Results 141-160 of 445 for speaker:Eoghan Harris

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Feb 2009)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Middle East Conflict: Motion (26 Feb 2009)

Eoghan Harris: I am tempted to vote against the resolution because of the provocative nature of assumptions made with regard to use of phosphorus in statements about schools being bombed, which now are admitted not to have been bombed, but broadly because the motion calls for a two-state solution I will reluctantly support it. I want to talk about the wider hinterland of the Israeli question that involves...

Seanad: Middle East Conflict: Motion (26 Feb 2009)

Eoghan Harris: I was inclined to laugh at something Senator Norris stated but I did not.

Seanad: Middle East Conflict: Motion (26 Feb 2009)

Eoghan Harris: The political class and media class in Ireland and Europe take the side of fundamentalist Islamic groups like Hamas, who want to return to Sharia law, that is the law of the barbarian, against the democratically elected Government of Israel. This will have huge and most likely lethal strategic consequences, not only for the prospect of peace in the Middle East, but for how we in Europe...

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Second Stage. (26 Feb 2009)

Eoghan Harris: What page is the Senator on?

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Second Stage. (26 Feb 2009)

Eoghan Harris: What page is the Senator on?

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Second Stage. (26 Feb 2009)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Second Stage. (26 Feb 2009)

Eoghan Harris: I thank Senator Callely and wish to develop one of his most important points which is the need to draw people in. I will not discuss gloom and doom tonight. The Minister of State, like the entire Cabinet, is showing the signs of the long days and nights. I do not know from where they get their stamina; they certainly earn their few bob. I appeal to the Minister of State, because he will...

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (3 Mar 2009)

Eoghan Harris: Senators Buttimer, O'Toole and Butler have rightly drawn our attention to the lack of regulation of banks, the ESB and other companies. Against that background, may I say a word on behalf of the media which have the same role in society as rat catchers or people like Dyno-Rod who clear out sewers? It is not pretty and it is a bit rough and ready, but the truth is that they are the media....

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

Eoghan Harris: While I generally agree with Senator Doherty's desire for fairness, I am not in favour of this sort of tinkering with small aspects of the general crisis. The entire matter of remuneration, not just of the banks but across the whole public sector, will come under savage scrutiny in coming times. Since before Christmas I have been saying unemployment will hit half a million and I have since...

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

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

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

Eoghan Harris: I am loathe to take issue with Senator Ross, who gave me very good financial advice several years ago. I remain reasonably solvent because I heeded his advice to put a small legacy into a plastic bag inside a Jacobs cream cracker tin and bury it in the darkest part of the deepest woods. However, I take issue with the nit-picking. I wish the Government was more courageous in its defence of...

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

Eoghan Harris: Why not develop an income tax system for farmers which would prevent abuse of the education and student maintenance grant schemes? Why did the taxpayer have to pay for a series of meat scandals? Farmers are not an invincible or pure and virtuous class. They have the same responsibility to pay taxes as the rest of us.

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

Eoghan Harris: It was a bad decision.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Mar 2009)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Mar 2009)

Eoghan Harris: There is an element of posturing in some of the condemnation we have heard. The Real IRA and Continuity IRA will do this again. They will kill someone else the week after this and the following month. We will be standing around here hand wringing. While Senators Fitzgerald and MacSharry speak for me on the moral issue, we should move on because we have a moral obligation to take our...

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Mar 2009)

Eoghan Harris: It worked in 1922, it worked in 1939 and it worked in 1956. It failed in Northern Ireland but never here. We should put it to Sinn Féin that in the upcoming by-elections, unless they stop using weasel words and unless they come out cleaner and faster in their condemnation, they will pay a political price in the Republic for their weasel words.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Mar 2009)

Eoghan Harris: I said there were bleeding hearts in this House who would try to stop the security measures I proposed.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Mar 2009)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (24 Mar 2009)

Eoghan Harris: In the same way that the Government must plan ahead in a phased way to deal with the economic crisis and reassure the public that there is such a plan, the same obligation to plan is on the Government regarding other crucial aspects, such as public order and safety. I am referring to the criminal justice system. The recent rape and murder case in Galway raises serious questions about the...