Results 221-240 of 4,414 for speaker:Sean Barrett

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I wish the Minister of State well. I share the Taoiseach's sense of urgency when he spoke in New York and I hope that this will be the maximum time. As with the earlier amendment and the absence of quantification, this could be put on the long finger. I do not wish to press the amendment but the Minister of State has communicated to the House the urgency that surrounds this issue.

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 11:In page 12, line 6, after “relevant” to insert “written”. This amendment refers to advice and I have suggested that the word "relevant" is followed by "written". To publish or not was discussed at the Committee Stage. If the advice is written then there is a record. The Minister of State has pointed out that there could be delays in...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: The Minister of State refers to valuable scientific advice that is not yet written. I do not know what this is. The present Minister of State is unlikely to have to have to refer to me for advice, nevertheless, Ministers should ask for advice to be written down. How can they act on advice that is not written and the person offering the advice will not write it down for some reason? This...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: It explains many of the difficulties into which the State fell. There is a fear that someone would find information in the archive that person X was against the bank bailout but person Y offered verbal advice which prevailed. Given that in our modern society some governments expended 55% or 60% of GDP to take corrective action, it becomes clear that not writing anything down is a recipe for...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I wish to make one observation. Many people involved in farming wish they had written things down and they might have a lot more answers and would not have had to set up Con Lucey's committee to figure what on earth is going on. We must reform administration and change the way business is done. The way of operating which obtains is just not good enough in this day and age. I will not...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 12:In page 13, lines 4 and 5, to delete "(other than ordinary members to whom subsection (2)applies)". This amendment deals with the composition of the council. There was serious disappointment in environmental circles that representatives from public bodies - Sustainable Energy Ireland, the director general of the EPA, the director of Teagasc and the director of the...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: One of the items of evidence at the banking inquiry was that when the Department of Finance did not like what John FitzGerald, chairman of the Economic and Social Research Institute, the director is now ex officio on the advisory council, wrote about the Irish economy it telephoned him to complain and John named him nervous Nellie. We asked the Minister, Deputy Michael Noonan, if he ever...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No 13:In page 15, between lines 8 and 9, to insert the following:“(c) consult with learned bodies such as the Royal Irish Academy, the Royal Dublin Society, departments of environmental science in institutions of higher education, An Taisce, Friends of the Earth, the Mary Robinson Foundation and other environmental organisations.”. My amendment proposes to add...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Minister of State. The list of bodies, which everybody in the House agrees is distinguished and have played a major role, has another characteristic in common in that they were not included in the advisory council. Somebody has already decided that they are second class citizens.The people who make up these bodies and others in the scientific and environmental science...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 14:In page 15, to delete lines 12 to 19. During the debate in the Dáil, the argument was made that the climate change advisory council should have the same degree of independence as the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IFAC, which advises the Minister for Finance on economic matters. As I said on Committee Stage, the relationship between the Minister, Deputy Michael...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: That is a high-risk strategy in terms of capture and it is what is wrong with a lot of Irish public administration, namely, that independent agencies are captured by their parent bodies. If this is done in-house and it is reliant on the EPA's secretarial and administrative systems, the council will not have the independence we would like to see. Modern public administration should be...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 15:In page 16, line 20, to delete "Minister" and substitute "Oireachtas". The Minister of State has accommodated, by way of the amendments he accepted, an enhanced role for the Seanad and the Oireachtas as a whole in the debate on these issues. Will he also allow, as we propose in the amendments, for the Oireachtas to take advice from the advisory council? Why should...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: An exclusion is specified in the Bill, as it stands. If our amendments were accepted, the Minister, as a Member of the Oireachtas, would continue to receive all the reports. Long may that continue.Environmental matters are everyone's concern and not a private matter for the Minister. I hope he will share the information with all Members of the Oireachtas as widely and as generously as...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 17:In page 17, line 35, to delete “Not more than 30 days” and substitute “Simultaneously on”. This amendment refers to the publication of reports. The section provides that not more than 30 days after submitting an annual report to the Minister, the advisory council shall publish the annual report by such means as the agency may advise. If...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: Overwhelmed by the oratory of both the Minister of State and Senator Norris, I have to withdraw the amendment. No one could withstand such a combination.

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 18:In page 17, lines 36 and 37, to delete “by such means as the Agency may advise”. The section provides that the advisory council shall publish the annual report by such means as the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, shall advise. As I recall the debate on the last occasion, there was mention that there might be advice to publish it in the two...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: We have not heard from the Minister of State yet on the amendment.

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: The provision undermines the independence of the agency. Trying to get distance between regulatory bodies and the bodies they are supposed to be regulating has proven extremely difficult in Ireland. For example, CIE should have no say at all in the operations of the National Transport Authority, which administers the budget for transport in a wider context. Observations on how to publish...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 20:In page 18, line 2, after “day” to insert “and every 12 months thereafter”. Section 13 of the Act provides that the advisory council shall not later than 18 months after the establishment day conduct a review. I would like that to be 12 months. We asked for it to be six months on Committee Stage. We have to know if it is working. I am...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 22:In page 18, line 32, to delete “30 days” and substitute “10 days”. The purpose of this amendment is to speed up the completion of the report and its submission to the Minister. It could be done quicker.