Results 3,961-3,980 of 4,178 for speaker:Paul Gavan

Seanad: Order of Business (30 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: I also raise the issue of University Hospital Limerick. I commend Senator Mark Daly on his comments. I want to tell a brief story about a man with a van who works with the national ambulance service.

Seanad: Order of Business (30 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: Yes. His job is to deliver charts around the various hospitals in Nenagh, Croom and the two in Limerick city. His van broke down and since then because the University Hospital Limerick and the national ambulance service cannot agree on who should pay for a new van, the taxpayer is spending €2,000 to €3,000 every week on taxis. Can that be credited? I give that as an example...

Seanad: Order of Business (30 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: What is embarrassing is the state of the health service.

Seanad: Presidential Voting Rights: Motion (30 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: Senator Buttimer could not name them. He does not know who they are.

Seanad: Presidential Voting Rights: Motion (30 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: Go on, name them.

Seanad: Presidential Voting Rights: Motion (30 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: The Minister is welcome, as always, to the House. Where do I start at this point in time? I will start by welcoming the support from the Labour Party, from the Civil Engagement group and even Senator McDowell. I will address the points the Minister has just made. He is committing to come back to us by the end of the first quarter of 2017, clearly with something substantial and not just...

Seanad: Presidential Voting Rights: Motion (30 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: It is not a conspiracy; it is just a political position.

Seanad: Presidential Voting Rights: Motion (30 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: There is no sign of the train at the minute. I also want to put on the record that I received a phone call on Friday evening from our colleague Senator Billy Lawless. I was really appreciative of the call. He rang me from the United States, on Thanksgiving weekend, to ask me to state in the Chamber today that he supports our motion and he calls on all his colleagues here to support the motion.

Seanad: Presidential Voting Rights: Motion (30 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: I hope Billy is watching this debate today but I cannot imagine how he feels right now. It is hugely disappointing. The Taoiseach appointed Senator Lawless to deal with this and the Minister has let him down today. It is a huge, huge disappointment. I am also struck by the fact that - with regard to Senator McDowell - Seanad reform is dead and gone. The pretence is up on that also....

Seanad: Presidential Voting Rights: Motion (30 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: We have called out, again, the two conservative parties in power, Fine Gael being deeply conservative. They are not going to move the motion forward. I particularly welcome Senator McDowell's comment because, let us be honest, we do not agree too often. Today he put it very well. We know what is going on here. It is pretence. I think of the emigrant families and I think of my own family...

Seanad: Presidential Voting Rights: Motion (30 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: The parties have turned their backs-----

Seanad: Presidential Voting Rights: Motion (30 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: The parties have turned their backs on those people. I believe I am correct in saying that all bar two decades since our Independence have been marked by mass emigration. It has been said that we have all been marked by that. To not stand up is a betrayal of those people. The answer by our Leader, that just because the constitutional convention has suggested that we can do this does not...

Seanad: Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign: Motion (30 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: Well done to Senator Mac Lochlainn.

Seanad: Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign: Motion (30 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: It is shameful.

Seanad: Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign: Motion (30 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: I welcome the motion put down by Senator Norris, which is a very important one. I also welcome the fact that time has been given to debate it today. Those of us who have been to Palestine have seen at first hand the horrors of an apartheid state. It is generally accepted now that Israel is an apartheid state. There is horrific humiliation, imprisonment without trial, torture and death...

Seanad: Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign: Motion (30 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: What are we afraid of? Why are we afraid to condemn Bank of Ireland strongly for what we know it has done wrong, in particular when the all-party Palestine support group within the Oireachtas has written on a number of occasions to the bank, which has completely ruled out the meeting the amendment calls for? We should be better than this. We have different politics but we should have...

Seanad: Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign: Motion (30 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: I have not heard one good reason to explain why Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael cannot support the Independent Senators' motion, which rightly calls on the Seanad to condemn Bank of Ireland and ask the bank to reverse its decision. The IPSC account is now with AIB, but I have it on good authority that AIB is coming under pressure to close the account.

Seanad: Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign: Motion (30 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: Despite that, Fianna Fáil chooses to weaken what should be an all-party motion. I appeal to our shared values. No one has a monopoly on morality on issues like this. We know what is happening in Palestine. I spoke to Senator Colm Burke, who was particularly passionate about Palestine, a number of weeks ago. This issue does not belong to Sinn Féin, the Labour Party or the civic...

Seanad: Order of Business (29 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: As a representative of the largest party on the left in the Chamber, I pay tribute to Fidel Castro. I ask the Leader to put time aside so we can make statements of sympathy to this great international statesman and hero of the revolutionary left. Fidel Castro was a giant. He was described as a man of the century, and rightly so. He led a heroic struggle against American imperialism and...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2016: Second Stage (29 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: Well said.