Results 1,881-1,900 of 4,608 for speaker:Joe O'Toole
- Seanad: Road Network: Motion. (8 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: Before starting, I wish to make a point of order. The Committee on Procedure and Privileges recently considered situations such as this, where a Minister is allowed to continue over the time limit in a situation where other Members wish to contribute. It was the view of the CPP that the Chair should be entitled to allocate an additional number of minutes to the debate. I am not demanding that...
- Seanad: Order of Business. (9 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: Several years ago we discussed at some length the problems created by the SARS epidemic in China. We were led to believe, on the best possible evidence, that the whole world would be overrun. Many people expressed grave concerns, there was much media commentary on the issue and then it simply died away. Last year, we were introduced to bird flu. It broke out in Asia, moved through Asia Minor...
- Seanad: Order of Business. (9 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: Elderly people in particular worry about this and we should clear the air. Normal precautions should be taken and we should get real about it. It is one of these sensationalist scare stories spread by the media because people do not know enough to contradict them. Today Greencore is holding its AGM at which it will announce massive profits and a bright future, and that it does not care that...
- Seanad: Order of Business. (9 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: I apologise for misleading the House by three years. I accept the correction of 1918.
- Seanad: Order of Business. (9 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: Hear, hear.
- Seanad: Order of Business. (15 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: I must support the points made by Senator Brian Hayes. The Stardust fire has caught the public imagination again after 25 years. I am not sure whether an inquiry will bring closure but it is a positive idea which I support. It has been put to the Taoiseach several times that he should meet formally with the survivors and their families. He should make it clear that he will do so. The...
- Seanad: Planning and Related Issues: Statements (Resumed). (15 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: I also welcome the Minister of State to the House and I look forward to hearing his views. The most significant problem with planning is that nobody understands it. I have been listening here for the past 19 years to people from different local authorities around the country wondering why an application was refused. As long as that remains the case there will be doubt, there will be lack of...
- Seanad: Educational Services: Motion. (15 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: I move: That Seanad Ãireann: âregrets that the Government has failed to implement fully its promise to reduce primary school class sizes to 20:1 for under nine year olds; âregrets that the Minister has procrastinated so long in announcing her much-heralded and long-awaited initiative on disadvantaged schools and pupils and urges her to outline the details now; âdemands that the...
- Seanad: Educational Services: Motion. (15 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: I cannot find anything to disagree with. I am quite happy to acknowledge it. I suggest that we accept the Minister's amendment as an addendum to the full motion at the top or the bottom, whichever suits the Minister, and take it all together. I am happy to go along with that. Can I be fairer than that?
- Seanad: Educational Services: Motion. (15 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: On a point of order, with the permission of the House it could easily be done. We could then approach primary education together. This is such a broad area that my colleague Senator Ross agreed to second the motion on primary education. I will leave it with the Minister for her consideration. The Minister indicates that she does not agree. The Taoiseach cannot say "No" to a woman.
- Seanad: Educational Services: Motion. (15 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: The Minister is lucky to have the teachers doing the job in Ireland today for the Government. The Government takes credit and lives in the reflected glory of the extraordinary good work done by teachers. That is a fact. Time and again the question is asked whether people are ready to change. I do not have time to state all I would like on what teachers have done. I know the Minister supports...
- Seanad: Educational Services: Motion. (15 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: I should have said "the Taoiseach". I could give the House 24 examples of items put in place in such a way that they continue after elections. There is nothing wrong with that. The real selling point is that the Minister should state that this is her intention and that of the Government, along with the date on which it will be delivered. If, horrors or horrors, the Minister is not back in...
- Seanad: Educational Services: Motion. (15 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: Other Ministers did so at other times.
- Seanad: Educational Services: Motion. (15 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: I know there are difficulties in the Minister's constituency and in places such as west Limerick, where small rural two-teacher schools have more than 50 pupils. It is a difficulty. I will not state to the Minister that situation is worse than the situation of a developing school in Balbriggan or Ashbourne in the new Minister of State's constituency, where difficulty in finding teachers is...
- Seanad: Educational Services: Motion. (15 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: We can deal with those issues also. I do not mind being interrupted by the Minister.
- Seanad: Educational Services: Motion. (15 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: The Minister has done a very good job in fighting for extra primary school teachers. I do not see why it should be stopped now. I demand that the Minister continues it until the end of the road. I do not have time to develop that part of the argument much further. My next point is on the much-heralded and long-awaited initiative on disadvantage. Reading today's newspapers and listening to the...
- Seanad: Educational Services: Motion. (15 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: There was no criticism, rather an expression of regret couched in soft language.
- Seanad: Educational Services: Motion. (15 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: I assure Senator Minihan I did not hold back in regard to those Administrations.
- Seanad: Educational Services: Motion. (15 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: Senator Minihan is making an election speech.
- Seanad: Educational Services: Motion. (15 Feb 2006)
Joe O'Toole: There is no doubt the Government has Senator Minihan well tutored.