Results 1,321-1,340 of 19,173 for speaker:Shane Ross

Seanad: Economic Situation: Statements (30 Sep 2008)

Shane Ross: ——and huge tax breaks being given to them is insane and unique to Ireland. The Financial Regulator knew this was happening, that certain banks were lending huge sums of money to a small number of people who were taking reckless decisions, encouraged by a Government that was looking after them with tax breaks.

Seanad: Economic Situation: Statements (30 Sep 2008)

Shane Ross: Joe Duffy was doing a public service.

Seanad: Order of Business (1 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: I wish to ask the Leader a question about a matter that puzzles me. What is the rush with this legislation? I understood from yesterday's proceedings that it was being introduced as emergency legislation, presumably because of the danger that a bank might be in trouble or that people on the markets might act on price sensitive information. Our knowledge since yesterday that legislation was...

Seanad: Order of Business (1 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: This is not a doomsday situation; it is a case of the Government being able at any time to give a loan to a bank that is in trouble. I did not even realise that yesterday. It is important that we are given time to study this Bill before we rush it through. I ask the Leader again why our deliberations have to be finished by midnight. Why can we not at least be given an additional day to...

Seanad: Business of Seanad (1 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: I agree with my colleagues. I know the Leader's hands are tied and that this is not a decision he makes. He has the difficult task of coming in here to tell us this because it is totally unreasonable. I would like him to answer a question. Could we be given a reason for this extraordinary request?

Seanad: Business of Seanad (1 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: The Leader just stood up and said he proposed we adjourn until 11 p.m. Why? Why in the name of God can we not consider this Bill properly when we meet tomorrow morning, or we could meet earlier tomorrow, or on Friday or Saturday? To ask us to go away for five hours for no reason and to come back and debate this Bill, when it probably will not be ready in any event, is utterly unreasonable....

Seanad: Business of Seanad (1 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: We should not be treated like cattle and told the House will be adjourned with no reason given, that we should just get on with it and that we will resume at 11 p.m. It is insulting.

Seanad: Business of Seanad (1 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: I repeat what I said earlier that I would be very happy to extend goodwill to, and to co-operate with, the Leader and the Government on this issue if I was given the simple reason this is happening and why we cannot consider the Bill tomorrow, the day after that or whenever. We have been given no reason and we are being insulted by this rush. If we do not get a reason for the rush, we must...

Seanad: Business of Seanad (1 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: No.

Seanad: Business of Seanad (1 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: Do we have a guarantee that the other House will be finished by 1 o'clock?

Seanad: Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Bill 2008: Second Stage (1 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: It is very difficult to get a grip on this debate because people on this side of the House are very critical of the Bill and yet wish to be instruments in solving the crisis upon us and do not want to appear to be obstructive. I share that view. We must preface our remarks by agreeing there was a crisis and something had to be done about it. It is then fair to ask whether the right action...

Seanad: Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Bill 2008: Second Stage (1 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: That is complete nonsense.

Seanad: Educational Projects (2 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: The matter I wish to raise is the need for the Minister for Education and Science to expand educational development to increase the numbers of non-denominational schools in Ireland, thus avoiding the reinforcing of sectarian divides by separating children according to denomination during their core school hours. The Minister is well aware that Ireland is a rapidly developing multicultural...

Seanad: Educational Projects (2 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: I thank the Minister of State for his reply. It seems there is a lack of urgency about this. Could he assure me that the principle of choice, which Educate Together finds so important, will guide the Government's thinking when it is establishing and giving recognition to new primary schools?

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: I wish to be associated with the remarks from all sides of the House on the death of Jack Tobin. I remember him very well, as a different type of clerk from the current ones. That is not pejorative or complimentary. He was a rather distant, severe and very traditional man. On my first day in the House I put down a motion on Seanad reform.

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: It is a tribute to him. It was Jack Tobin who put me right on this and told me I was unlikely, in that session, to make a great deal of progress. That was 28 years ago. He was not particularly enthusiastic about the motion, and he got his way. In many other ways he was robust in his views which he could convey in a particularly subtle way. He was never party political in any sense of the...

Seanad: Primary School Funding: Motion (8 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: I would like to share my time with Senator Buttimer. I was somewhat disappointed with what the Minister had to say, but I welcome the Minister of State to the House. If one reads between the lines of what the Minister had to say, it looks as if there will be a freeze on educational spending next week. The speech he made was peppered with code words like "as resources permit", "in the...

Seanad: Primary School Funding: Motion (8 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: I would have thought the ambition should be one each at this stage. It is devastating that we have such limited ambitions for education, and it appears we are being softened up and at the very best we will get no progress, no expansion and no kept promises. The issue of school buildings is one with which the Minister of State will be familiar. It is totally unacceptable that anybody should...

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

Shane Ross: Many of us on these benches, one of whom is Senator Norris, would have liked to have co-operated and welcomed this budget and the coming Finance Bill. There was a sense that we were in a state of financial emergency and that we should rally around and not be ultra-critical of everything that occurs. It is very easy to be critical and it is easy to be in opposition in this period because any...