Results 4,381-4,400 of 6,030 for speaker:Brendan Ryan

Seanad: Overseas Development Aid: Motion. (9 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: I accept that but the quotes of a number of others, including——

Seanad: Overseas Development Aid: Motion. (9 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: I was very restrained with the Minister of State. I feel threatened by him and ask the Acting Chairman to please restrain him. I am fascinated by the Government's decision to measure our generosity against the meanness of the world rather than against the instincts of our people, which we have witnessed. As I said in the House when we were debating the tsunami, for the United States as a...

Seanad: Overseas Development Aid: Motion. (9 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: It is claimed that the development movement is not giving value for money. Everyone knows that the development movement, through multilateral organisations, has been very poor. However, vast numbers of people working in development could use four times the amount of money they have and give us an enormous multiple effect in terms of development. It would help this debate enormously if we...

Seanad: Overseas Development Aid: Motion. (9 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: I wish to formally second the motion now and to make my contribution later.

Seanad: Privacy and Defamation: Statements. (9 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: My view on the libel laws is that the basic intent is no problem; the problem is the cumbersome nature of the process of redress. Some people sue looking for enormous damages but most people who sue do so to seek redress. The media could work with the State to put together a process of inexpensive redress and therefore at least ensure that people were vindicated without the necessity for...

Seanad: Privacy and Defamation: Statements. (9 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: I encourage them to do so within the limits within which the Minister and I agree, about which the journalists would not have much to say. It is perfectly acceptable for the media to be very critical of politics but it is a bit rich for us to be accused of undermining democracy when we criticise the media because that is not the case — we are actually strengthening it. It is extremely...

Seanad: Privacy and Defamation: Statements. (9 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: The Minister's speech was thoughtful, reflective and challenging. I will have to stop saying that as I keep saying it about his speeches. I am beginning to wonder about one of us. Nevertheless, it is a fact. I write a weekly column for a newspaper in Cork. It is a newspaper that has been sued and therefore our editor is as sensitive as anybody else to some of the things I say here. He might...

Seanad: Privacy and Defamation: Statements. (9 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: No doubt the Minister is well briefed on the contents of An Phoblacht. I do not buy it but the Minister probably gets it for free.

Seanad: Privacy and Defamation: Statements. (9 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: The Minister could do a good job in that regard.

Seanad: Order of Business. (9 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: I am sorry I was not here yesterday to say that I fully share the views so well expressed again this morning by Senator O'Toole. I add one comment. Great satirical writing that lasts is, inevitably, writing that is a challenge to the powerful. What makes it great writing is that it is well written and challenges the established and powerful. To write well to challenge the least powerful and...

Seanad: Order of Business. (9 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: It has been overwhelmed gradually by rubbish which is now being diligently collected by the city council which then employs people to search through it to find some address so that it can prosecute somebody. Given that local authorities have managed not to notice hundreds of thousands of tonnes of material being dumped illegally, the diligence is, perhaps, admirable. However, the current...

Seanad: Order of Business. (9 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: I want a debate on the issue of domestic waste and, incidentally, the role of Repak in that regard. I have significant questions to ask about Repak.

Seanad: Order of Business. (3 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: I join my colleague, Senator O'Toole, in his expression of good wishes to Senator Quinn. As regards Senator Quinn's poll-topping, I would not mind a little redistribution. While Senator O'Toole is correct that restraint is necessary, it is difficult. It must be clearly stated by all of those who accept there is only one way to pursue politics that no one is doing us a favour by maintaining a...

Seanad: Death of Former Member: Expressions of Sympathy. (3 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: Listening to the Leader I am reminded of the notion in chaos theory that a butterfly in the Amazonian jungle can change the weather here. It is clear that a single No. 1 vote, cast in 1981, had a fairly profound subsequent effect on Irish politics. We can all make an impact and Gordon Lambert had a huge impact. I have a passing interest in and enjoy modern art. I believe his contribution in...

Seanad: Death of Former Member: Expressions of Sympathy. (3 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: We must restrain ourselves.

Seanad: Northern Ireland Issues: Motion. (2 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: I do not often agree with the Progressive Democrats Party — politics would be the poorer if I did. During the past 25 years, when I have been in and around the House, I have in many cases taken a quite different view about the best way to move us away from the apparently perpetual middle level violence that had become almost endemic in this country until the beginning of the 1990s. Many...

Seanad: Northern Ireland Issues: Motion. (2 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: I do not know of any monarchists or other groups here. Therefore, we are all republicans — an honourable term with an honourable history. I do not propose to hand it over any more than I was ever prepared to hand over a monopoly claim to socialism to those who destroyed human rights all over eastern Europe. In those days I believed that the republican movement, as it called itself, and...

Seanad: Tsunami Disaster: Statements. (2 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Tsunami Disaster: Statements. (2 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: We have never received such a salutary and visible reminder that we are guests on this planet as that provided by the tsunami. It demonstrated too that our belief that science and technology can control the forces of nature is an illusion. We survive on this planet because the temperature fluctuates between limits which can support life, and because of other delicate balances. The positive...

Seanad: Tsunami Disaster: Statements. (2 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: As long as we do not meet that threshold, we will have room to manoeuvre. When we meet it, the Department will be stuck with a percentage. The fundamental problem is and has been the Department of Finance. It is a huge tragedy that despite the popular and political goodwill witnessed repeatedly in this country, the Government betrayed the target. This is despite the fact that the Government...