Results 20,641-20,660 of 24,447 for speaker:Jerry Buttimer

Seanad: Services for People with Disabilities: Motion (13 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after ''Seanad Éireann'' and substitute the following: ''welcomes the announcement that a new National Advocacy Service for people with disabilities is to be set up to provide independent, representative advocacy services for people with disabilities from January 2011; condemns the Government for: — the delay in introducing the Personal Advocacy...

Seanad: Public Service Agreement 2010-2014: Statements (13 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: Ar dtús báire, cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit, an Teachta Calleary. We are in a desperate place as a nation and as a people. Thomas L. Friedman wrote an editorial piece in The New York Times in May entitled "Root Canal Politics." He wrote: The Tooth Fairy died last night of complications related to obesity. Born Jan. 1, 1946, the Tooth Fairy is survived by 400 million children...

Seanad: Public Service Agreement 2010-2014: Statements (13 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: I compliment the Minister of State on the work he has done to date, to which I will return. John Boland did this as Minister for the Public Service in the 1980s. We need to reform our public sector. I say this as an unashamed public servant who comes from a family whose members have given dedicated service to the public sector. My brothers and sisters work in the public sector, as did my...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: We have not said that at all.

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: In seeking a debate on consensus, I remind the Leader and Members opposite that for the past 13 years we had no consensus when there was money to be doled out, jobs to be awarded and benchmarking to be negotiated. Why now, when there is a majority Government, does the Government want consensus given it has made a complete hames of the country? That point needs to be addressed. If the...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: We will have to get a consensus on that issue also.

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: Populism.

Seanad: Flood Relief (12 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: I do not mean this in a personal way, but it is extraordinary that it takes so long to get things done. After a period of 12 months the quay walls at Grenville Place will be restored. According to the Minister of State, a report has been commissioned and will be concluded in 2011. We have already had our first flood, although it was not as bad as last year's. Business people and...

Seanad: Flood Relief (12 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: I welcome the Minister of State. It is extraordinary we have two motions on flooding in Cork on the Adjournment. Last weekend in Cork city the first flood of the winter season took place. There was a sense of fear and concern among the residents of the Marsh, the Mardyke and the Middle Parish and among business people that 12 months on from the flooding in 2009, there is still no early...

Seanad: Common Agricultural Policy: Statements (12 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House, and I thank Senators Bradford, McFadden and Carty for their fine speeches. Someone just asked me since when were there cows in Cork city. There are no cows in Cork city but there are cows in Cork South-Central and they do produce milk. It is important to place this issue in context. Agriculture is important to our country, and we...

Seanad: Common Agricultural Policy: Statements (12 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: I apologise, I mean Deputy Cuffe. Deputy Sargent is a former Minister of State at that Department.

Seanad: Common Agricultural Policy: Statements (12 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: At this stage all members of the Green Party are in danger; therefore, getting them mixed up does not matter at all.

Seanad: Common Agricultural Policy: Statements (12 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: My apologies to the Minister of State.

Seanad: Common Agricultural Policy: Statements (12 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: As I am sure it will be on Twitter later on, I offer my apologies. I was struck by the comment in the Minister's speech that fair does not mean equal. In closing, he said: "[W]e have a long way to go before we arrive at a conclusion to these negotiations", and he is right. I urge the Government to use the phrase famously used by the former Minister for Agriculture, Austin Deasy, when he...

Seanad: Common Agricultural Policy: Statements (12 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: I am all for consensus, as Senator Ó Brolcháin knows well. Farmers also have a responsibility in this regard. I commend the farming community and the IFA on the role they have played in the CAP discussions and the reasonable approach they have taken. Fine Gael has stated that the priority must be to secure a national envelope of farm payments and protect the single farm payment. This is...

Seanad: Common Agricultural Policy: Statements (12 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: My apologies for that.

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: The pantomime to which Senator MacSharry refers has been perpetrated by the inflammatory remarks of Senator Harris . It ill behoves him to provoke people in the public sector. He is provoking and causing an unnecessary social war. The very party and the very person whom Senator Harris defended on "The Late Late Show" and with whom he nearly fell in love was one of the chief architects of...

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: You call me a party hack. You took the 30 pieces of silver and you ran-----

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: The reality is that the language-----

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Oct 2010)

Jerry Buttimer: I am seeking a debate on the role of the public sector. The remarks today are not about teachers. They are about the men and women who work here. They are about the nurses, guards, doctors and civil servants who work for our people. You are the type of person who wants to come in here and lampoon all these people. That is not consensus.