Results 1,921-1,940 of 4,414 for speaker:Sean Barrett

Seanad: Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (23 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 15: In page 7, line 19, to delete “a special interest or” and substitute “an international reputation and”.I welcome the Minister back to the House. The Bill states, "The chairperson and ordinary members of an Appeals Board shall be appointed by the Minister from among persons who have a special interest or expertise in, or knowledge of,...

Seanad: Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (23 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Minister.

Seanad: Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (23 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 16: In page 8, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following:“Amendment of The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (Charters Amendment) Act 2003 7. Paragraph (a) of section 30 is amended by the deletion of “determine;” and the insertion of “determine, subject to section 2 of the Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act...

Seanad: Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (23 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: I accept the Minister’s decision. In the era of openness, transparency and accountability I would have thought she should have accepted the amendment. It might kill the section because if RCSI does not amend its charter to get permission to be a university outside, but not within, Ireland, it might not be able to go ahead. It is regrettable in a democracy to keep such a matter...

Seanad: Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (23 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 18: In page 9, lines 18 and 19, to delete all words from and including “deletion” in line 18 down to and including line 19 and substitute “substitution of “authorised” for “administered”.”.Despite what happened to be in the previous section, this is an era of openness, transparency and accountability. While we have...

Seanad: Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (23 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: The Senator will not be mentioned in the Minister's next interview if he refuses.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Dublin Bus: Chairman Designate (23 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: I welcome Mr. Courtney. As Senator Mooney said, it is ideal that someone who has been a conductor and a driver and took courses in transport economics is appointed to the role. In the lectures I gave I referred to the fact that if we can get things right a bus lane can, as someone said earlier, move large numbers of people very quickly without the kind of capital investment required by...

Seanad: Order of Business - Order of Business (24 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: I extend good wishes to the new Ministers appointed to the Northern Ireland Executive yesterday. One of them, Mr. Jim Wells, is well known here because he is a member of the North-South Inter-Parliamentary Association and has spoken in this Chamber at meetings of that body. He states in a newspaper that he was once listed as the Chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and...

Seanad: Betting (Amendment) Bill 2013: Second Stage (24 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Simon Harris, as the Minister, Deputy Michael Noonan, is otherwise engaged. From the point of view of economics, the first danger of a licensing system is that it is colonised by those with licences. We did that with taxis and pubs, and the licence becomes a piece of paper with a value attached to it because of the skill of insiders in keeping out new...

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: I bring to the attention of the House the calls by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and Nevin Economic Research Institute for restraint in the budget debates that are taking place. Senator Hayden referred to some of the points arising. The Taoiseach rightly raised the issue of the high tax rate, which is 52% for people on average earnings of €32,000. Since he rightly raised the...

Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 2: In page 11, line 15, to delete “or a prescribed body”.I welcome the Minister and thank him and the Minister of State, Deputy Simon Harris, for their responses. I am on the Minister's side and hope that the amendments I have tabled will be of use in strengthening the Bill. That is the spirit in which they are offered. As stated in a previous discussion...

Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Minister. All public bodies should be included. We will discuss later some 38 which are exempt. In the case of voluntary bodies, are there rules of thumb? For example, a figure of 10% of a certain level funding or X thousands or hundreds of thousands of euro should mean that questions would have to be answered, but I will leave that matter with the Minister. I welcome what he...

Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 8: In page 15, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following:“(b) a local authority;”.I hope it is an omen for two days hence that there is a Kilkenny person in charge of these proceedings today. The purpose of my amendment is to include local authorities to rule out doubt.Having an explicit reference might assist the citizen in dealing with local...

Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: I will not press the amendment. Suffice it to say that I have come across cases where people certainly have not entered into the spirit of what the Minister is saying. However, the law is in place and I thank the Minister.

Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: Amendment No. 25 in my name was listed in the midst of Senator Thomas Byrne's amendments and I thank the Minister for his reply. The purpose of my amendment is to delete the line: "any of the Supervisory Directives, within the meaning of the Central Bank Act 1942". I refer to the supervision that failed and which has been a disaster for everybody in the House and the country. A journalist...

Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: Amendment No. 20 is in my name. The Department of Finance had and should have had a role in this issue. After the crisis hit, some people argued that they had seen the bust coming, knew when the boom would end and were worn out telling people the bubble would burst. How come the records showed that these people were all what one could describe as "soft landing merchants". The records were...

Seanad: Freedom of Information Bill 2013: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 33: In page 78, to delete lines 40 to 42, to delete page 79, and in page 80, to delete lines 1 to 9.I compliment the Minister that Part IV, sections 28 to 42 of the Bill, lists very comprehensively the principles of exemption, including parliamentary and court proceedings, law enforcement, public safety, security, defence, intergovernmental matters, commercial...

Seanad: Order of Business (30 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: When the handover of Hong Kong to China took place in the 1997, the then Governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten, had agreements with the Chinese authorities. We all remember the valuable work Lord Patten did in the reform of the RUC on this island. Those agreements provided for democracy and a free press. I ask the Leader to take up with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy...

Seanad: Order of Business (30 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: I also raise today the corporate tax issue in relation to Apple. The Commission wrote to the former Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Gilmore, on 12 June last and, apparently, we have not participated. What was put to the media today from the Commission is a complaint that a request was made to us on 12 June, with, as it states, normally a month to reply, and...

Seanad: Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 Sep 2014)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Minister for the good dialogue we had on the last occasion we debated the Bill. She proposes that a section of the Student Support Act 2011 shall be amended by the deletion of the phrase "pursuant to a scheme administered by the Minister". According to the briefing documents, this change is intended to reflect the transfer of PLC courses to SOLAS. The amendment I propose to the...