Results 1,321-1,340 of 20,725 for speaker:Mattie McGrath

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: You can, by all means, if you want to be personal, but I am stating facts.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: Why did you not sue the newspapers that printed this information and the radio station that broadcasted it?

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: I will go down any road I have to, to get-----

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: I appreciate that.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: I am referring to it.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: He will not.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: I have tabled 32 amendments to the Bill. Deputy Tom Hayes has been a Member for 17 years and has hardly tabled an amendment to any Bill. If he did table any, I did not see them.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: I am referring to it. It relates to the kernel of the situation, namely, the standards applied to septic tanks. On Committee Stage on 18 December, Deputy Collins tabled a motion and I commend him for doing so. Discussing seven amendments took a long time. Today's debate would not be so long had there been fair play on Committee Stage as was supposed to have been the case. The Minister...

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: The Acting Chairman is the committee's Chairman.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: Last week. I will address that issue as well, but I am referring to before Christmas.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: No. There was plenty of time because the Government plucked out nine or ten of my amendments last week and ruled them out of order as being a cost to the Exchequer. That was really stretching-----

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: I am.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: I will. Standards are the kernel of the issue. We supported Deputy Collins's motion - unfortunately, we were voted down 7:3 in every vote last week - to invite the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, the County and City Managers Association, CAMA, the Irish Rural Dwellers Association, the county engineers association, the architects of Ireland association, An Taisce, the Irish Farmers...

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: If the Minister wants to laugh, he can. Ag gáire í gcónaí. There is nothing for Deputy Tom Hayes to laugh about, as he well knows from meeting people.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: Ag béal mór ag gáire í gcónaí. The Deputy is hiding from the people of Tipperary, but there is nowhere to hide. Thank God, an inspector from the council will only visit a house by arrangement. Home owners will not wake up in the morning to see inspectors in their back gardens. The Minister has acknowledged that they cannot get away with that, as someone would have been shot or hurt....

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: I appreciate that. However, some of the Deputies who wish to speak today could have participated in the debate in the committee last week instead of coming in at intervals, as several Fine Gael Party Members did, merely to make up a quorum. The exception was Deputy Michelle Mulherin, who came in from her office to lecture us all.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: It is patent nonsense and arrogance of the highest extreme, but that is not unusual for the Fine Gael Party. Will the Minister, at this late stage, have some respect for the people who put him in office? There is a great deal of important work to be done in his Department and, in fairness to the Minister, he has already done some good work. I ask him to have sense and to include the...

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: I am finishing. It was the same last night in respect of the Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011, with the regulatory impact analysis taking place only after the Bill is passed.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: Who prosecutes councils?

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Mattie McGrath: That is what the Government is stating.