Results 3,721-3,740 of 4,414 for speaker:Sean Barrett

Seanad: Taxi Regulation Bill 2012: Committee Stage (12 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Minister of State and amendments are always offered in this spirit. The crime we are creating merits a fine of ¤50,000 for telephoning for a taxi other than through somebody approved by the National Transport Authority. I know the Minister of State is trying to reform the body, but its record is always one of preventing competition at airports, between bus companies and...

Seanad: Taxi Regulation Bill 2012: Committee Stage (12 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: There are elements we need to regulate in transport, and there are others which would be a waste of time to regulate and will probably be overtaken by technology. I do not want to press the point. I am concerned about the priority of whoever drew up the Bill which designated a fine of ¤50,000 for telephoning for a taxi other than through somebody who got a licence from the Minister to do...

Seanad: Taxi Regulation Bill 2012: Committee Stage (12 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for initiating this legislation here. The object, we hope, is to improve it if we can or to assist the Minister of State if we can, and if we cannot do so, I am sure it will go forward to the other House. My response is to ask what is the point. A dispatch operator is the person who provides a booking service for an intending passenger. It is...

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: The Deputy Leader raised the possibility we might complete work today on the Taxi Regulation Bill. I wish to make the case to the contrary. The Bill was circulated on 3 December. Yesterday we were notified of two major amendments, one of which seems to seriously interfere with the rights of part-time workers and with what a person in employment should tell his or her employer; and the...

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Deputy Leader. As a lawyer she would like to see workers have rights with regard to what they tell employers. There are many case studies on the rights of part-time workers. I very much welcome the Deputy Leader's decision and I thank her. With regard to the Magdalen laundries, a most interesting work by Eoin O'Sullivan and Ian O Donnell, Coercive Confinement in Ireland,...

Seanad: Industrial Development (Science Foundation Ireland) (Amendment) Bill 2012: Second Stage (7 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of State. As Senator Clune said, it is a most important topic. We need the reforms which the Minister of State is proposing but we need to stay flexible. He referred to the need to fund applied research in addition to basic research and the need to promote awareness of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The 2003 Act specifies the areas of information...

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: I thank the staff of the House for remaining here until 6 a.m. In doing so, they were so helpful and courteous, as always. This service to the House was way above the call of duty. While it was so unexpected for any of us to be here, our staff were wonderful. Let me mention the various centenary celebrations that will be occurring. I ask that the parliamentary tradition be included...

Seanad: Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Bill 2013: Second Stage (6 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: I worry about so many places in the Bill. The preamble states that, "Whereas in the achievement of the winding up of IBRC the common good may require permanent or temporary interference with the rights, including property rights, of persons". That theme goes right through it. I would ask whether we are worried about losing the Hall case in the Supreme Court. Why has the EU made us bring...

Seanad: Irish Bank Resolution Corporation Bill 2013: Second Stage (6 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister and assure him of my support for all he is trying to do for the country. If there is good news tomorrow, the Minister will have our support in that but I am most unhappy about what is going on here this evening. It is scant regard for democracy. We have tried in this House to read every Bill thoroughly and table amendments, and several Ministers have complimented us...

Seanad: Defence Forces (Second World War Amnesty and Immunity) Bill 2012: Second Stage (6 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister to the House. Like other Senators, I warmly support the Bill, which is part of the reconciliation between North and South within this island and between east and west. It is part of a wider reconciliation also and as Senator O'Donovan said, the EU 27 was formed to ensure we do not have further outbreaks of war like the First World War or Second World War. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: It would help if the group could give us correspondence on what information it requested and what was refused, and what the group would like to have and what sections of the new legislation the group fears might be used to prevent it getting that information. As my colleagues have said, that is what we are here to do, to go through the legislation line by line and see if we can help by...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: Has the group seen the death certificates for those people?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: Is that what is needed? We can help with information in cases where it is thought people died and it was not recorded, or where the group wants to know what a person died from. This has come up in the case of the Magdalen laundries, as Deputy McDonald pointed out. The State cannot lose people. People are entitled to know where their friends have gone, why they died and the causes of death.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill 2012: Discussion (6 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: The Chairman will be in touch and if the group can give those documents, that will help the committee a great deal.

Seanad: Private Rented Sector: Statements (6 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of State and endorse the statements of Senators Wilson, Keane and Hayden. I wish I had read the first pages of the Minister of State's speech approximately ten years ago because they capture very well what occurs when housing is used as a bubble and a means of acquiring tax-free capital gains and reducing income tax liabilities rather than a place in which to live....

Seanad: Order of Business: Motion (5 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: I agree with everything that has been said by everyone heretofore. I understood this was the position before because when I was here first the usher told me at a committee meeting that the Senate had gone into session. I was more or less told to come up to the Chamber and I was delighted to do so. The House should have precedence over committees because it deals with vital national issues....

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Feb 2013)

Sean Barrett: I echo the general sentiments towards Senator McAleese expressed by the Cathaoirleach and the Leader. He was a remarkable man and the day he brought the Orange Order here as our guests was a remarkable one. Yesterday, there were leaks in the newspapers about the new format teacher training might take. It was obsessed with structures and bureaucracies and said very little about...

Seanad: The Gathering Ireland 2013: Statements (31 Jan 2013)

Sean Barrett: Hear, hear.

Seanad: The Gathering Ireland 2013: Statements (31 Jan 2013)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister to the House and it is always a pleasure when he comes to see us. I will not make any remarks about the descendants of shoemakers trying to cobble together some economic policies or anything like that. I note one of his critics in a subsequent television role became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. We should ask him to resume his support for The Gathering...

Seanad: Order of Business (31 Jan 2013)

Sean Barrett: The Governor of the Central Bank recently appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and although it was not widely reported he told us that the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority has begun work to become the regulator of the health insurance sector, which is to comply - rather belatedly - with a decision of the European Court. It is...