Results 1,621-1,640 of 9,393 for speaker:Alex White

Seanad: Announcement on Banking by the Minister for Finance: Statements (20 Oct 2010)

Alex White: We can check that but I will accept the Minister of State's explanation. Such a stray phrase may have been in his speech seven or eight months ago but it would be extraordinary for it to be there now. There is no confidence that the public finances have stabilised in recent months, and the news from recent days has set everyone back. When we talk about credibility, consensus and how people...

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2010)

Alex White: It is time the people, politicians and all of the political parties faced up to the serious economic situation in which we find ourselves, which I believe they are doing. However, it is not time for us to consider the suppression of dissent or debate and I know Senator Norris did not suggest this. This is still a democracy and we have different ideas, opinions and views on how the problems...

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2010)

Alex White: The Chair objected.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Oct 2010)

Alex White: Senator Norris is right in every point he made except one. I believe he will accept that he and Senator O'Toole, although they were correct in what they said, were not actually lone voices calling for the Stay Safe programme to be implemented in schools and regarding much other legislation and best practice proposals across the system.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Oct 2010)

Alex White: Perhaps this is not an occasion for that level of debate about who was what or where and who said what, where. In regard to the overall legal context of what has been reported upon in the Roscommon case, there is a clear relevance to the children's referendum. I agree with Mr. Geoffrey Shannon that if the wording of the referendum had been implemented and entered into the Constitution this...

Seanad: Macro-Economic and Fiscal Outlook: Statements (28 Oct 2010)

Alex White: I agree with many of Senator Boyle's comments in the context in which he made them and the tone of his statement was acceptable. As the Minister of State is aware, the Labour Party has stated it adheres to and agrees with the objective of reducing the deficit to 3% of GDP by 2014. I also accept that it is not enough for us to assert this and that we must face up to the consequences of...

Seanad: Child Care Inquiry Report: Statements (28 Oct 2010)

Alex White: Ms Norah Gibbons and her colleagues, Mr. Harrison, Ms Lunny and Mr. O'Neill have done the community and State a great service in terms of their preparation of this report which I have only had an opportunity to skim through and note during the course of the day. From what I have read, the report is cogent, does not pull punches and clearly sets out the issues involved and where the problems...

Seanad: Child Care Inquiry Report: Statements (28 Oct 2010)

Alex White: It was an ex parte application-----

Seanad: Child Care Inquiry Report: Statements (28 Oct 2010)

Alex White: It would appear from my reading of the report that that ought to have been opposed. They should have come back to court.

Seanad: Child Care Inquiry Report: Statements (28 Oct 2010)

Alex White: I will finish on this because it is an important issue. That order should not have been allowed stand. It should have been contested. We can rail all we want about right wing groups, small groups and so on. I find those groups getting involved equally annoying but we do have free access to the courts. I do not suppose anybody is advocating that we prevent access to the courts and...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Nov 2010)

Alex White: I also express my deepest sympathies to the Minister, Deputy Micheál Martin, and his family on the very sad death of his daughter at the weekend. In the United States yesterday, as we have seen overnight on the news, there has been another change election. From my perspective, I am sorry to see that there would appear to have been a sharp shift to the right in American politics on foot of...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Nov 2010)

Alex White: -----not what we want to cut? I refer to this indiscriminate slashing of the knife for two or three weeks in public before a budget. Can we sit down and work out what we cherish, what we want to have and what is worth keeping, rather than taking the debate from the other perspective? That would be a useful exercise for us to undertake here. One of the areas that we should consider as part...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Nov 2010)

Alex White: It would be a great pity if that party was to abandon that. I appeal to it not to do so.

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Nov 2010)

Alex White: It is easy enough to say-----

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Nov 2010)

Alex White: It is easy enough to say about education that there are many who can afford a higher registration fee and perhaps it is the case that most Members in this Chamber could afford a higher registration fee for their children. That is not the point. The point is that higher education should not be the preserve of the well-off. We have made a commitment to higher education and education at all...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Nov 2010)

Alex White: Why not tax them?

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Nov 2010)

Alex White: Tax them.

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Nov 2010)

Alex White: Tax them.

Seanad: Seanad Reform: Motion (3 Nov 2010)

Alex White: The Senator cannot get away with that forever.

Seanad: Seanad Reform: Motion (3 Nov 2010)

Alex White: I will try to keep the wind-bagging to a minimum. I congratulate Senator O'Toole and his colleagues on tabling the motion. There is an element of this debate that is profoundly depressing because it is shot through with a terrible feeling of déjÀ vu. This is at least the third time in my short time in this Chamber - although not as short as that of Senator Dearey - when I have stood up...