Results 361-380 of 4,085 for speaker:Dan Boyle

Seanad: Údarás na Gaeltachta (Amendment) Bill 2010: Second Stage (Resumed) (22 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: Gabhaim leithscéal ach beidh mé ag caint as Béarla ins an diospóireacht seo. Given that my father was a native speaker and that my mother did her Árdteistiméaracht as Gaeilge, I do not even use the excuse that I was born in the United States to explain my continuing lack of confidence in using the Irish language. Like most people in this country, after an education for 13 years I can...

Seanad: Údarás na Gaeltachta (Amendment) Bill 2010: Second Stage (Resumed) (22 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: -----is something towards which I am working. I very much admire Senator Alex White for the contribution he made, something to which I can only aspire at this stage. I hope I will be able to add mine in future debates in this House. Given my background - I have a parent who comes from a Gaeltacht area - I record my acknowledgment of the role Údarás na Gaeltachta has played since the...

Seanad: Death of Former Member: Expressions of Sympathy (22 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: I first became aware of Peter Callanan as a long-standing member of Cork County Council, many years before I became involved in public life, when I used to read his name and see his photograph in what was then known as the Cork Examiner. When I was subsequently elected to Cork City Council, there would have been joint meetings of the city and county council. While Peter Callanan represented...

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: Fine Gael keeps changing the costings.

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: The House would be served well by having a debate on the draft terms of reference for the commission of inquiry into the banking crisis. The Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service has received the draft terms of reference. Some Members of this House are members of that committee. A wider debate would help. However, I caution against the belief that all the questions can be...

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: These are the figures we must keep in mind.

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: It is a simple mathematical sum involving selling one's assets, paying off one's debtors and how much it will cost the State. It is a simple balance sheet exercise.

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: Finally, with regard to the debate this House will soon have on the Civil Partnership Bill, I have no difficulty with any citizen or group of citizens giving their opinion on what should be in the Bill, but the question of constitutionality is a matter for the courts. The question of whether this legislation is approved is a matter for this House and the Lower House. It will be on Report...

Seanad: Confidence in the Taoiseach: Motion (16 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: This august Chamber has developed traditions, a proud history and a sense of character in determining how the nation should be defined at different times and in different circumstances in its history. Debates have taken on a particular significance. Confidence debates are meant to fall into this category. They offer an opportunity for a Government to justify its actions and continue in...

Seanad: Confidence in the Taoiseach: Motion (16 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: This view concerns not only how errors and mistakes may be made in government but also how the Opposition——

Seanad: Confidence in the Taoiseach: Motion (16 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: ——attributes to them motives and characteristics that never applied.

Seanad: Confidence in the Taoiseach: Motion (16 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: The surrealism of this debate is further exemplified by its being made personal in regard to one person, although it concerns issues that merit collective responsibility, not only in a political sense——

Seanad: Confidence in the Taoiseach: Motion (16 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: ——but also in how State agencies have been operating and the performance of our financial institutions. We must also consider international circumstances that have informed our current economic well-being. I refer to circumstances that have not emerged in the term of the Government but which the Opposition seems intent on using to inform the debate.

Seanad: Confidence in the Taoiseach: Motion (16 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: There have been three obvious contradictions already: a motion of no confidence being tabled by a party which does not have confidence in its own leader; the focus on a set of circumstances that do not apply to the Government; and the tabling of a motion of no confidence in an individual, although it is a question of collective responsibility. I was an Opposition spokesperson during the...

Seanad: Confidence in the Taoiseach: Motion (16 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: I will repeat the policies in question because my party and I were most correct about how they were being pursued. The policies being pursued in 2002 to 2007 resulted in an overheated economy. They were the collective responsibility of the Government in office and the Minister for Finance had a role to play in that regard. I attribute more blame for the overheating to the Taoiseach's...

Seanad: Confidence in the Taoiseach: Motion (16 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: The Senators can check the budget response speeches in the Dáil. The three budgets introduced by the Taoiseach, when Minister for Finance, were far more distributive than the six which had preceded them.

Seanad: Confidence in the Taoiseach: Motion (16 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: I spoke against them.

Seanad: Confidence in the Taoiseach: Motion (16 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: The circumstances in which we found ourselves after the 2007 general election were such that all political parties bought into the rationale. I do not accept——

Seanad: Confidence in the Taoiseach: Motion (16 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: I will tell the Senators why. The Fine Gael manifesto referred to actions in respect of stamp duty that would have further overheated the economy. The Labour Party manifesto sought a reduction in taxes.

Seanad: Confidence in the Taoiseach: Motion (16 Jun 2010)

Dan Boyle: What would our budget deficit be——