Results 1,501-1,520 of 19,173 for speaker:Shane Ross

Seanad: Investment of the National Pensions Reserve Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2009: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2009)

Shane Ross: Would that not be enough for the recapitalisation process? Will we have to pay all that out?

Seanad: Investment of the National Pensions Reserve Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2009: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2009)

Shane Ross: I find that difficult to accept. The Minister says it would be wrong to do that for short-term reasons. However, we have taken a short-term decision by taking all this money out. I do not think the Government yet realises we are in a state of financial emergency.

Seanad: Investment of the National Pensions Reserve Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2009: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2009)

Shane Ross: One of the measures taken by Government was to take apart a ring-fenced fund that was never to be touched — a sacred cow. That was set out in legislation and that is why we need legislation now. The fund was devised by a former Minister for Finance specifically to make it difficult to raid and to this end legislation is required to change its purpose. The Government has taken the drastic...

Seanad: Investment of the National Pensions Reserve Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2009: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2009)

Shane Ross: I will speak to the section.

Seanad: Investment of the National Pensions Reserve Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2009: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2009)

Shane Ross: I wish to correct Senator Harris. The incident to which he referred took place 30 years ago. I was a stockbroker at the time.

Seanad: Investment of the National Pensions Reserve Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2009: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2009)

Shane Ross: It is important that I correct the Senator's comments. His story is correct but the circumstances should be explained. When I saw a few people coming, I feared them becoming clients. To prevent them from becoming my clients, I would steer them as far away from the Stock Exchange as I could.

Seanad: Investment of the National Pensions Reserve Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2009: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2009)

Shane Ross: I did so to ensure they never returned to me.

Seanad: Investment of the National Pensions Reserve Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2009: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2009)

Shane Ross: I do not care what the fund is called but we should decide whether it is an emergency fund. It is certainly no longer a pension fund. Senator Harris is correct in that regard. We should not borrow to put money into a saving fund because it is too expensive to do so.

Seanad: Investment of the National Pensions Reserve Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2009: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2009)

Shane Ross: It is one no longer.

Seanad: Investment of the National Pensions Reserve Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2009: Committee Stage (5 Mar 2009)

Shane Ross: That is Department of Finance gobbledygook.

Seanad: Seanad Reform: Motion (11 Mar 2009)

Shane Ross: I am in agreement with other Senators that this House must be reformed so that it can capture the public imagination and obtain public support. It certainly does not enjoy these advantages currently and this is presumably reflected in the negligible public response to today's debate. Other Members have referred to their own experience. The first action I took upon first being elected to...

Seanad: Order of Business (24 Mar 2009)

Shane Ross: I endorse what Senators Regan and Ó Murchú said. It beggars belief what will happen next Monday.

Seanad: Order of Business (24 Mar 2009)

Shane Ross: What would a prospective investor outside Ireland — we have to impress these people at the moment — make of the Irish people going on general strike when faced with the greatest economic crisis they have ever come across? What is proposed is complete and utter economic madness and suicide. I agree with Senator Regan that the trade unions must make an unconditional declaration they will...

Seanad: Telecommunications Services: Motion (25 Mar 2009)

Shane Ross: I wish to share time with Senator O'Toole.

Seanad: Telecommunications Services: Motion (25 Mar 2009)

Shane Ross: I have mixed feelings about this motion although I will vote against it. There has been an improvement in the attitude of this House and the other House towards broadband and it would be churlish not to recognise it. Approximately two years ago I tabled a Bill on broadband in the previous Seanad. There was no interest in it and there was no realisation of the problem whatsoever. It was...

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Apr 2009)

Shane Ross: I endorse what was said by Senators Hannigan and O'Toole. What Senator O'Toole said about IBEC is absolutely right. It is quite extraordinary, disgusting and unnecessary to hear it call for cuts in social welfare. It is worse than that because today on "Morning Ireland", a director of IBEC appeared to promote this particular policy. That director of IBEC, Mr. Danny McCoy, also happens to...

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Apr 2009)

Shane Ross: I apologise to the Cathaoirleach. The extraordinary incongruity of a director of FÁS, the State agency which is meant to promote the interests of the unemployed and those on social welfare, wearing his IBEC hat and suggesting on air that people on social welfare should have their payments cut is completely unacceptable. Directors of FÁS get paid €14,000 per year for a part-time job and...

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Apr 2009)

Shane Ross: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (23 Apr 2009)

Shane Ross: I support the calls from Fine Gael for a debate on the national assets management agency, NAMA, and not necessarily just on that. I note Senator Regan's comment that a Government representative should come to the House and tell Members the cost of recapitalising the banks. I was shocked, as I am sure were most other Members of the House, to hear last week, which was a quiet week, that AIB...

Seanad: Order of Business (23 Apr 2009)

Shane Ross: It will get it on 13 May.