Results 1,701-1,720 of 19,162 for speaker:Alan Shatter

Constitutional Amendment on Children: Motion (18 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: Yes, I will be sharing my time with my colleagues, Deputy Olwyn Enright and Deputy Joe Carey.

Constitutional Amendment on Children: Motion (18 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: We might be longer than that because everyone seems to have finished early. I think we have 30 minutes altogether so we will share our time appropriately. Perhaps the Ceann Comhairle will tell me when I have got to the ten minutes.

Constitutional Amendment on Children: Motion (18 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: I want to start off this debate, like other speakers, by extending my condolences to the family of Daniel McAnaspie. I met his family some weeks ago. They were terribly concerned about what had happened to him and dreadfully distressed about the manner in which they believed he had been failed and the family had been failed by the HSE. It is particularly sad and poignant that this motion...

Constitutional Amendment on Children: Motion (18 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: It is not in the programme for Government for legislation to be published this side of the summer vacation, nor is it in the programme that guarantees legislation will be published the far side of the summer vacation. For those who understand the documents published by the Government Chief Whip, it is in part 3 of the legislative programme, namely, "Heads of the Bill not yet prepared"....

Constitutional Amendment on Children: Motion (18 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: You can keep me in line, a Cheann Comhairle. In terms of dealing with issues of sexual offences and strict liability, on which Fine Gael disagreed with other members of the committee, we produced a proposal to reinstate the concept of strict liability to protect young people from sexual predators and sought constitutional change. The other members of the committee recommended some...

Constitutional Amendment on Children: Motion (18 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: -----on the previous occasion when we addressed the issue there was not a Green Party Minister, neither a Minister of State nor a Minister, in the House. All we heard on the issue was the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley on the publication of the Murphy commission report, feeling the need to get to his name in The Irish Times, announcing some sort...

Children in Care (18 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: I have already expressed in the House today my condolences to the family of Daniel McAnaspie on his tragic death and I repeat those condolences. It is particularly appalling that almost three months after he went missing, his remains were found in a ditch at the side of a field in County Meath. I am very conscious that a Garda murder investigation is under way and I do not want to say...

Children in Care (18 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: I will conclude with this point. Both reports were well completed during the time that this young man was still alive when proper provision could have been made for him. I am sick of hearing the HSE say it will review what occurred to learn what went wrong. The truth is, and it seems to me, that over the past decade with all the tragedies that have resulted from the gross failures of our...

Written Answers — Foster Care: Foster Care (18 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: Question 123: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if her attention has been drawn to an article (details supplied) which revealed that Health Service Executive's Dublin North-East region received 33 complaints of physical or sexual abuse of children in foster care between 2006 and 2008; if she has been informed by the HSE of the number of such complaints received from children in...

Social Partnership (19 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: In the context of the negotiations and agreements concluded, did the Taoiseach or the Government at any point address the scandal that since 2002 the IMPACT trade union has been involved in industrial action in respect of which social workers across the eastern seaboard areas have been directed not to apply the Children First child protection guidelines? This is referred to by the Ombudsman...

Social Partnership (19 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: -----of eight years now. The questions relate to the public service unions. In the context of all the issues discussed and resolved, did it cross the Taoiseach's mind or the Government's mind, based on the scandals and revelations of the past ten years and the State's failure in respect of providing protection to children, that this issue should be addressed, that the dispute should be...

Social Partnership (19 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: No action since the ombudsman's report was published a week ago has been taken by a single Minister to indicate any intervention to resolve this dispute.

Social Partnership (19 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: If the Government is genuinely concerned with ensuring that children are given the protection to which they are entitled, could he explain why this dispute has been left simmering for eight years, preventing implementation of the Children First guidelines and resulting, as the Ombudsman for Children have told us, in instances of child abuse not being properly reported to the Garda? It is a...

Social Partnership (19 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: We are talking about industrial relations and public service unions. This is an example of a problem that has festered on the watch of the current Taoiseach and his predecessor which has left children at risk. It is a dispute that both the union and the Government kept secret for eight years. It took the Ombudsman for Children to reveal the existence of this dispute and the impact on child...

Euro Area Loan Facility Bill 2010: Second Stage (Resumed) (19 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: I propose to share time with Deputy Reilly.

Euro Area Loan Facility Bill 2010: Second Stage (Resumed) (19 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: I will begin by responding to Deputy Michael Ahern's contribution. The temerity of anybody in the Fianna Fáil Party lecturing Members on this side of the House on economic policy is extraordinary. In the context of talking about a credible and coherent economic policy, if this Fianna Fáil-led Government and its predecessors had a coherent and co-ordinated economic policy that took account...

Order of Business. (20 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: On a point of order, I am a great fan of Franz Kafka who wrote an extraordinary book entitled, The Trial. In it, an individual was placed on trial, but no one would tell him what the charges were or what he needed to do in his defence. The House is seemingly being asked to adopt a Standing Order that no one has seen and to impose it on ourselves early next week. This is not the way any...

Order of Business. (20 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: Based on Members' comments, either this proposal should be withdrawn in its current form or-----

Order of Business. (20 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: -----we should accept that it cannot enter into operation without the draft proposal being tabled in the House for approval.

Order of Business. (20 May 2010)

Alan Shatter: Alternatively, perhaps we should propose motions that no one has actually set out, keep the subject matters a mystery, vote on them and make a guess at what we are discussing.