Results 2,381-2,400 of 6,030 for speaker:Brendan Ryan

Seanad: Ethical Foreign Policy: Motion (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: I appreciate that. The arms industry kills more than the drugs industry, yet we refuse to take the necessary steps to address this. There are at least 100 million small arms floating around the Great Lakes area, most of which were made either in the United States or Europe. The arms industry is the core determinant of what is ethical. Making money out of other people's conflicts is...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Committee Stage (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: It is far too long ago to go into when I was elected to this House first but in those days, I was particularly concerned about homeless people. We had a reasonably broad definition of "homeless", which was people who were unable to provide accommodation for themselves of a suitable standard or those who were living in shelters, hostels and such places. We came up against a wall of...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Committee Stage (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: I am serious. If Robert Mugabe said he would not allow grotty people to live in the area of Harare——

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Committee Stage (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: He bulldozed the shanty towns and dumped everybody out because they did not vote for him.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Committee Stage (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: I fully accept that is an extreme example. The Minister should not laugh.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Committee Stage (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: That is what we would say if somebody else did it against any group other than poor people. If we did it against people because of their skin colour, sexual orientation or anything else, we would say it was a dreadful but, in effect, we are slipping through a form of apartheid — that is what Focus Ireland called it — which our country is beginning to accept. This is based on a belief...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Committee Stage (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: That is what it amounts to. We will have showpiece regenerations——

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Committee Stage (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: No, it is not. I know a good deal about what happens in housing. The Minister has been a thoughtful and imaginative one in this portfolio and he has tried to work the pensions issue with some imagination. I hope he does not give in to the business lobbies which are trying to send him off on a track that would make them a lot of money and not do much for our pensions. It is profoundly...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Committee Stage (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: This issue would benefit from a long debate but I accept we must move on. I will address a couple of matters the Minister mentioned. I do not disagree with much of what he said because we have created disasters in the past and there is a great need to put them right. Appallingly bad management decisions have been taken to demolish buildings, such as St. Michael's estate, which were perfect...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Committee Stage (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: Not unless the Minister is interested in it. I do not believe he will accept any amendments. However, a proposal that this will be reviewed in 12 months or two years and a report provided to the Oireachtas would ameliorate some of the effects of this.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2007: Committee Stage (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: Judging by his facial expressions, the Minister seemed sympathetic to the suggestion of a report on the prohibition on rent supplement being paid in areas of regeneration. Does he have anything to say on the matter?

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: The Government does not know how to be ashamed.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: Landlords will be allowed to refuse tenants on supplementary welfare.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: Let them know what Fianna Fáil thinks of them.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: In the past five years, the Opposition and the Leader have managed to work effectively through the business of the House by agreement. If a Minister cannot be present and we accept the bona fides of his or her reason for that, it is easy to ask the leaders of the Opposition groups to agree to reschedule a Bill, especially if no qualified Minister of State is available.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: The legislation being discussed yesterday has nothing much to do with increasing social welfare payments but incorporates the most extraordinary proposal I have seen in many years. This will institutionalise social segregation by saying that rent supplement cannot be paid for housing in development areas.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: Yes, that is in the Bill.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: In regeneration areas.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: There was no Minister to hear it. That is my point.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Mar 2007)

Brendan Ryan: That puts a snob's charter into legislation. Developers can advertise there will be no "grotties", so to speak, in the development and people can afford to invest.