Results 2,061-2,080 of 5,962 for speaker:Gerard Craughwell

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: Given his experience, I would think he is the ideal man for the job in London. That is not the point; the point is that we cannot ring-fence the Zappone appointment and say it was done on a "jobs for the boys" basis, when two senior civil servants were also appointed to ambassadorial roles. They should have been interviewed and should have applied for the posts. The positions should have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: They both speak for Ireland.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I have one final question. It concerns all Ministers' telephones. We have been asking about it for a while, and I was told at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications the other day, that all Ministers' telephones are encrypted. The issue of the Minister for Foreign Affair's phone being hacked is a very serious one. Would Mr. Fraser regard it as being up there with a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I think it is an important one.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank Mr. Fraser. I apologise for any embarrassment I may have caused, but I felt I had to ask those questions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: Chairman, I respect your integrity above all things. I have always found you very straight. However, Mr. Fraser is on record as being adamant about process and procedures. Process and procedures is what we are talking about here. One cannot ring-fence one appointment from that day and forget about the other two. Three appointments went before Cabinet without process and procedure that is...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: Today, the new Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Major-General Seán Clancy, takes over an organisation that is in very poor shape. I wish him the very best. There is a new Secretary General in the Department and I know that she will work with him to try to rebuild the force. My colleague spoke about front-line workers and of how those who worked in the medical sector should be...

Seanad: Air Navigation and Transport Bill 2020: Second Stage (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I welcome the Minister of State and I welcome the Bill she is bringing before the House, although at this point it does not go far enough, and we will talk about that shortly. As Senator Buttimer has pointed out, the last two years have been a very difficult time for the aviation industry. Indeed, the Oireachtas transport committee has spent an extraordinary amount of time looking at the...

Seanad: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I welcome the Minister to the House and thank him for taking the time to meet the women of honour today. I will place on record the concerns my former colleagues in the Defences Forces have. The nature of the complaints being brought forward by the women of honour, brave women that they are, and the things they talk about tend to happen behind closed doors and in secret. The few...

Seanad: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I will get another chance to have a go.

Seanad: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I might be sent overseas.

Seanad: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: There is a bit of a difference between the categories.

Seanad: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2020: Second Stage (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: Will the Minister address the commencement of the Bill?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Work of Front Line Defenders in Afghanistan: Discussion (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank the guests for attending. It is not easy to come in and tell the stories they had to tell. I will deal first with Afghanistan. There are a couple of issues with it. One is that we have had many statements from sources like the UN Security Council expressing concern for women and girls. These are words. Words mean nothing, at the end of the day. There are thousands of young...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Work of Front Line Defenders in Afghanistan: Discussion (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: On the Afghan issue, the collapse of the local defence organisation suggests that no matter how well they were trained, they were amenable to the Taliban taking over. On getting the news out from Afghanistan on social media, I am sure that will not survive for much longer if things remain as bad as they are. I will get back to Colombia. In a post-conflict situation, which we know all...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank the speakers. It has been a most informative morning. We are in the process of trying to put together our cybersecurity network in Ireland. We have an abysmal system in place with an acting director in place and no director appointed.. We are in a pretty sorry state for a country that hosts some of the largest information technology companies in the world. Are we putting the cart...