Results 3,441-3,460 of 5,749 for speaker:Gerard Craughwell

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: What happened last night was outrageous. It is even more outrageous that we are going to try to drive on. I said it was the Minister's Bill, but it is the Leader's Government that will face the wrath of history for what it is trying to do here. It really needs to step back and look at what is going on around it. No support is worth that price, that it would sell its soul.

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: At last.

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: I thought you were backing me.

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: The Senator cannot say that.

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: I speak in support of Senators Bacik, Humphreys, Boyhan and McDowell. We are discussing a Bill coming before this House that is supposed to lead to the open and transparent appointment of judges, yet there is a report that is closed and is not available to any of us before we debate this Bill. I understand the report is critical of the Bill. It strikes me as rather strange that Senators...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: One can only amend the Order of Business today. One has 24 hours to bring forward this GRECO report. Let us all sit down and have a read of the report and see why it is so God damning of the Bill that the Government is trying to ram through this House against the wishes not just of the Members of the House but so many people in the public domain who have been saying that this Bill is a...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: -----and let us read this report. The Government is sitting on the report and will not release it because it knows that if it did nobody could support the Bill. The Leader knows that. He should release the report and prove me wrong.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: Perish the thought.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: Would we allow it?

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: It might pay the soldiers.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: Hold on.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: He is. Will Senator Conway speak to Fine Gael tonight?

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank the Minister for sitting there and being calm and collected through all of this, as he generally is. As he knows, the Group of States against Corruption, GRECO, was established in 1999 by the Council of Europe to monitor states' compliance with the organisation's anti-corruption standards. Its objective is to improve the capacity of members to fight corruption by monitoring their...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: We do not, quite frankly.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: The bottom line on it is-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: I remember working in London when I was about 15 and a half or 16 and talking to builders, and they used to always say to me that the worst foremen they ever had were those who came from their own class. Class distinction, diversity, all these things are a frame of mind. I am not for one minute condemning Senator Ruane for what she is trying to do here but we need to go much further back...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: -----or show it to us? I made the point today that when I was president of the Teachers' Union of Ireland, every now and then something came up that we could not release into the public domain, but we did release it to the executive members in order that they be informed when making a decision. I am asking for nothing else. The GRECO report will affect this legislation and what the...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: I have great difficulty proceeding with this debate without sight of the GRECO report. Will the Minister make the report available to us tomorrow morning before we proceed any further? If this Bill is passed, it will be enacted with the Minister's name on it. If the report has anything negative - the Minister admits he and the Cabinet have had sight of it-----

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Gerard Craughwell: That is not the story we are being told. Is the Minister saying the report is not available to him today? If that is the point, then we should all step back from this and give ourselves time. We do not want to pass a Bill which may be damned once it is passed. Has the Minister seen the report? Is he prepared to make it available?