Céim an Choiste - Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: The Taoiseach has decided that he does not want us anymore. That makes it personal, unless, of course, the Minister of State wants to convince me that it was the previous incarnations of the Seanad that were at fault and that all our difficulties were caused by Mary Robinson, Owen Sheehy Skeffington, Trevor West, W. B. Yeats, Garrett FitzGerald, Sir Horace Plunkett, Jim Dooge and others.

Seanad: An Bille um an Dara Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Deireadh a Chur le Seanad Éireann) 2013: Céim an Choiste - Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: Yes. What is being done is highly personal in the context of the way in which it has been directed at the Members of the current Seanad. In my opinion, the current crop of Senators are 60 of the finest people one could meet. A total of 42 of them are new to the House and they should not be blamed for whatever misdemeanours those in government believe occurred in the past. The Minister of...

Seanad: An Bille um an Dara Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Deireadh a Chur le Seanad Éireann) 2013: Céim an Choiste - Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: Dr. Quinn also states: Ironically, among the instructions that the Castle had received from London was that the Union should not be a means of introducing any radical measure of parliamentary reform. Yet, carrying the Act of Union itself was a step of breathtaking radicalism. During the debates on the reform of the Irish Parliament in 1797, one member summed up the mood of the Commons when...

Seanad: An Bille um an Dara Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Deireadh a Chur le Seanad Éireann) 2013: Céim an Choiste - Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: -----demolishing a House of Parliament. I hope the Minister of State is ashamed and that he sees the parallels.

Seanad: An Bille um an Dara Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Deireadh a Chur le Seanad Éireann) 2013: Céim an Choiste - Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: We never got anything similar to that which was afforded to Grattan's Parliament.

Seanad: An Bille um an Dara Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Deireadh a Chur le Seanad Éireann) 2013: Céim an Choiste - Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: I have done so and I can read more quotations from it into the record. The Minister of State need not worry on that score.

Seanad: An Bille um an Dara Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Deireadh a Chur le Seanad Éireann) 2013: Céim an Choiste - Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Minister of State.

Seanad: An Bille um an Dara Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Deireadh a Chur le Seanad Éireann) 2013: Céim an Choiste - Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: Earlier today, Senator Mullen quoted the German Protestant pastor Martin Niemöller who was imprisoned by the Nazis. He gave us some parallels. This Government came first for the Údarás. It does not matter because we are not Gaelic speakers. Let it abolish the Údarás-elected people. Then it came for councillors. We are not councillors. Who cares about that? Let...

Seanad: An Bille um an Dara Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Deireadh a Chur le Seanad Éireann) 2013: Céim an Choiste - Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: We agree with the Minister of State. He never thinks of thinking for himself at all. He is his master's voice.

Seanad: An Bille um an Dara Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Deireadh a Chur le Seanad Éireann) 2013: Céim an Choiste - Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: "I thought so little, they rewarded me by making me the Ruler of the Queen's Navee!" What will happen to these 29 Haulbowline recruits when they turn up, these 29 new members of the Naval Service? Will the make Admiral? No, they are not really Admiral material. Are they able-bodied? I would not say so. Could they be petty officers? Absolutely. The name of their ship, a destroyer, is...

Seanad: An Bille um an Dara Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Deireadh a Chur le Seanad Éireann) 2013: Céim an Choiste - Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: Those on the opposite side should leave this silly case whereby they speak in favour of the Seanad and then vote against it, as 29 people did last week. There will be more of those days and those Senators will discredit this House. It cannot be a place where people say one thing and do another. The Government does not like the university seats or northerners. The Minister of State would...

Seanad: An Bille um an Dara Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Deireadh a Chur le Seanad Éireann) 2013: Céim an Choiste - Thirty-second Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2013)

Sean Barrett: Hear, hear.