Results 3,141-3,160 of 4,810 for speaker:Liam Twomey
- Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: If it is acceptable forââ
- Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: The Senator can say that with confidence.
- Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: Senator O'Donovan is making a joke of this House.
- Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: He is also making a joke of the whole procedure. He is making a mockery of what we are doing here because he said he would vote down the amendment anyway.
- Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2008: Second Stage (Resumed) (9 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: The debate around this legislation is about reducing the consumption of alcohol and, hopefully, reducing the negative social and medical effects that alcohol abuse causes Irish people. When I started college over 20 years ago there were holy hours, early closing on Sundays and restrictive times for nightclubs but even then there was a problem in this country with alcohol abuse. Holy hours...
- Seanad: Economic Policy: Statements (9 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: We will be frightened then.
- Seanad: Economic Policy: Statements (9 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: The people feel they were sold a pup before the general election 12 months ago. We should ask why this happened. Since 1994, Ireland has had a developing economy and, upon entry to the eurozone, cheap interest drove us further forward. In respect of the construction industry, banks offered 100% mortgages with 30-year contracts. They claimed they did so to make it easier to repay loans but...
- Seanad: Economic Policy: Statements (9 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: He has clearly become bored with the Opposition's criticism of the Government's management of the economy. People making â¬800 per week have lost their jobs and are being told that the going rate in the construction industry is â¬450 per week. Ministers who make â¬5,000 per week are trying to fob these people off by promising to take their snouts out of the trough for a year before giving...
- Seanad: Economic Policy: Statements (9 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: It is a serious business for many people.
- Seanad: Economic Policy: Statements (9 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: We all know that the review of the matter in 2010 means they will pay themselves more.
- Seanad: Economic Policy: Statements (9 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: My elderly patients tell me their pensions are being eroded by the cost of food and fuel. This is more than a blip for the economy. It is hurting people badly. The pensions of people who hope to retire in the next five to ten years are being eroded by the turbulence in the stock market. Much of this has been driven by the greed and frenzy in the Irish construction sector which was...
- Seanad: Order of Business (9 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: It should be the other way around.
- Seanad: Order of Business (9 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: Yesterday's announcement shows that the decentralisation programme is in disarray. Will the Leader allow a debate on this issue, which is of importance to so many parts of the country? We should not wait for reports from the decentralisation implementation group. It is important that people working in the public service and Civil Service learn what is to happen with regard to...
- Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: Senator Mary White always votes in favour of it and always criticises it.
- Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: Yesterday, when the banks appeared before the Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service, they indicated that people suffering from negative equity and with cash flow problems are collateral damage of an economic bubble which has burst. A cash flow problem can close a business. Has the Minister for Finance any plans to increase the amount of credit available in Irish markets? The...
- Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: It is time we had a proper debate on what happening in the HSE because it is costing patient's lives. The Leader should organise this immediately. I extend my welcome for Ingrid Betancourt's release. We should extend an invitation to her to address this House. Democracy is fragile and she has experience of what can happen when one stands up for democracy and how human rights can be so...
- Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: You changed what we voted for.
- Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: That is not defending it. That is just acknowledging that one can run the country whichever way one can.
- Seanad: Cancer Services: Motion (2 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: I also know doctors who work in British Columbia. Some of them came back to work in Ireland. They tell me that the regional hospitals in Ireland are not a patch on the smaller hospitals in Canada. That is the reality. There is neither the number of consultants nor the equipment in the hospitals in this country to do what the Minister has described. No matter what high notions the...
- Seanad: OECD Report on Integrated Public Service Reform: Statements (2 Jul 2008)
Liam Twomey: We have an excellent Civil Service and public service. We may at times criticise senior management in the public service, for example in the HSE, as well as other aspects of the public service and Civil Service. However, the greatest problem has been the particularly bad political leadership in the past decade. It is regrettable that there have been so many lost opportunities as pointed...