Results 26,501-26,520 of 26,685 for speaker:David Cullinane

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed). (21 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: I am not that far away.

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (21 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: I fully agree with Senator Mooney on the establishment of the commission. We see this happen far too often where powers are devolved to a quango or commission. It is a case of politicians abdicating their responsibility. The point has been well made by the Senator that the Minister has a plethora of officials available to him and his Department to do the work of the commission. I gave as...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (21 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: We are talking about the Department, not just politicians, with respect to the Minister of State.

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (21 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: My contribution will be very focused. I wish to put a direct question to the Minister of State. Much of the discussion to date has related to the commission, its workings and its report. I posed two questions to the Minister of State earlier but he did not reply to either. These are the most pertinent questions that have been asked. The first relates to why the number of Deputies needs...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (21 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: I can return to them in any event.

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (21 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: I will still be obliged to ask the questions again, whether it is now or in a few moments' time.

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (21 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: I am seeking a direct response from the Minister of State with regard to the other question I wish to pose. Is the need to reduce costs a factor in the Government's decision to reduce the number of Deputies?

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (21 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: I will deal specifically with that point because I have made a number of charges against the Government and the Minister in earlier contributions on the basis of the reason the Government is proposing to reduce the number of Deputies to perhaps 153 or less. The Leader of House said proposal did not go far enough and that perhaps the figure should be 120. I posed a question which I will pose...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (21 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: I did not lecture the Minister about his salary or that of anybody else. I made the point about costs and whether this measure would reduce costs. We are not advocating that TDs, Ministers or Senators should earn the average industrial wage. That is a decision that those of us in our party make and we invest the money in our constituencies. What we propose are modest decreases in the pay...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (21 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: I move amendment No. 4: In page 3, before section 4, to insert the following new section: "4.—Section 6 (amended by section 9 of the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2009) of the Act of 1997 is amended in subsection (2) by substituting the following paragraph for paragraph (b): "(b) each constituency shall return four, five or six members.".". I appreciate that other Members have tabled similar...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (21 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: That is the one. That was a six seat constituency. This country has a history of five and six seat constituencies. We should look at best practice in other countries. Many countries have multi-seat constituencies, and we pride ourselves on our PR-STV system. Its logic is to ensure good representation and diversity in the political system. If we just had four, five and six-seat...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (21 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: Senator Mooney will not be happy.

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (21 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: I support the arguments made by previous speakers regarding the introduction of a list system. Such a system would deal with many of the issues arising in terms of women's participation in politics. There appears to be cross-party support for the principle of a list system and perhaps this House could return to the proposal in the form of a motion or a Bill. In the 2007 general election,...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (21 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: There is no glass ceiling in here.

Seanad: Electoral Amendment Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: I concur with everything Senator Barrett said. As I noted on Second Stage, when one reflects for a moment on what took place in this State over the past five years one finds that the failure of the political and regulatory systems to rein in the banks and properly scrutinise developments in the economy resulted in the collapse of the public finances and the bail out of the State by the...

Seanad: Electoral Amendment Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: I intended to speak on amendment No. 13 when discussing the section but it has been mentioned-----

Seanad: Electoral Amendment Bill 2011: Committee Stage (Resumed) (21 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: I make no apology to Senator Mooney for not being straitjacketed by the very narrow confines of this Bill. There is a need to ensure that the Government is not let off the hook in terms of the bigger political reform issues that must be discussed. For many years I watched the operation of the political system from the outside as a local councillor and saw the Senator's party talk a great...

Seanad: Electoral Amendment Bill 2011: Committee Stage (21 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: I move amendment No. 1: In page 3, before section 2, to insert the following new section: "2.—In this Act "Act of 2002" means the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2002.". I welcome the Minister of State to the House. This is a technical amendment but I would like to raise a number of issues. I referred on Second Stage to the need for genuine political reform and said that my party would support...

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: I commend the Leader on the new question-and-answer format introduced yesterday for the debate on agriculture and fisheries. Although it could benefit from some tweaking, it was a worthwhile exercise both for Members and for the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Simon Coveney. My party is supportive of the new format and I hope it will be incorporated into future debates....

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2011: Second Stage (20 Jul 2011)

David Cullinane: I wish to call a quorum. Notice taken that 12 were not present; House counted and 12 Members being present,