Results 1,301-1,320 of 14,090 for speaker:Marc MacSharry

Seanad: Confidence in Minister for Justice and Equality and Defence: Motion (27 Feb 2013)

Marc MacSharry: The Minister spent 40 minutes reading out a speech we heard weeks ago.

Seanad: Confidence in Minister for Justice and Equality and Defence: Motion (27 Feb 2013)

Marc MacSharry: It is an important point to make. The reality is that we are not getting increased numbers of gardaí on the ground. We have fewer members of the force on the ground. From the people whom I know in the Garda Síochána, morale is at an all-time low. We have heard the story of the detective unit in Cavan, in which the six detectives have no car between them. In Sligo, there is one car to...

Seanad: Confidence in Minister for Justice and Equality and Defence: Motion (27 Feb 2013)

Marc MacSharry: ----or in Dalkey. One is not comparing like with like. When the Minister of State goes out to Carrick or Glencolmcille looking for votes let him tell the people that No. 6.4 in the Fine Gael manifesto is a fabrication and a lie.

Seanad: Confidence in Minister for Justice and Equality and Defence: Motion (27 Feb 2013)

Marc MacSharry: Tell the lady who was tied up in her house----

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Mar 2013)

Marc MacSharry: We will not be opposing the Order of Business. As the Deputy Leader may be aware, yesterday the Fianna Fáil Party launched a document, Actions Speak Louder than Words: A Structural Approach to a Societal Issue, which is a set of proposals for structural reform and resourcing of a strategy for suicide prevention. We welcome that the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, has welcomed the...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Bill 2012: Second Stage (5 Mar 2013)

Marc MacSharry: I welcome the Minister to the House, as always. We in Sligo have grave reservations about the report of the Constituency Commission and the Bill. While I appreciate that the practice has become the automatic acceptance of the recommendations of the independent Constituency Commission, I recall that a former Taoiseach said Governments should not be bound by independent commissions or...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Bill 2012: Second Stage (5 Mar 2013)

Marc MacSharry: The Minister might get someone nearer. Senator Michael Comiskey, who is sitting beside the Minister, might like to be the man who is nearer.

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Bill 2012: Second Stage (5 Mar 2013)

Marc MacSharry: At a minimum, the proposed constituency name must be changed to "Donegal-Cavan-Sligo-Leitrim", or whatever. One cannot do that to people. It is simply wrong. That point made, Fianna Fáil reserves the right to table amendments on Committee Stage. On the broader electoral reform agenda, I realise that we are waiting for an independent commission to interpret the new local election areas. I...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Bill 2012: Second Stage (5 Mar 2013)

Marc MacSharry: Of course population comes into play, but is the Minister, an educated man, saying to me with straight face that 32,000 people in Leitrim require 18 councillors while 65,000 people in Sligo can survive on the same number while coping with the challenges of supporting the ninth largest urban centre in the State? If he is, he must examine that. Term of reference No. 5, in particular, clearly...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Bill 2012: Second Stage (5 Mar 2013)

Marc MacSharry: The people who got the jobs did not even apply for them. One is a former Labour Party press officer and the other was an activist in President Higgins's campaign.

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Bill 2012: Second Stage (5 Mar 2013)

Marc MacSharry: In the defence of those people, it is possible because it is a small country to trace political lineage to anybody. I am sure those people are exceptionally well qualified to do that work but in the interests of their integrity, the process, the Heritage Council and particularly the 70 people who applied for those jobs, we need to know how that process was conducted. We are not doing either...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Bill 2012: Second Stage (5 Mar 2013)

Marc MacSharry: I thank the Acting Chairman for her indulgence.

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Mar 2013)

Marc MacSharry: On behalf of the Fianna Fáil group I wholeheartedly welcome the professor. We are honoured to have him here. If it were not for the fact that it would eat into the important time for discussion of the property tax Bill, we would be proposing a vote on the Order of Business today. The property tax is a serious issue and one that will have an impact on the lives and wallets of every...

Seanad: Seanad Electoral Reform Bill 2013: Second Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Marc MacSharry: I wish to share my time with Senators Labhrás Ó Murchú and Jim Walsh.

Seanad: Seanad Electoral Reform Bill 2013: Second Stage (6 Mar 2013)

Marc MacSharry: I congratulate Senator John Crown, Mr. Shane Conneely and Ms Aoife Casey on the work they have done. Sadly, we might as well be kicking a football out on the lawn. This is the 21st time I have participated in a debate on the issue of Seanad reform. It is 11 years since I first made a submission on the issue and I am sure Senators David Norris and Feargal Quinn could go even further back....

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Mar 2013)

Marc MacSharry: Will the Leader arrange a debate as soon as possible on the discriminatory taxes being introduced, in particular against women, children and the family? On 27 February last, the National Women's Council of Ireland issued a statement with some data on the incomes of women and the gap which exists between them, in particular women who are mothers. The statement was entitled, Being a Mother...

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Mar 2013)

Marc MacSharry: I would like to ask the Leader for a debate on what actions the Government proposes to take in regard to the mortgage crisis. What has characterised the Government in this regard since the general election two years ago has been inaction and indifference. When we first proposed the Family Home Bill in this House in July 2011, the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Brian...

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Mar 2013)

Marc MacSharry: What is truly lying at the heart of this problem, and what Senator Barrett so often talks about-----

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Mar 2013)

Marc MacSharry: -----is the back stairs to the Department of Finance, which the banks specifically enjoy. We saw the fruits of that. The Secretary General of the Department admitted to the people that there will be lots of repossessions and that people cannot expect the taxpayer to help them. They certainly cannot expect the Government to help them.

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Mar 2013)

Marc MacSharry: All we have had is rhetoric, most recently throughout the weekend when the Government said it would deal with this now and finally get to the bottom of this crisis. The crisis is so large that I was two years on the other side of the House talking about. Now I am two years on this side of the House and all we have heard is the usual bluff and bluster from a Government which is in denial....