Results 3,921-3,940 of 4,414 for speaker:Sean Barrett

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: Some time after the Houses rose in July, CIE was found to be ¤36 million short of meeting its expenditure targets for this year which has resulted in the loss of rural bus services in places in Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim and elsewhere. Will the Leader invite the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, to come to the House to discuss other ways in which those bus services might...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: -----the fruit of a recession during the 1950s, which is going so strongly today.

Seanad: Mortgage Credit (Loans and Bonds) Bill 2012: Second Stage (17 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: I thank my colleagues and especially the seconder. In future I will allow Senator Quinn to make the proposal because he seconded it so well and I thank him for it. I thank all the speakers. The current Seanad is such that a certain county colleague of the Minister of State might not have proposed its abolition had he known that we would hold such good debates. I hope the Minister of State...

Seanad: Mortgage Credit (Loans and Bonds) Bill 2012: Second Stage (17 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: I thank Senator Michael D'Arcy. Would the Irish psyche adjust to this? I would like to see the two systems going side by side. I gather the telephone has hardly stopped ringing since we printed the Bill. I understand there was an IDA proposal for a centre of this type of finance in the IFSC at one stage. Perhaps they could operate side by side. Would I like to see Irish banks running...

Seanad: Mortgage Credit (Loans and Bonds) Bill 2012: Second Stage (17 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: We are also pointing out the advantages the proposed measures would have in terms of reviving the housing market and divorcing house purchase from financial speculation. These became far too entangled in Ireland, which got us into the situation we are now trying to rectify. The Danish system, referred to as nykredit, dates back to 1797 and is very robust due to extensive regulation that...

Seanad: Mortgage Credit (Loans and Bonds) Bill 2012: Order for Second Stage (17 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: I move: "That Second Stage be taken today."

Seanad: Mortgage Credit (Loans and Bonds) Bill 2012: Second Stage (17 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit agus molaim an Bille don Seanad. Is as an Ghaeltacht é an tAire Stáit agus mar sin ba cheart dom an Ghaeilge a úsáid anseo. I thank the Bills Office for its help, which was most valuable indeed, my assistants and, of course, this great House, its officers and Members, and the staff, for the...

Seanad: Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (17 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Minister for the debates. What he is attempting to do is important. We wish him well and we wish the Ombudsman well. We should always have openness in government and that is what we have been attempting to do during these weeks. I wish the Minister well in his pursuit of that goal.

Seanad: Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (17 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: I have two concerns. First, should there be a Schedule? The Bill contains principles which deals with the law itself and relate to industrial relations and financial matters. I would leave it to the courts to decide. Second, in the 2008 Bill there were 59 exclusions but this time the Minister has carefully numbered all 110 of them. I am worried about that development. Can a Schedule...

Seanad: Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (17 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: I found some of the mergers proposed by Mr. McCarthy strange and this is one of them. There is a body charged with recruiting, which it does very well, for which we are all indebted to it, and a body which investigates. Is there synergy between them? If so, where is it, or is this purely an administrative exercise?

Seanad: Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (17 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: Would the Human Rights Commission not be a better fit? They are both trying to vindicate citizens' rights. However, I will not push the point.

Seanad: Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (17 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: Somewhere else. I thank the Minister.

Seanad: Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2008: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (17 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: As with Senator Ó Clochartaigh, I welcome the tenor of the Minister's remarks. We are all on the same side and agree that more scrutiny, checks, balances and reform of governance are required. This is the reason we have been elected to the Oireachtas and I wish the Minister well in that regard.

Seanad: Alcohol Consumption: Statements (17 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: I will try to be brief as I know many Senators wish to speak on this issue. I welcome the Minister of State to the House. There are certain dangers inherent in this debate and we must be careful in our use of data. The Minister of State made reference to certain data but I drew the attention of the House to data last November which indicate that drink consumption is falling in Ireland,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Public Service Obligation Bus Contracts: Discussion (17 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: A sum of €36 million extra was found for CIE while the Dáil and Seanad were in recess during the summer. What were the consequences of that and what can we do about it next year? The companies must compete against companies with capital grants. What is that worth per bus? By how much could operating costs be reduced if the companies had the same capital grant?

Seanad: Order of Business (16 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: I agree with what Senator Moran said about last Friday. The meeting of the North-South Interparliamentary Association in this Chamber, chaired jointly by the Speaker, William Hay, and the Ceann Comhairle was a remarkable event. There were superb presentations by Geoffrey Shannon and Ian Elliott on the cross-Border dimension of child protection. For lighter relief in the afternoon Brian...

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: I compliment the Minister and will support any further measures he has in mind along those lines. I will table amendments on Committee Stage. The concerns of the hoteliers about appeals and that the commissioner must be subject to checks and balances in his activities, are important. The agreement by Senator Coghlan earlier that the views of those directly involved will be heard and putting...

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of State. In our own mini-Croke Park agreement, the last time the Minister of State was in the Seanad we saved a large amount of money by not building a high wall in Clontarf, making the people there much happier. I make it my object to invent new reductions in public expenditure every time the Minister of State comes to the Seanad, to help him balance the books....

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: I support the sentiments of Senator Byrne on the Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, particularly as the acting Leader hails from Killarney. The documents submitted to us by the Irish Hotels Federation were very well argued. They were not the usual lobbying documents and appear to make some serious points about the way in which this commissioner could value properties without the right to...

Seanad: Primary Care Centres: Motion (10 Oct 2012)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy White, my former colleague from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, to his new post. He was a brilliant Chairman of that committee and the expertise in finance he will be bringing to the Department of Health is most important. I wish him well in his role. I wish to outline some thoughts about primary care centres....