Results 21-40 of 5,962 for speaker:Gerard Craughwell

Committee on Defence and National Security: Update on Issues in the Reserve Defence Force: Discussion (25 Sep 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: Speaking of the cyber area, during the lifetime of the last committee the Taoiseach made the point that the Reserve Defence Force was going to have to change with respect to recruitment. He envisaged a situation, particularly in areas like cyber, where a rather follically challenged rotund gentleman or lady could serve in uniform. They would not pass fitness tests but they would bring a...

Committee on Defence and National Security: Update on Issues in the Reserve Defence Force: Discussion (25 Sep 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: From the HSE cyberattack, we learnt that there is a front-line cyber defence through the An Garda Síochána and through the Communications and Information Services, CIS, Corps, of the Defence Forces. The second tier, namely, the Second Line Reserve - and this requires the employment legislation we are talking about - are people who are working in the cyber industry. They could be...

Committee on Defence and National Security: Update on Issues in the Reserve Defence Force: Discussion (25 Sep 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: On that issue of instructors, the policy practised over the last number of years has run the Defence Forces into the ground. We are now in a position where we need to recruit both in RDF and PDF. It is fair to say that there is a significant interest among recruits who want to be a part of either the RDF or PDF. However, one of the problems we are now running into is we cannot take in the...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: Hear, hear. Well said.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Sep 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: I will follow on from my colleague who spoke about social media. It has become an extremely toxic environment. We are all now used to the whipping-up of mass emails to us to support this, that or the other. The senders do not even do us the courtesy of referring to us by our names. They address us as "Dear Deputy" or "Dear Oireachtas Member". I am not a Deputy; I am a Senator and I am...

Seanad: Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation: Statements (24 Sep 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: How do I follow that wonderful piece of publicity for Fianna Fáil? My good God, it was amazing - a history lesson along with all of the compliments. This is the first time I have addressed the Minister since he took over the Department. Slightly off the subject, as director of elections for my former good friend, Jim Gavin, I wish the Minister well as he heads out into the hustings...

Seanad: Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation: Statements (24 Sep 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: I am nearly finished. I have always tried to work on the basis of not asking a question unless I had a fair idea of what the answer was going to be. Similarly, when it comes to the Minister's Department, I would like to see it come out of the doldrums of being the devil incarnate in the corner and be seen as somebody who is minding the State and looking after State resources.

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Vaccination Programme (23 Sep 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank the Minister of State for being in the House today. I think it is the first time I have addressed him since his elevation. I congratulate him. He was a great Senator when he was here and I am sure he is doing equally well as a Minister. Respiratory syncytial virus, RSV, is a common and highly contagious virus that affects the lungs and respiratory tract. While it can affect...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Vaccination Programme (23 Sep 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank the Minister of State for the results regarding children. I hear that the take-up is not as good the Minister of State and the Department would like so, like him, I would encourage parents to get their babies immunised as quickly as possible. The last paragraph of the Minister of State's reply is the one that really counts for me. Among people over 65 years of age, an equal...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (23 Sep 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: I congratulate the interview board for the new Clerk of the Seanad because they made life very easy for me. I will just keep calling him Martin. I congratulate Martin Hughes and I am delighted to have him on board. If he is looking for an example of perfect discipline in the House, he should look towards me. He will see I obey all of the rules all of the time. The issue of the...

Committee on Public Petitions and the Ombudsmen: Engagement with the Office of the Ombudsman for the Defence Forces (23 Sep 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank Mr. Justice Mahon for his report. As always, it is an excellent report covering a wide range of things. I will deal with a few issues. I will put them all to the ombudsman and he can decide how to handle them from there. The first one I will speak about is the IRG report. For me, this report was extremely distressing. One simple line said that a prima facie case had been found...

Committee on Public Petitions and the Ombudsmen: Engagement with the Office of the Ombudsman for the Defence Forces (23 Sep 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: I do not want to stray into an area that may become an issue of litigation in the not-too-distant future.

Committee on Public Petitions and the Ombudsmen: Engagement with the Office of the Ombudsman for the Defence Forces (23 Sep 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: And the five-year contract-----

Committee on Public Petitions and the Ombudsmen: Engagement with the Office of the Ombudsman for the Defence Forces (23 Sep 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: That is it, yes. On the five-year contract, has anybody complained they are coming to the end of their contract and have not had an opportunity to go overseas or do a course and their career is about to come to an end?

Committee on Public Petitions and the Ombudsmen: Engagement with the Office of the Ombudsman for the Defence Forces (23 Sep 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: I will finish on that. I thank Mr. Justice Mahon and his team for the meticulous work they do in supporting the Defence Forces and ensuring those who feel aggrieved have a final port of call without going down the route of litigation or anything like that. I thank Mr. Justice Mahon and his team for their time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Fisheries and Maritime Affairs: Inshore Fishing: National Inshore Fishermen's Association (23 Sep 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: Can I check that the Chairman can hear me?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Fisheries and Maritime Affairs: Inshore Fishing: National Inshore Fishermen's Association (23 Sep 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: I am sitting in my office in Leinster House 2000. I am sorry I did not come down, but I am trying to get some other work done as well. What I have got to say is fairly short and sweet. From the time we joined the European Union, I have seen fishermen thrown under the bus time and again. I have seen harbours around the country that once had several trawlers in them slowly but surely...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Fisheries and Maritime Affairs: Inshore Fishing: National Inshore Fishermen's Association (23 Sep 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: It was quite moving to hear from the three witnesses. There was an allegation made that the quotas had been moved to the south west. We need to examine that and I ask that we organise to have the Department in fairly quickly to deal with that issue.