Results 28,241-28,260 of 29,533 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: Conscious that this debate will adjourn at 2.20 p.m. I shall confine myself to the 21 minutes available to me rather than have a few minutes carryover. I shall begin by saying something positive. At least in the legislation the Minister has brought forward he has made a decision on something, and for that we should be grateful. Huge debate has surrounded this issue over a protracted period....

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: ——and that in the fullness of time we would not be found out.

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: Perhaps I may continue as I have less time than my two colleagues because of the way the order of the House falls. To be fair, I wish to address another issue. I refer to the past two years, in case the Minister asks about them. There has been a difference between prices of items covered by the groceries order and those not covered by it in the years 2004 and 2005. After 16 years of no...

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: The Minister can laugh. What would those groups know about the grocery business?

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: The Minister knows more, of course. They are merely operating in the business. What we have over the entire duration of the groceries order makes virtually no difference to the bulk of the sector, except in the most recent two years, and that is not because items covered by the groceries order have dramatically increased. They have not. I am a little at a loss to know why the revocation of...

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: The move had much more to do with image than reality. In Ireland, where examples of patent rip-offs are as common as rainy Mondays, why would the grocery sector be singled out as the area to be attacked first given that, as an Oireachtas joint committee report showed, food inflation was a negative — minus 1% in the year to last May — and was the second lowest among the 25 members of the...

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: Perhaps we should now be content to bring in cheaper meat from South America or Thai chicken, for example, and have it processed in Ireland.

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: The notion that anyone would give clothing as an example, when we have devastated the clothing industry and that we now——

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: The Minister said that if we compare clothing prices in the UK and Ireland, the inflation rate is virtually identical, while there is a disparity between the food prices because the groceries area in Ireland is not competitive.

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: Of course one can get cheaper clothing when one has no clothing industry and can import all one's clothes, just as the UK does. The UK has the same attitude to food because it is a food importing country. Ireland is a food producing nation and some of us would like to hang on to food production in this country. It is an important part of our economy. The representations made by the farming...

Vote for the Health Service Executive 2005-06: Statements. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: I apologise for interrupting; is a script to be circulated?

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: It is safer to make no prediction.

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: On the State's business.

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: The Chair should admonish the Minister for heckling Deputy Hogan.

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: Deputy Hogan has the floor.

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: Is the Minister familiar with that report?

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: We are keeping the Minister to account.

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: Did the Minister know that this practice was taking place just by looking into his heart?

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: We brought them in. We met them individually.

Competition (Amendment) Bill 2005 [Seanad]: Second Stage. (26 Jan 2006)

Brendan Howlin: It is a negative Bill.