Results 2,801-2,820 of 4,717 for speaker:Martin Mansergh

Seanad: Order of Business. (27 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: Improvement in life expectancy is what the health service is about, in part anyway. We should also debate prescriptions. The Labour Party health spokesperson spoke this morning about the universal health insurance policy. In other words, the insurance companies would effectively control hospitals. If that is still Labour Party policy, I would like to hear the Fine Gael response to it——

Seanad: Order of Business. (27 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: —— if it has a policy.

Seanad: Order of Business. (27 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: I referred to the period since 1996. I did not make any special claims, so the Senator can draw his own conclusions.

Seanad: Social Partnership Agreement: Motion. (21 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Social Partnership Agreement: Motion. (21 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: I welcome the Minister of State and his officials. I warmly welcome this social partnership agreement and it was appropriate that the Taoiseach came to this Chamber to present the agreement to the Oireachtas for the first time. This Chamber has a wisp of a ghost of vocational representation about it. Social partnership has been essential to the economic success of this country in the past 20...

Seanad: Social Partnership Agreement: Motion. (21 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: I have no sympathy for that point of view. I remember talking to Samuel Brittan, a financial journalist, and the one thing he could not understand about the Celtic tiger was the idea of social partnership which was contrary to every principle of management of economic and budgetary policy which people in Britain had learned. It dumped social partnership at the end of the 1960s, or certainly...

Seanad: Social Partnership Agreement: Motion. (21 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: The Senator loves breaking the consensus.

Seanad: Social Partnership Agreement: Motion. (21 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: It is an improvement.

Seanad: Social Partnership Agreement: Motion. (21 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: Social partnership is part of modern Ireland.

Seanad: National Economic and Social Development Office Bill 2002: Report and Final Stages. (21 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: We have heard a most extraordinary broadside against the role of the Minister for Finance. I remind Senator Hayes that the Cumann na nGael Government of 1922-23 introduced our system of public administration, particularly a system of financial administration that gave a central role to the Department of Finance. One can argue that for the first 30 or 40 years of the State a tight,...

Seanad: National Economic and Social Development Office Bill 2002: Report and Final Stages. (21 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: If Deputy Rabbitte were to become Minister for Finance there would be no change in the relationship between the Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach.

Seanad: National Economic and Social Development Office Bill 2002: Report and Final Stages. (21 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: I do not want to personalise this as it would be true of any Minister for Finance under any Government. I assure both Senators that were they in Government they would not alter the system one iota.

Seanad: Social Partnership Agreement: Motion. (21 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: I second the motion and reserve my right to speak at a later stage.

Seanad: National Economic and Social Development Office Bill 2002: Report and Final Stages. (21 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: May I speak?

Seanad: National Economic and Social Development Office Bill 2002: Report and Final Stages. (21 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: On a point of order——

Seanad: National Economic and Social Development Office Bill 2002: Report and Final Stages. (21 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: On a point of order, a Chathaoirligh, is it in order to describe a public servant — the Parliamentary Counsel — as sloppy and eccentric?

Seanad: National Economic and Social Development Office Bill 2002: Report and Final Stages. (21 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: I have to say that I deprecate attacks on people who are not in a position to defend themselves.

Seanad: National Economic and Social Development Office Bill 2002: Report and Final Stages. (21 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: I am sure parliamentary draftsmen and civil servants follow closely what is said in the House on Committee Stage. Having taken that into consideration, they have given the Minister advice. It is not necessarily the case that the same procedure is always adopted for Bills that have a short Long Title and those that have a long Long Title, such as this Bill. I reject the aspersions cast on the...

Seanad: National Economic and Social Development Office Bill 2002: Report and Final Stages. (21 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: Senator Brian Hayes may have to hear my view first.

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed). (21 Jun 2006)

Martin Mansergh: It is a brilliant success.