Results 101-120 of 445 for speaker:Eoghan Harris

Seanad: Order of Business (13 May 2008)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Budget Statement 2009: Statements (15 Oct 2008)

Eoghan Harris: While the Minister of State, Deputy Martin Mansergh, has made a manful attempt to put a good gloss on the budget, he has been unable to make it better than it is. I wish I could support the budget or the Opposition's criticism of it but I can do neither because both sides failed to deal with its core failure, namely, the failure to reform the public sector. The Irish Times cut to the chase...

Seanad: Budget Statement 2009: Statements (15 Oct 2008)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2008)

Eoghan Harris: Last week I said in the House that I could not, in conscience, support the budget because it had failed to deal with the public sector. That is intimately related to the kind of Civil Service mind which came up with the medical card scheme. I also said that I could not, in conscience, support the main Opposition party because it is compromised by the presence of Deputy James Reilly as its...

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2008)

Eoghan Harris: ——who negotiated the scheme——

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2008)

Eoghan Harris: ——to which the public——

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2008)

Eoghan Harris: He is the party spokesman on health. Of course it is in order.

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I strongly recommend that Fine Gael, from a tactical point of view, thinks about the wisdom of having somebody ballyragging the Government about medical cards who, in his previous capacity, negotiated these outrageous profiteering charges for the IMO. How could any normal human being——

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2008)

Eoghan Harris: The Senators are not letting me make a perfectly reasonable case which——

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2008)

Eoghan Harris: It is not a personal attack.

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I repeat, I have a real problem with this budget both in terms of the public sector and the medical card scheme but I find it very hard to support the main Opposition party rolling all of these other issues into it, given that its spokesperson on health is not coming to it with clean hands.

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I do not remember interrupting when other Members of the House were speaking.

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I am happy to do so. What bothers the public about the changes to the medical card scheme is above all the grudging and graceless way in which the Government has handled it.

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2008)

Eoghan Harris: Up to today I considered it to be grudging and graceless. However, the public does not wish to commit itself to universality at any level. I do not believe in universality for medical card schemes or child benefit allowance because it favours the rich and privileged rather than the great mass of people.

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I do not believe it should be slipped in under cover. However, although the Government's handling has been grudging and graceless the Opposition is compromised by the fact that its spokesperson on health is a member of the medical profession.

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2008)

Eoghan Harris: The Labour Party is compromised at another level. The party refuses——

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I withdraw the remark. The point I want to make concerns the failure of the Opposition to point up the need to reform the public sector. Only Deputy Ruairí Quinn of the Labour Party has been brave enough——

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2008)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (29 Oct 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I congratulate Senator O'Reilly on his comments about Protestant schools. He literally took the words out of my mouth and his point was well made. There is much idle talk about fee-paying schools, but Protestant schools in regions where their populations are small carry many poor pupils. They are in a special position, even leaving aside the special position they have in the Proclamation...

Seanad: Order of Business (29 Oct 2008)

Eoghan Harris: Unless the public sector, what I term the cushioned class, is reformed, there can be no peace. It is wrong to pick on the Minister of State, Deputy Máire Hoctor, or the Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, who are unfortunate to have to carry the burden of what should be a general taxation issue. Children, pensioners and individual Ministers should not have to carry that burden. That is the...