Results 1,521-1,540 of 3,225 for speaker:Paul Connaughton Snr

Written Answers — Air Services: Air Services (18 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: Question 81: To ask the Minister for Transport the role the Government is playing in attracting new airlines to establish routes into this country in the context of open skies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24346/07]

Written Answers — Air Services: Air Services (18 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: Question 89: To ask the Minister for Transport if he is satisfied that the national airports have made all the necessary efforts to attract users from new airport destinations in the US in the context of open skies; if his attention has been drawn to the intense competition from the airports of other European countries to make such arrangements for their countries; and if he will make a...

Pre-Budget Outlook: Motion (23 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: There are serious problems.

Pre-Budget Outlook: Motion (23 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: The Government has a long way to go. The Minister should have left that comment out.

Pre-Budget Outlook: Motion (23 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: If only it was as simple as the way the Minister finished up his speech. It is a pity those concepts are not actually put into practice. I have listened to the same comments from one budget to another and they never seem to work out. The outlook for this year's budget is an entirely different kettle of fish to last year's example. At that time there was not even a cloud in the sky,...

Pre-Budget Outlook: Motion (23 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: I will have much to say the next time.

Agrifood Industry: Motion (23 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: The Government did not look.

Agrifood Industry: Motion (23 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: Every day, they speak with their feet. The Minister of State knows that.

Agrifood Industry: Motion (23 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: What percentage has organic farming risen by in the past five years?

Agrifood Industry: Motion (23 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: I want to introduce some realism into this debate given that the Minister of State responsible for this area is present. I was surprised by some of the interjections he made but I will listen to what he has to say on this matter.

Agrifood Industry: Motion (23 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: A calf was born on my farm at 6 a.m. this morning.

Agrifood Industry: Motion (23 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: Thank you, Deputy. What will happen to our beef industry over the next two years will determine whether it will be worth my while and that of 100,000 other Irish farmers to get up at 6 a.m. and spend two hours dealing with a difficult calving. A million or more other calves will be born on Irish farms this year. Multiples of that number of calves will be born on Brazilian and Agentinian...

Agrifood Industry: Motion (23 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: That is the way the Minister passes over this issue. I have illustrated the hard fact. Like every other farmer, I am delighted to go through that system. In terms of organic farming, I put it to the Minister of State, that this is as near as we can get commercially to organic farming. When my calf is slaughtered in two years' time I do not want to discover——

Agrifood Industry: Motion (23 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: —— that he will die in debt and that an animal reared under much worse conditions thousands of miles away is allowed free rein on the Irish market, and because of a lack of proper labelling, people do not know what they are eating. I put responsibility for agriculture at the Minister's door. She has been talking for long enough on this matter and understands the situation. When a...

Agrifood Industry: Motion (23 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: The Minister is making a terrible mistake in her approach to this matter. As was rightly said by my colleagues, the minute there was an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in England the Minister rightly said on television that she would pull down the shutters and ban the import of beef to this country. Why did she not take that approach and ban a product of lesser quality, of unknown...

Agrifood Industry: Motion (23 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: ——she has no influence where it counts most. It is one thing to have influence in County Donegal but it is another matter to have it where she is paid to have it, namely, in the heart of European politics. She does not have it there and that is what is wrong. I am in favour of organic farming, but if the Minister of State, Deputy Sargent, believes, as Deputy Creed said, that we can...

Agrifood Industry: Motion (23 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: The Minister of State does not believe that; he is too sensible to believe that. He is playing politics here and I am surprised he is carrying on like that.

Agrifood Industry: Motion (23 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: We know only too well what the Government is doing.

Agrifood Industry: Motion (23 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: He has taken no notice of the Minister.

Agrifood Industry: Motion (23 Oct 2007)

Paul Connaughton Snr: She frustrated it.