Results 4,401-4,420 of 6,030 for speaker:Brendan Ryan

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

Brendan Ryan: I am about to finish.

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

Brendan Ryan: It was one minute ago.

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

Brendan Ryan: I compliment the Government on its actions following the tsunami. The same values could motivate its attitude to ODA and the country would be much the better for it.

Seanad: Order of Business. (2 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: I agree with my colleagues on the urgent need for a debate on privacy. The Houses of the Oireachtas need to send out a very clear statement that if the media cannot regulate themselves to defend people's privacy then somebody else may have to do it for them. While it is not a route I would wish to take, if the power of the media is on one side and the vulnerability of individuals is on the...

Seanad: Order of Business. (2 Feb 2005)

Brendan Ryan: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business. (27 Jan 2005)

Brendan Ryan: I accept fully that we must all be careful about what we say. However, for ten minutes or so in the Dáil yesterday, every democrat in the Oireachtas — I believe that represents all of us bar five — was firmly behind the Taoiseach. Let me say unequivocally that there is no comparison between someone who fiddles their taxes or takes bribes and someone who conspires to shoot in the back of...

Seanad: Order of Business. (27 Jan 2005)

Brendan Ryan: I am as good as anyone in this House at making comments about the misbehaviour of former Members of the Oireachtas, but there is an infinite gap between these two offences. Let there be no equivocation that what the Taoiseach said yesterday was said on behalf of all of us. Politicians are often further ahead than people realise. It is time the organs of the media began to realise what has...

Seanad: Death of Former Member: Expressions of Sympathy. (27 Jan 2005)

Brendan Ryan: I cannot help thinking that if Eileen was here she would blush because although everything that was said about her this morning is true, she would not thank one for saying it like that. In thinking of her the word that springs to mind is "courageous" and it has already been used to describe her. We referred to courage in the political context but she was also extraordinarily courageous...

Seanad: Sugar Beet Industry: Motion. (26 Jan 2005)

Brendan Ryan: Everybody with a heart and a sense of compassion and justice will be concerned about the workforce of the Carlow sugar factory, which is located only 12 miles from my home town. It was recognised as a serious, secure but difficult employment for full-time workers and people travelled in significant numbers during my childhood from Athy to work in the factory. The sugar company was a...

Seanad: Order of Business. (26 Jan 2005)

Brendan Ryan: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business. (26 Jan 2005)

Brendan Ryan: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business. (26 Jan 2005)

Brendan Ryan: It is some 12 or 15 years since I was suspended from the House for describing a particular individual as a disgrace. Now that he is locked up in Arbour Hill, I presume I can safely say he is a disgrace without the threat of sanction. I am happy to be able to say it. I hope the appalling tragedy in the Indian Ocean and south-east Asia has opened our eyes to the question of interdependency in...

Seanad: Order of Business. (16 Dec 2004)

Brendan Ryan: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business. (16 Dec 2004)

Brendan Ryan: While Senator O'Toole has a point, a fundamental of effective democracy is that people take responsibility for what is done in their names. The former British Home Secretary, Mr. Blunkett, stated: "[Any] perception of this application being speeded up requires me to take responsibility." Whether that responsibility should have extended to resignation is a separate issue. While I do not wish...

Seanad: Order of Business. (16 Dec 2004)

Brendan Ryan: I am not speaking on the issue but on the way the Government does business, which is by postponing and avoiding responsibility. That is not the way to run Government. The European Union will today decide — I gather the decision will be positive — whether to open negotiations with Turkey to join the EU. It is an extremely significant day. One of the ideas that has always floated is that...

Seanad: Northern Ireland Peace Process: Motion. (15 Dec 2004)

Brendan Ryan: That brought about the major change in climate and in saying that I am not belittling the contributions of others. As a party colleague and a friend of Dick Spring, it would be remiss of me, however, not to say it. I have always been in a peculiar position about the North in that I spoke sympathetically about Sinn Féin and its supporters when no one else did, at least publicly; I know of the...

Seanad: Northern Ireland Peace Process: Motion. (15 Dec 2004)

Brendan Ryan: I have a good story about that, which I will share with the Senator privately. Senior Sinn Féin figures use a certain type of language when speaking about the minority Government party. If any of the rest of us used such language when talking about Sinn Féin, its members would be in front of the television cameras using the classic old phrase "hit me now, with the peace process in my arms",...

Seanad: Northern Ireland Peace Process: Motion. (15 Dec 2004)

Brendan Ryan: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Northern Ireland Peace Process: Motion. (15 Dec 2004)

Brendan Ryan: I am glad the Taoiseach came into the House. I will not bother with one detail of last week's business, with which I had a presentational difficulty, it is an issue for another day and a different debate. There are far more fundamental issues at stake. I will be partisan and mention Mr. Dick Spring for his considerable contribution, together with Mr. Albert Reynolds, to bringing about the...

Seanad: Order of Business. (15 Dec 2004)

Brendan Ryan: I have been very reasonable. The Leader can tell me I am mistaken, but she cannot tell me I know that what I have said is not true. With all due respect, I do not know that it is not true. I do not want to be pushed into saying something to the Leader this week that both of us will regret at a later stage.