Results 221-240 of 784 for speaker:Jimmy Harte

Seanad: Promissory Note Arrangement: Statements (14 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: I welcome the Minister of State to the House. A Member on the Opposition benches said that then the deal was announced, there were champagne corks popping, which is not true. The only place, in terms of politics, where champagne corks ever popped was in the Galway tent.

Seanad: Promissory Note Arrangement: Statements (14 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: The truth may hurt, Senator, but I will continue to repeat it. The previous Administration signed the promissory note and told taxpayers it had to make tough decisions and that it had no choice but to pay it off over ten years. It also said the agreement could not be renegotiated. As in Samuel Beckett's play, Waiting for Godot, nothing happened. The previous Administration was supported...

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: With so much going on at once, I have almost forgotten what I was about to say. I would welcome a debate on poverty. People who are suffering poverty and cannot afford basic necessities do not have the luxuries available to the leader of Sinn Féin who can travel first class to America and have his medical treatment paid by a multimillionaire.

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: I ask for a debate on poverty. Unlike the rest of the population, Deputy Gerry Adams can call on his friends in Manhattan to pay for his hospital treatment and fly first class to New York and back, which we would all love to do but do not have such a luxury available to us. It is important to have a debate on poverty in order that those who talk about it also practise it.

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: On the property tax, one of the parties opposite imposed a property tax, while the other agreed to the introduction of such a tax in its agreement with the troika. Both parties now oppose the property tax for purely populist reasons. The leader of the Opposition in the Dáil stated in the other House and in interviews that he feels a certain amount of guilt about the scandal of the Magdalen...

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: Yes, I ask him to arrange a debate on poverty.

Seanad: National Lottery: Motion (13 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: I wish to share my time with Senator Hayden.

Seanad: National Lottery: Motion (13 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: I welcome the Minister to the House. I recall the day the national lottery was launched. I purchased a £2 ticket that day for one of my children, who won £2 in that draw. I thought it was a good idea, although it was opposed at the time by the Fianna Fáil Party. I am sure Sinn Féin would also have opposed it. As I said on another occasion, were we to give Sinn Féin the winning...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: I raise an issue that was highlighted in the Dáil last night during the debate on a Fianna Fáil Party Private Members' motion, during which Deputy Martin demanded an apology from the Government. Responding on behalf of the Government, the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, cited the words of Sally Mulready from the Irish Women Survivors Support Network....

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: This matter is on the record. Perhaps Deputy Martin will come into the Seanad and apologise to the victims of the Magdalen laundries on behalf of the Fianna Fáil Party, rather than demanding the reverse. This Government introduced a committee to investigate the Magdalen laundries after years of inaction by the previous Fianna Fáil Government which refused to engage with the Magdalen...

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: I will be opposing Senator Darragh O'Brien's amendment to the Order of Business regarding the blue flu protest threat by gardaí. The blue flu was not invented this week or last week. It is a legacy of a previous Administration.

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: It is a legacy of a previous Administration which had gardaí scared witless in 2009. The blue flu took off then. I do not accuse the Senator of hypocrisy but it is hard to listen to him expressing concern for gardaí. When his party colleagues were in government, they had the opportunity to negotiate with the Garda, and the blue flu protest was the first time in the history of the State...

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: I ask the Leader to arrange for the Minister or Minister of State to come to the House to explain the situation regarding the Garda and the public service, in general. The action of Fianna Fáil in tabling a motion about the threatened blue flu-----

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: It is about that.

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: My question is that the Minister would come in.

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: The blue flu protest of 2009 was the first time Garda authorities, under Fianna Fáil stewardship-----

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: The Government at that time was threatened by the Garda.

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: There are transition year students seated in the Visitors Gallery and they can understand the economics of the deal much easier than Senator Cullinane and the Sinn Féin Party. It is quite obvious. He likened the deal to a credit card loan being replaced by a mortgage. That would be good business if we could do that because the interest rate on credit cards ranges between 18% and 20%. It...

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: One would still have a year to pay back a credit card.

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Feb 2013)

Jimmy Harte: The difference is that the people would still pay it back. The Sinn Féin attitude is to pay it back for a month and then give two fingers to the mortgage company. That is how the party would deal with the debt; it would not pay anyone but the consequences would be severe.