Results 401-420 of 445 for speaker:Eoghan Harris

Seanad: The 70th Anniversary of the Constitution: Statements (Resumed) (7 Feb 2008)

Eoghan Harris: At the same time, the pressure must be kept on Sinn Féin, which has done good deeds and bad. Recently, Senator Maurice Cummins spoke eloquently on the murders of Paul Quinn and Robert McCartney. The ledger on the good side of the peace process is very attractive but there is a downside that legislators like ourselves must watch. It is not good enough for us to congratulate ourselves...

Seanad: Order of Business (31 Jan 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I wish to correct an impression Senator Regan may have inadvertently left, namely, that the Taoiseach is less than generous in paying tribute to fellow Taoisigh. The Taoiseach, in his Westminster address, was most careful to pay tribute to John Bruton's work for peace. I was glad to note his comments in this regard. It is not true to state the Taoiseach is cavalier or indifferent....

Seanad: The 70th Anniversary of the Constitution: Statements (30 Jan 2008)

Eoghan Harris: I had not intended to make a contribution until I heard the extraordinary and lucid exchanges between Senator Regan's fine exegesis on the background to the Constitution and the Minister's subsequent response. It is not often that one is unwilling to leave the Chamber. While I had planned to attend to more urgent business in my office, as I listened to them I realised there was nothing...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Dec 2007)

Eoghan Harris: At the risk of introducing a premature note of Christmas cheer to the proceedings, I would like to inform the House that a former Senator of this House, Professor Murphy, had lunch with myself and Senators Ross, Norris and O'Toole.

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Dec 2007)

Eoghan Harris: In the course of the lunch, Professor Murphy, who otherwise spoiled the lunch by his argumentative nature, remarked that this Seanad seemed to be more sparky, more lively, more entertaining and more to the point than when he was around. He said that with some kind of nostalgia and regret. There was a general consensus at the table that much of this was due to the influx of new, opinionated...

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Dec 2007)

Eoghan Harris: The Seanad, with the other House, is probably the only place where major issues can be dealt with honestly and openly. Watching "Oireachtas Report" last night, I did not think it was good that Senator Bacik was heckled while she was trying to make a difficult point. The Daily Mail has embarked on a campaign to denounce people who are soft on drugs. As one who does not drink, smoke or...

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Dec 2007)

Eoghan Harris: I have done so for the past ten years. The taking of drugs like the taking of alcohol or any other substance is fundamentally a matter of individual choice. If people want to kill themselves, then the same numbers of people who kill themselves with alcohol will kill themselves with cocaine. What is causing the disruption, agony and the horror of society is the fact that drugs are illegal...

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Dec 2007)

Eoghan Harris: No one is being shot in the back of the head because of addiction to alcohol. The war against drugs has lasted the best part of a century in America. At the end of it, the addiction problem and the criminal problem is great. If we are to have a debate it should be open and free, with thinking the matter through to the bitter end. I honestly confess that much of the stuff about cocaine and...

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Dec 2007)

Eoghan Harris: I talked to the Minister of State before coming into the Chamber and told him how right he was to go to Bebo and Facebook and the areas where young people are engaging with young people. Young people think they are immortal, whether living in South Hill or taking drugs as teenagers. They do not think they are going to die. If one is to engage with them one cannot wag fingers at them from...

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Dec 2007)

Eoghan Harris: If they are getting satisfaction from PlayStation it is not beyond the wit of man to devise programmes that will meet the needs of young people in that sensory area. If we are to have a debate let us think the unthinkable in this debate. Let us think about whether the question of the criminalisation of drugs must be seriously addressed as part of the debate on drugs.

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Dec 2007)

Eoghan Harris: I join the call to have a debate on drugs with the Minister whom I commend on the calmness and lack of hysteria with which he has approached the tragic deaths of a number of young people. Discussion of this issue can easily turn hysterical and there is a danger of knee-jerk reactions. I choose my words deliberately and may not be popular on this side of the House for doing so. Ten years...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Dec 2007)

Eoghan Harris: They say that politics is a cruel trade, and I wish to pay tribute to a former Senator whose work touched on many of the issues raised this morning. I refer to former Senator John Minihan, one of the first people to draw attention to the fact that, by any objective standards, FARC is a fascist organisation.

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Dec 2007)

Eoghan Harris: Some of its remnants are deluded about this, but it is a drug-driven criminal organisation and an enemy of democracy. John Minihan was to the fore in making this clear because FARC was linked to the Provisional IRA's bomb-making technocrats and, in turn, to a journalist with stars in his or her eyes and journalists involved in the Daily Mail's despicable campaign against the Taoiseach. John...

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Dec 2007)

Eoghan Harris: I will obey the Cathaoirleach's injunction and not make a speech about the Mahon tribunal. However, the Cathaoirleach should be consistent in regard to procedures. In every single session, Senator Regan, in pursuit of a bubble reputation, has brought the Mahon tribunal into this forum. Every time anyone replies to him the Cathaoirleach says, quite rightly, that we should not be debating...

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Dec 2007)

Eoghan Harris: It is a drip-feed from the Mahon tribunal, which does not sit in some isolated place. It is drip-fed to the newspapers every day. It is a composite thing, a symbiosis of media and tribunals. It is like a marriage between the Spanish Inquisition and the News of the World. It is the "Daily Mahon". We are either going to discuss it in the Chamber or not. Senator Regan has been abusing the...

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Eoghan Harris: I would like Members to take a quiet moment to reflect on the principle of a bipartisan approach, which was referred to by the Minister last night. One of the most esteemed names in modern Irish politics is that of Alan Dukes because of the Tallaght strategy. Before that, in the 1920s, de Valera allowed the facts to bring him into a bipartisan policy. We also had such a policy throughout...

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Nov 2007)

Eoghan Harris: Although I left Marxism behind in 1989, I continue to believe strongly that there is a great deal of class discrimination in Ireland. Trade union leaders need to examine carefully the question of class. I strongly condemn the conduct of the current Dublin Bus dispute. The manner in which it is targeting working people is contrary to the best traditions of Irish trade unionism. The leader...

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Nov 2007)

Eoghan Harris: It is a badly conducted dispute from a trade union point of view. Senator Regan is trying to run the general election again every day when he sneaks in a reference to the Mahon tribunal. The public's feelings about the Taoiseach were made clear at the general election.

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Nov 2007)

Eoghan Harris: Even if that were not the case, it is a joke to ask the House to have confidence in all aspects of the Mahon tribunal. That Vincent Browne, who has been the scourge of the Taoiseach in recent times, does not have confidence in the Mahon tribunal is clear from his website and his articles. It is ridiculous to ask us to give blanket confidence to a tribunal that has leaked like a sieve.

Seanad: Order of Business. (7 Nov 2007)

Eoghan Harris: I appeal to the Cathaoirleach to exercise discretion because I wish to earn my salary by dissenting from the remarks made by almost all other Members regarding the health service. I do not support an amendment on a debate on cancer any more than I would support an amendment on a debate on, for example, the use of computers in fighting crime. What we need is an honest debate on the health...