Results 121-140 of 1,591 for speaker:Eugene Regan

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: I endorse the objections to the procedures followed in the appointments to the Standards in Public Office Commission. I believe they are slipshod. We have had issues regarding standards in public office and the Tribunals of Inquiry Bill. This is the wrong way to do business. There should be consultation and agreement on this issue. The Government has a tendency to take refuge in U-turns...

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: The latter is a complete and ignominious U-turn. What is important is what these U-turns indicate about the Government: total confusion and lack of policy direction.

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: They indicate a sheer incompetence and an arrogance that goes with it. It has fallen——

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: Yes, I have. It has fallen on Fine Gael and the Opposition to point out to the Government the direction in which it should go——

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: ——and map out the appropriate course of action. We have welcomed all these U-turns. It characterises a Government that has no policy and no adherence to the commitments made before the general election.

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: The issue is how these U-turns have arisen. They have come about because the Government has been found out by a vigilant Opposition.

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: One issue comes up for decision this week. The Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, has been found out in his stories of fictitious dig-outs and whip-rounds.

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: I suggest to the Leader that the Taoiseach does another U-turn and that when he comes to give evidence to the tribunal this week, he comes clean on his explanations.

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: I suggest he does not persist in the childish stories he has given the tribunal.

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: I ask the Leader, given this affront to democracy and the destruction of all trust in politics, to address that question to the Taoiseach.

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: It is an elephant in the room.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: Last week I called for a debate on the national finances and the national debt. This new report from the ESRI highlights the direction in which the Government is bringing us in terms of the economy and the national finances. I reiterate that call for a debate in the new year and that the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, would be invited to attend. I wish to raise one other...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: I am calling for a debate.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: A debate on this matter may very well be appropriate.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: As a barrister, I must declare my interest.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: Let us look at the Bar in Ireland and its contribution to society. From Daniel O'Connell and Wolfe Tone to Mary Robinson and Peter Sutherland today, the contribution of the Bar to Irish society, nationally and internationally, should not be underestimated. There is a serious point. We have an independent Bar. We have 200 barristers a year entering——

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: Two hundred barristers enter the profession every year and there is increased competition, as anyone practising or entering the profession knows. It is a close as one gets to the model of perfect competition with many buyers and many sellers. Another aspect of the independent Bar is that it gives access to the smallest rural solicitors' firm and to the top solicitors' firms in the cities....

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: I am just explaining why a debate is needed.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: Many issues that barristers have raised in the courts are sensitive ones on which the Houses of the Oireachtas have been afraid to legislate and debate for years, such as contraception, civil partnership, the right to life.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2007)

Eugene Regan: It is barristers who have done this on a pro bono basis.