Results 4,241-4,260 of 4,414 for speaker:Sean Barrett

Seanad: Fiscal Responsibility (Statement) Bill 2011: Order for Second Stage (14 Dec 2011)

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

Seanad: Fiscal Responsibility (Statement) Bill 2011: Second Stage (14 Dec 2011)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of State to the House, as always. On 25 May last, this Seanad convened for the first time and we were then concerned about the implications of the IMF having to rescue us about this time last year, as well as the need to change the way in which governance operated in this country. It was obviously unsustainable to have to be bailed out by the IMF and to have the troika...

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Dec 2011)

Sean Barrett: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Fiscal Responsibility (Statement) Bill 2011: Second Stage (14 Dec 2011)

Sean Barrett: Is the time allocation——

Seanad: Fiscal Responsibility (Statement) Bill 2011: Second Stage (14 Dec 2011)

Sean Barrett: I thank all ten Senators who contributed. I also welcome the Minister of State. He heard a wonderful debate this afternoon and we have them quite regularly. I hope he will communicate to anybody in authority who might ask him that the Seanad is a wonderful and most meaningful place where all sorts of ideas——

Seanad: Fiscal Responsibility (Statement) Bill 2011: Second Stage (14 Dec 2011)

Sean Barrett: ——are thrashed out.

Seanad: Fiscal Responsibility (Statement) Bill 2011: Second Stage (14 Dec 2011)

Sean Barrett: We put on a special performance for the Minister of State this afternoon. I thank all my colleagues for their comments. Some of the compliments were fulsome. They reminded me of something Dr. McDowell of TCD said when he attended a funeral and listened to the eulogy. He said: "I must be at the wrong funeral because I knew the diseased". The Fiscal Advisory Council already has a Barrett...

Seanad: Fiscal Responsibility (Statement) Bill 2011: Second Stage (14 Dec 2011)

Sean Barrett: I propose to adjourn the debate in the circumstances that have been mentioned. I gather that the Bill will stay on the Order Paper and that we shall return to this topic in the spring.

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Dec 2011)

Sean Barrett: Yesterday the integrated ticketing system, Leap, was launched in Dublin at a cost of €55.5 million. In 2002 it was estimated the scheme would cost £24.9 million. This represents a cost overrun of 77% on the project. I ask the Leader to take up the issue of cost overruns on public projects with the Ministers for Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and Transport, Tourism and Sport and...

Seanad: Health Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Dec 2011)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 1: In page 5, to delete line 15, and substitute the following: "the Central Bank of Ireland, require the Central Bank of Ireland to prepare any report". I thank the Minister of State. I dislike the extension for a year and I have discussed it with four or five Ministers, and in a much more heated way than this morning. We have had plenty of notice of when we were to...

Seanad: Health Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Dec 2011)

Sean Barrett: I intend to withdraw amendment No. 1. With regard to desired reform, the 12-month period ought to be the outer limit. We need something other than the incumbents determining policy and making assumptions about their potential and actual competitors. Cases have been taken in the courts at a vast cost to the taxpayer. Many of the arguments have not stood up. While people may have been...

Seanad: Health Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Dec 2011)

Sean Barrett: I was suggesting that the Milliman report be circulated to the Senators who debated this point with the Minister of State.

Seanad: Health Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (8 Dec 2011)

Sean Barrett: The Long Title was part of the controversy in the Supreme Court on 16 July 2008. It is going too far to say it makes provision for specific matters. That would be to accord a Long Title the unprecedented status of constituting a substantive provision. The Bill does not do what is stated in the Long Title and that is what the Chief Justice pointed out on 16 July 2008.

Seanad: Health Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of State. As always, it is a pleasure to debate matters with her. If I may take up some of the points she made in her speech, while she used the phrase "all political parties and most academics" on page 3 of her speech, we have never agreed with this policy and I will explain the reasons for that presently. The Minister of State said: "I have heard it said that a...

Seanad: Health Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Sean Barrett: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (8 Dec 2011)

Sean Barrett: Senators will have noted that one Irish bank pays its executive on the basis of a 13 month year. The sector has difficulties with counting, as we have seen. I ask the Leader to request the Minister for Finance to inform the bank that we have been working on a 12 month year for a couple of millennia now and, more seriously, that none of the €2.4 billion we put into the bankrupt bank is to...

Seanad: Budget 2012: Statements (6 Dec 2011)

Sean Barrett: I echo what other Senators have been saying, namely, this is a difficult time. The table on page D.18 of the documentation attached to the Minister for Finance's presentation in the Dáil this afternoon shows that tax revenue will rise from €34 billion in 2011 to €43 billion in 2015. This amounts to €9 billion over the five-year period. As Senator Gilroy said, these burdens will come...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Dec 2011)

Sean Barrett: I would like the Leader to congratulate Dublin City Council on the decision it made last night. I particularly congratulate the residents of Clontarf on their success in preserving the amenities there. It is important to emphasise that politics does work from time to time. All three local Deputies, who represent different parties, supported the skilled campaign that was organised by the...

Seanad: Credit Institutions (Eligible Liabilities Guarantee) (Amendment) Scheme 2011: Motion (1 Dec 2011)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of State to the House. Every day realises the damage that banks have done to this country. In one sense, they have achieved political unanimity in the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform under the chairmanship of Deputy Alex White. Every member of the committee, from Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett to this Barrett, agrees that the banks do not...

Seanad: Order of Business (1 Dec 2011)

Sean Barrett: I agree with Senator Feargal Quinn that there should have been a more thorough approach adopted to the discussions on the budget. However, I accept the Leader's statement that this will happen next year. Some €12 billion in tax forgone, as estimated by Dr. Michael Collins of TCD, is taken out of the Exchequer each year, but these items have not been discussed. While other target items...