Results 1,321-1,340 of 6,030 for speaker:Brendan Ryan

Seanad: Order of Business. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: That remark was misplaced but I do not want to embarrass Senator Norris. Which Minister will take the Bill next week? Will the Minister who is driving it be on holiday while Seanad Éireann is being forced to take it or will he be in the House for the first or second time in two years? What exactly did the Leader learn? She tantalisingly said that she learned a number of things and perhaps...

Seanad: Order of Business. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: They are both Progressive Democrats.

Seanad: Order of Business. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: It is Superquinn.

Seanad: EU Presidency: Motion. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: I begin by being as generous and as ungrudging as I can be, which my colleagues on the Government side will feel is not very much, in complimenting the Taoiseach, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister of State, Deputy Roche, on a job well done. It is not meant to diminish their achievement to say that we have come to take for granted that our Presidencies go well. Our politicians...

Seanad: EU Presidency: Motion. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: This is uncharted territory and in such circumstances we do a very good job. It is time we believed in ourselves. The report which is to be released today on our future industrial development says the same thing.

Seanad: EU Presidency: Motion. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: If anything has been learned over the past ten years it is that we are a capable, innovative, imaginative and flexible people. International capital, that most ruthless of measuring indices, has recognised that fact. I do not dispute the significance of tax rates, grants and so on but the most appealing quality, according to HP, Intel and many other companies, is our achievement in producing...

Seanad: EU Presidency: Motion. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: I will remind the Minister of State of that from time to time.

Seanad: Business of Seanad. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: No.

Seanad: Dormant Accounts (Amendment) Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: Will the Minister tell the House what particular malaise exists in the Government that means every Bill must have an undefined day for establishment? Are we really not capable of stating that a Bill will be brought into force a day, a week or a month after it is signed by the President? Every time the Government comes before the House with such a proposal in a Bill, it demonstrates a lack of...

Seanad: Dormant Accounts (Amendment) Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: What the Minister is effectively stating, although he will not do so outright, is that if he was not introducing this utterly unnecessary legislation, the existing board could get on with its business and there would be no delay. However, what he means is that because the Government is determined to get its hands on the slush fund, everything has been held up, decisions have been held up and...

Seanad: Dormant Accounts (Amendment) Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: It will get worse.

Seanad: Dormant Accounts (Amendment) Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: Bí cinnte faoi sin.

Seanad: Dormant Accounts (Amendment) Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: It does not have the resources to make the decisions. We all know it. The Minister will not give the money to the board because the Government wants it for itself.

Seanad: Dormant Accounts (Amendment) Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: I move amendment No. 2. In page 5, between lines 5 and 6, to insert the following: "(a) to establish transparent criteria for the disbursement of funds under the Dormant Accounts Acts 2001 to 2004,". The Minister of State, who was mercifully spared the ignominy of having to defend the indefensible on a second occasion today, in his Second Stage speech, which I was spared the frustration of...

Seanad: Dormant Accounts (Amendment) Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: I am not. The amendment is about transparency in the process of disbursing funds belonging to other people which the Oireachtas decided should not be left to make money for the banks and should be used for appropriate causes. It is now turned into taxpayers' money. We have already moved away from what it is, part of the general fund. The Government will say it is not true.

Seanad: Dormant Accounts (Amendment) Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: This is a process of talking about transparency. If one distils down what is contained in the Second Stage speech of the Minister of State and some of the more sanctimonious output from the Minister, one would believe there is a wonderful process of transparency. As far as I can figure out, and I have listened to the Minister, what they believe transparency means is that the board produces a...

Seanad: Dormant Accounts (Amendment) Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: What transparent really means is that we know the objectives, the good causes or the good value issues and we know how they will be evaluated according to an objective scale. Ireland has spent 20 years trying to get a transparent method of working out which primary school was next to get its toilets fixed. We have a pretend transparency but it is progress. What we have here is hoo-ha, big...

Seanad: Dormant Accounts (Amendment) Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: Under the old system we can find out about it, but under the new system we will not know as these matters will be outside the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.

Seanad: Dormant Accounts (Amendment) Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: When one raises an issue, it is a classic ploy of the Government and, I am beginning to believe, of the Minister, as in this case, to go off on a tangent. I did not ask him anything about what he talked about, although I am glad to hear it and I will deal with it later. I raised the issue of transparency——

Seanad: Dormant Accounts (Amendment) Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (7 Jul 2004)

Brendan Ryan: ——which he promptly ignored. He has not yet told me how objective criteria will be established. I will outline the process of disbursement of the moneys simply to explain what the Minister was talking about. The Bill states that the board shall prepare and submit to the Minister, before 1 June 2006 — that will be an interesting time as it will be in or around the next general election...