Results 4,321-4,340 of 4,414 for speaker:Sean Barrett

Seanad: Investment in Science, Technology and Innovation: Statements (11 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: Absolutely not.

Seanad: Investment in Science, Technology and Innovation: Statements (11 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of State and recall having a great debate with him in Fermoy several years ago on the future of the economy. I am sceptical about virtually everything the Minister of State said. I wish he had not taken on baord the policies of the previous Government. An awful lot of money has been wasted in this area since 1998. It is unsuccessful in employment terms. This June,...

Seanad: Investment in Science, Technology and Innovation: Statements (11 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: -----and the Minister of State's Department should do that along with the Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. If we are to get the public finances back in order, this is an area in which we must question much of what happened over the past decade. I refer briefly to the recent university rankings. Did the quality of lecturing go down? Did the quality...

Seanad: Investment in Science, Technology and Innovation: Statements (11 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: I apologise for taking some of the Minister of State's time. I got carried away.

Seanad: Statements on Finance (6 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister and assure him of my support in the vital task he is undertaking. It is essential that we restore the country's finances to order. Senator O'Keeffe referred to the Minister, Deputy Noonan, and his colleagues, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, and the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Brian Hayes, as the Celtic troika....

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: With regard to the metro north question raised by my friend, Senator O'Brien, there have always been serious difficulties with the lack of economic appraisal of that project. I did a "Prime Time" programme with Miriam O'Callaghan and the former Minister, Eamon Ryan, and we found most of the documents in the economic appraisal were Tippexed out. It is regrettable that the engineers went...

Seanad: Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Statements, Questions and Answers (5 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister and it is always interesting to hear his views. I welcome the mention in his speech of auctioning of the broadcasting spectrum. Auctions are important beauty contests which lead to massive legal costs afterwards because those judged to be not beautiful enough tend to have large numbers of lawyers. A straight auction properly organised by the Department, with the...

Seanad: Presidential Elections: Motion (Resumed) (5 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the imminent constitutional convention. It is gratifying to see the extent of the restoration of democracy at Stormont. During a recent visit there, I listened to the Minister for Education, Mr. John O'Dowd, answering questions in the Chamber. It recalled for me the hope expressed by George Mitchell that he would one day bring his son to the Visitors Gallery in Stormont and hear...

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: Arising from the report today from the Royal Irish Academy on the lack of foreign languages here - apparently, apart from Scotland we are the most single language country in the world - and our failure to join the European Union linguistically when committing to it in 1973, will the Leader take up this issue with the Minister for Education and Skills? I gather that the proposals to have...

Seanad: Sport: Statements (4 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: I welcome the Minister of State and his enthusiasm. How can one stand up in this Chamber and follow a speech by someone like Eamonn Coghlan?

Seanad: Sport: Statements (4 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: We fancy ourselves as being very good at the horse sector but is it badly organised? Are we getting value for the taxpayers' money which the Minister is in charge of assessing how well it is spent.

Seanad: Sport: Statements (4 Oct 2011)

Sean Barrett: Could high performance athletes be encouraged to do school visits as a quid pro quo for their awards?

Seanad: Road Traffic (No. 2) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (29 Sep 2011)

Sean Barrett: I join the Members of the House in thanking the Minister. This is a major issue. In the period prior to our being given the number of road deaths, I believe 600 people used to be killed on our roads in the decade before that. It is a success story to reduce the number of road deaths below 200. That is an achievement by everybody concerned. As Senator O'Sullivan said, there were lobbies...

Seanad: Road Traffic (No. 2) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (29 Sep 2011)

Sean Barrett: I believe the solution is to withdraw the amendment and substitute "N", with N being a number greater than two or less than ten. I am sure the Minister will find the correct number that satisfies us. One of the functions of this House is to establish the rationale behind the ten-day rule in the first place, which has been useful. The case for two days would be that Senator Heffernan...

Seanad: Road Traffic (No. 2) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (29 Sep 2011)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 3: In page 6, line 14, after "unauthorised" to insert "and reported to An Garda Síochána". This amendment deals with the defence that a person's car was stolen at the time or taken without permission. I am trying to give protection to the Minister and society at large that if a person wanted to use that defence it would help if he or she informed the Garda rather than...

Seanad: Road Traffic (No. 2) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (29 Sep 2011)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Minister and Members on the other side of the House for their consideration of my amendment. Reasonableness applies and Senators have pointed to the circumstances that would apply. My fear is that this provision will be used as an excuse, but I can see how difficult it is to nail down those whom we want to nail down.

Seanad: Order of Business (29 Sep 2011)

Sean Barrett: I compliment Senator Michael Mullins on the power of his oratory yesterday. He called for a reduction in air travel tax and the Government in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland responded immediately by cutting the tax on flights between Belfast and New York. We worry sometimes that the proceedings in this House get no coverage but they are obviously listened to avidly in Westminster...

Seanad: Road Traffic (No. 2) Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (29 Sep 2011)

Sean Barrett: I move amendment No. 1: In page 3, line 26, to delete "10" and substitute "2". I welcome the Minister back to the House. The amendment refers to the interval within which one has to present one's driving licence to the Garda. We discussed the issue briefly on Tuesday with the Minister and he was interested in the proposition. I asked some senior counsel about it and they told me it was...

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Sep 2011)

Sean Barrett: I express my support for the Minister of State, Deputy Penrose, on the NAMA matter that has been raised by Senators Keane and Paul Coghlan. The last thing this country needs is for a State agency to start pumping up house prices, while suggesting there will be a few euro in it for the Department of Finance in the form of VAT receipts. That is what got us into this mess and one should note...

Seanad: Road Traffic (No. 2) Bill 2011: Second Stage (27 Sep 2011)

Sean Barrett: I forgot to mention that there are 450,000 people on provisional licences as against 2 million full licences. Does that not suggest that drivers spend an inordinate amount of time on a provisional licence? One would expect a person to be on a provisional licence for a year and then drive on a full licence for 30 years. Perhaps we might discuss that on Thursday. I forgot to alert the...