Results 3,881-3,900 of 4,414 for speaker:Sean Barrett

Seanad: Public Expenditure and Reform: Statements (8 Nov 2012)

Sean Barrett: The Minister is following a distinguished tradition. I refer to Professor Christopher Pissarides from Cyprus and the London School of Economics. He had interesting ideas. We must send the Minister the transcript of what he said on labour market interventions. He suggested that social welfare payments should be accompanied by something other than just money. Possible options are half-time...

Seanad: Youth Unemployment and Public Policy: Address by Professor Christopher Pissarides (Resumed) (8 Nov 2012)

Sean Barrett: I welcome Professor Pissarides and compliment him on winning the Nobel Prize having grown up on the island of Cyprus and then gone to the University of Essex and the London School of Economics. What he said to us about the lost generation will certainly stop us in our tracks as we try to deal with the problem of youth unemployment throughout Europe. This is not the only honour for the...

Seanad: Order of Business (8 Nov 2012)

Sean Barrett: I echo what Senator Conway said about the need for a debate and a report on banking in Ireland. Financial scandals are revealed on a daily basis such as Anglo Irish Bank today and AIB and the people who so little impressed the finance committee last week. Massive pensions are being paid to the people who, as Deputy Olivia Mitchell said on radio this morning, brought this country to ruin. I...

Seanad: Social Welfare Appeals System: Motion (7 Nov 2012)

Sean Barrett: The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, referred to social welfare appeals service through a human rights lens. There is another lens, the economic one. Over 80% of public expenditure comes from health, education and welfare. We have an impossible borrowing situation which bankers and others account for too, I accept. However, we cannot solve this problem by the nomenclature of...

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Nov 2012)

Sean Barrett: I echo the Leader's sentiments about the talk to be given in the House tomorrow by Professor Christopher Pissarides. He will be the first Nobel laureate to address the House since W. B. Yeats. He is from the small island of Cyprus and has obviously acquired sufficient standing in his subject to be awarded the Nobel Prize. He will talk about youth employment and afterwards the young people...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (1 Nov 2012)

Sean Barrett: I take it that the performance of the bank is declining, as shown on page 8, that the underlying losses are up to €907 million from €722 million and that the impairment charges are rising, as shown on page 26. Will Mr. Boucher confirm the figures?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (1 Nov 2012)

Sean Barrett: Then how come they go up by €77 million when one goes to page 26?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (1 Nov 2012)

Sean Barrett: This is exactly the half year period, H1 201 2 and H1 201 1. It went from €901 million to €978 million. I presume the numbers Mr. Boucher has supplied to us are correct.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (1 Nov 2012)

Sean Barrett: I shall try to use even less time. The document with which we have been supplied indicates that the underlying loss between December 2011 and June 2012 increased from €722 million to €907 million, a rise of 24%. Therefore, the most recent figures supplied to the committee indicate that the position on the investment the taxpayer made - involuntarily - in September 2008 has...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (1 Nov 2012)

Sean Barrett: The point I want to make is that the figure is increasing. Unlike the statements to which I refer on pages 8 and 13, when one reaches page 26, one realises that the amount rose by €77 million. The overall performance of the bank is also in decline and that is of concern to the people who made the investment, particularly in the context of the fact that the underlying loss increased...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (1 Nov 2012)

Sean Barrett: Will Mr. Boucher comment on the public interest directors at the bank? How much are these individuals paid? Do they make any contribution at all to solving the problems we are discussing?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion with Bank of Ireland (1 Nov 2012)

Sean Barrett: No, I am finished with my questions. I am just listening for answers.

Seanad: Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union: Statements (25 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of State. It is a genuine pleasure when she attends the House to discuss the European project. I applaud her work in that regard. I welcome the Taoiseach's award as the European Person of the Year. What distinguishes him from the other Europeans in the competition is that he is not a waffler. In comparison, Brussels and Frankfurt are filled to the roof with waffle,...

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: This morning on "Morning Ireland", there was a rather strange discussion in which it transpired that several thousand of those who have paid the household charge are receiving demands to pay it. No records seem to be kept as to who has paid. This is a serious point because tax policy should differentiate between the compliant and non-compliant. We are all here because of the compliant...

Seanad: Amendment to Terms of Reference of Tribunal of Inquiry: Motion (24 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister, support the motion and agree fully with Senators Byrne and Bradford. Last Friday week, the North-South parliamentary body met in this Chamber for the first time, chaired jointly by the Ceann Comhairle and the Speaker from Stormont. I gather the meeting of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly yesterday was a great success, and I met people returning from it in the...

Seanad: National Dementia Strategy: Motion (24 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: I commend the Labour Party, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Senators, the Independent Senators nominated by the Taoiseach, on the all-party agreement on the motion. Although I will support the motion, I have a small quibble with one sentence in it, as I wonder whether it despairs too much: "[T]hat strategy recognises the societal rather than the medical context of dementia and Alzheimer's"....

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Garda Vetting (24 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: We regularly get the wrong headlines, to the effect that the HSE is ¤450 million or ¤750 million over budget, yet the Minister turns down an amendment that would try to address the problem. There are serious budgetary problems. I have sided with the Minister when he has been unfairly criticised but every time we have made a suggestion to help him with these reforms, we have received a...

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Garda Vetting (24 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Minister for that suggestion. I look forward to seeing how this develops in the other House. I will place the amendment in the capable hands of the Minister.

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Garda Vetting (24 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 14: In page 22, line 35, to delete ?Directorate? and substitute the following: "Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority".This relates to the important function of the Accounting Officer and the audit committee and it is recognised as having been a problem on many occasions in the past. It is why Ms Niamh Brennan, professor of accounting in UCD, was asked to...

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Garda Vetting (24 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: I am worried about the precedents. The Minister mentioned some of the earlier ones in tourism and quality assurance. That worries me because I think the precedents in both of those were bad, but that is probably not a topic for conversation now. Subsection (8) provides that one can go to the High Court or that the Chairman of the Oireachtas committee, acting on behalf of the committee, can...