Results 22,701-22,720 of 24,571 for speaker:Jerry Buttimer

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: ——where there is an equitable distribution of votes across the board. That might lead to all sorts of mathematical permutations and it might mean the Clerk of the Seanad would go on tour throughout the country to educate all the returning officers. There are anomalies in the system. We have seen them and they are undemocratic. The other matter with which I am disappointed is one which...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: The commission should have been given the power to tell the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government get rid of the electronic voting machines and consign them to history. I do not say that as a political point. I love the cut and thrust of the count. I have been beaten and I have been director of elections on count day. I remember ringing a great friend of mine, former...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: One does.

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: Exactly. The electronic voting machine is like Murphy's law. It is like going in to Dunnes Stores and getting a receipt. It is cold, uninviting, non-participatory and, dare I say it, takes away from the cut and thrust of the old blood battle. I say that unashamedly. One cannot beat being in Neptune Stadium or City Hall on the day of a count and we are all there in all our emotions, in...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: I want to raise a point of order.

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: This is an important debate and I have not finished what I wanted to say.

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: On a point of order, what is the rush?

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: What is the rush? On a point of information——

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: Wait until Fianna Fáil councillors hear about this.

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Kitt, to the House. All of us are representatives of the people. I am concerned at the drift in politics. The commission may have played its part in this regard. While I acknowledge Senator Ellis's great remarks in the House in regard to Leitrim, he is not the only representative promoting Leitrim. Former Deputy and Senator Gerry Reynolds and other...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: There are members of the media who parade virtues everywhere. The commission is going by the boundary review as laid out in the census of population. The terms of reference were slightly askew, however. I have concerns in a number of areas, including with regard to the number of people who have left Cork and the west, and Senator Coffey spoke about Waterford being part of Tipperary South....

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: I will be brief. Given all the clamour regarding politicians' expenses in the newspapers every day, I would like to tell the Minister for Finance and other members of the Government that no Member of this House or the other House are pariahs. We are being branded in the media almost as criminals. Some of us, who have no income other than what we receive as Deputies and Senators, are...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: It is relevant to the section. If a Minister has 12 officials working for him or her, and Deputies and Senators have nobody, it is very hard to compete.

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: I am on section 4. I am curious with regard to Senator Ellis's remarks on legality and constitutionality and I look forward to the Minister of State's response. We have missed an opportunity to create new boundaries in the city and county of Cork, which would have been exciting and innovative and would have moved away from the old Cork South-Central and Cork North-Central division. It is...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: Whose questions has he answered?

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: I am intrigued by Senator Callely's talking about mud-slinging.

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: I am building up to the question and I thank the Cathaoirleach for allowing me to contribute. I wish to raise a fundamental question. Does the Leader agree that the people have lost trust in the Government and are angry at the lack of leadership? I ask the Leader to bring the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance, not to the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party room, but to this House because...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: The Leader should show leadership by coming in here and demanding it stops rather than going out on the plinth or on local radio stations and talking out of both sides of his mouth, which he is good at doing.

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: There is a golden circle running this country and the Members on the other side may shout in here all they want, but the people have seen through them, and it is about time they did.

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Feb 2009)

Jerry Buttimer: I have a final question. I have not spoke on the Order of Business for five days and I thank the Cathaoirleach for letting me in. May we have a debate with the Minister for Health and Children on the appalling accident and emergency waiting times. This morning's Irish Examiner revealed that on average 43 patients had to wait more than 12 hours every day in 2008. The Minister for Health...