Results 2,021-2,040 of 4,608 for speaker:Joe O'Toole

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: Luaigh mé inné na deacrachtaí atá ag tarlú sa Daingean mar gheall ar ainm na háite sin, Dingle-Daingean Uí Chúis. Tar éis éisteacht leis an mhéid a bhí le rá ag daoine eile agus é á phlé acu, ba mhaith liom an méid seo a rá i mBéarla. Many people believe that people living in the Gaeltacht who speak Irish are a kind of zealot. They are people who love and live their...

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: The former Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government rejected that proposal.

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: The matter of the GPA and GAA has been raised on a number of occasions in the past two weeks. I have hesitated to become involved in the matter and should declare an interest, in that I am part of the negotiating team dealing with the GPA on behalf of the GAA. The GAA and the GPA reached an agreement, of which I was part, and signed off on it more than one year ago. That agreement was...

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: We could do a Pol Pot on it.

Seanad: Government's Irish Aid Strategy: Statements (13 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: I wish to share my time with Senator Ross.

Seanad: Government's Irish Aid Strategy: Statements (13 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Kitt, to the House and wish him well in his ministerial job. It is great to have him back in this House and I am sure he prefers to be sitting in the seat he is in rather than the one he was in when he was a Member of this House. I wish to use this opportunity to refer to some foreign policy issues rather than focus directly on overseas...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: I thank the Senator. She is a great judge.

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: I support very strongly what my colleague, Senator Fitzgerald, has just said. A strong request was made last week on this crucial issue. This is the type of issue that loses relevancy for the Seanad. Everyone is discussing it on radio talk shows, in the newspapers, in the pubs, etc. The Seanad should deal with it as well. I am disappointed that it is not in prospect at the moment and I...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: For ten years, I have been saying the inclusion of this line in legislation is a disgrace. There is no point in politicians from either side of the House criticising a chief executive who does the Minister's bidding if that chief executive is not allowed to contradict the Minister. The role of the chief executive is outlined in the Act and we therefore require clear thinking. Where there...

Seanad: Food Safety: Statements (8 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: Is that agreed? Agreed.

Seanad: Food Safety: Statements (8 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: In the rest of the county they are called Dingle pies.

Seanad: Food Safety: Statements (8 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: It would not happen in Kerry.

Seanad: Food Safety: Statements (8 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: I wish to share time with Senator Norris.

Seanad: Food Safety: Statements (8 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Roche, to the House. I found the contribution of Senator O'Sullivan most interesting. I recently asked for two debates on food issues, one on food quality and the other on food safety, and this is the first of the two. We need to consider these issues. I remind the Minister of State, Deputy Roche, of an issue on which he and I were slightly culpable...

Seanad: Food Safety: Statements (8 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: Irish farmers have made an argument that is convincing to any interested person. I have not heard an answer to this simple question: why, if foot and mouth disease is found in this country, does the whole country close down, whereas if it happens in another country, that country can still export to us? It does not make sense. I do not add to this a criticism of the Minister, Deputy...

Seanad: Food Safety: Statements (8 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: That is a good question. They probably do. The reason it is important is that it is mountain mutton with a small bone in it and it has a different taste to lowland mutton. That is what people should look for. In France, where people value the taste of food, they still maintain a taste in chickens. They sell hens, chapons, which are year-old chickens, usually corn fed. Each one is...

Seanad: Food Safety: Statements (8 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: Other issues are the regulations relating to cottage industry, farmers' markets and farmer outlets. Does the Minister of State know that there are farmers doing quite well selling vegetables to local people at the farm gate but they cannot include in the sale anything which has not been grown on the farm? One can buy a variety of vegetables but one might also want to buy ginger which would...

Seanad: Food Safety: Statements (8 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: Your time is up, Senator.

Seanad: Order of Business (8 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: We were given a commitment in this House that it would be debt free.

Seanad: Order of Business (8 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Toole: I agree with what Senator Fitzgerald has just said. I remind the House that not only was the matter accepted by all parties in the House, it was then sent to a committee under the chair of the previous Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and of which our distinguished colleague, Senator Boyle, was a member as well as myself. We had organised a structure under which...