Results 1,281-1,300 of 1,451 for speaker:Michael Finucane

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (11 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: I wish to support Senator Ryan regarding the €30 million consultancy fee. We are employing more consultants in respect of opposing Ryanair, the cuckoo in the nest, through the European Union on competition grounds. Objectively, it is remarkable, having spent €30 million, that there was no forewarning of such an outcome. Another issue which causes much concern, both outside and inside...

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (11 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: Goldman Sachs.

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (11 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: The small amount of money involved could result in a recipient being pushed over the limit in terms of his or her qualification.

Seanad: Energy Resources: Motion (11 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "Seanad Éireann" and substitute the following: "notes that according to the Environmental Protection Agency's latest report, Ireland is now 23.1% above its 1990 Greenhouse Gas Emission levels, 10% above our obligations under the Kyoto protocol and that average temperatures are likely to rise by 0.6% in the coming decades; condemns the...

Seanad: Energy Resources: Motion (11 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: The Government speakers get 20 minutes but I get only eight minutes. That is terrible discrimination. There will have to be a Standing Order in this regard.

Seanad: Energy Resources: Motion (11 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: The Green Paper was full of half measures and aspirational ideas rather than concrete costs and policies. Although I am short of time, I wish to detail some of Fine Gael's policies. These include the removal of all excise duties on bio-fuels produced from renewable energy crops; targeted grants to encourage householders to convert to renewable energy for home heating; reform of the vehicle...

Seanad: Energy Resources: Motion (11 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: Am I on energy time?

Seanad: Energy Resources: Motion (11 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: I would like to talk about that too.

Seanad: Energy Resources: Motion (11 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: We have costed it.

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: In 2003, the then Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, said that if the Government had not decentralised 10,300 people by December 2006, it did not deserve to be re-elected. That is interesting because, to date, just over 600 people have been decentralised. The figure will be 700 by December. It is farcical in the extreme to continue to talk about decentralisation, to purchase land and...

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: Are the enumerators calling between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.?

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: I acknowledge that, but a sense of realism and pragmatism should exist at this stage.

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: It is making their decisions.

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: There has been a degree of success in the area of road safety. People are now more responsible when it comes to drunken driving. I welcome the compilation of the list of roads around the country with accident blackspots on which gardaí will feature. However, on consulting the list I was surprised to find that there are no roads in County Limerick that were regarded as blackspots. There...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: What does the Government say?

Seanad: Local Authority Housing. (18 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: I welcome the Minister of State to the House. Glenma housing estate in Croom, County Limerick, has 43 houses which were built by the National Building Agency in 1973. Some 35 houses are privately owned and Limerick County Council owns the remaining eight, of which five are occupied, while three remain unoccupied. That these have remained unoccupied for a period of time has led to a variety...

Seanad: Local Authority Housing. (18 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: I would like the Minister of State to bring my concerns to the NBA who originally built the houses. I do not think the NBA can walk away and I would be interested in hearing its reaction to this. An unfair financial burden is being placed on many elderly people in this estate regarding the cost of refurbishing the private houses. This is acutely unfair — the problem was not of their making.

Seanad: Local Authority Housing. (18 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: And the NBA will be allowed to walk away.

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Oct 2006)

Michael Finucane: I welcome the Road Safety Authority's request for submissions from the public on its 2007 to 2011 safety strategy. Will the RSA examine the 1998 road strategy report, in which it was stated that there would be spray suppression measures in respect of heavy goods vehicles? We all know the inherent dangers if one tries to pass a truck in rain, namely, one can be blinded by spray for ten to 20...