Results 4,901-4,920 of 6,030 for speaker:Brendan Ryan

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Second Stage. (23 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: The smoked salmon remark was funny 25 years ago. Nowadays it is beginning to bore everyone. The Fianna Fáil party should move on.

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Second Stage. (23 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: Smoked salmon is a little dated. If the men in this Chamber did their own shopping, they would know that smoked salmon is far from the most expensive commodity. The real problem is that most of the men on the other side of this Chamber would not recognise smoked salmon in a supermarket because they remain traditional men, who believe shopping is women's work. They do not know what is going on...

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Second Stage. (23 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: The rhetoric I listened to about child poverty showed an oblivion to the standard way in which it is measured. The Minister might tell me if we have opted out of that. If she accepts the universal index of child poverty used in Europe, Ireland lies towards the bottom of the list. We have remained there as we got rich. Moreover, our expenditure on social protection dropped as we got rich....

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Second Stage. (23 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: As the Cathaoirleach can see, I would enjoy entertaining the people opposite.

Seanad: Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Second Stage. (23 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: Those opposite appear to be deriving entertainment from it. The increased benefits such as those for the old age pension and child benefit are very welcome. The tragedy is that up to now, huge gaps were left in our system of social protection and the Government made the gaps wider this year. It did not abandon certain people which it had looked after over the past six years, but various...

Seanad: Order of Business. (23 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: The idea that the second richest country in the world would descend into controversy over the fact that a Government exists which thinks it is all right to take money away from widows is a commentary on the quality of this country and the values that ten years of this Government have given it. This is so unthinkable——

Seanad: Order of Business. (23 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: We need a debate about the fundamental values of this country.

Seanad: Order of Business. (23 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: This is not about social welfare. The social welfare changes are a symptom of the collapse of the values of solidarity that the Fianna Fáil in which I grew up, stood for and spent most of my childhood and early adult life struggling to create has now torn apart by insulting the widows by telling them they are an anomaly. The widows of Ireland are victims of cruel injustice in their lives,...

Seanad: Order of Business. (23 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: The issue is not just that element, but what has happened to what used to be fundamental values here. We can subsidise stallions while we impoverish widows. It is common——

Seanad: Order of Business. (23 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: Social welfare is not the issue here, but the values for which we stand.

Seanad: Order of Business. (23 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: With all due respect, Fianna Fáil would love to squeeze this into a social welfare box.

Seanad: Order of Business. (23 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: This is not a social welfare issue. This is about what we stand for.

Seanad: Order of Business. (23 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: It is about Government values.

Seanad: Order of Business. (23 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: On values, I reiterate what Senator O'Toole said. Something horrible and brutal happened yesterday and, as he said very eloquently, it will be an icon for the future. We need to take a leadership role in this regard, to have the international democratic community say that any society which claims to be democratic but reserves to itself the right to execute anybody it does not like is no...

Seanad: Order of Business. (23 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business. (11 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: No.

Seanad: Order of Business. (11 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: The Leader will be accused either way.

Seanad: Order of Business. (11 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: The Labour Party fully supports the views of our colleagues on the appalling atrocity in Spain. While I do not want to push the Cathaoirleach's indulgence, we should invite a party, with Members in the Oireachtas, to clarify whether it still invites honorary guests from the political wing of ETA to its Ard-Fheiseanna.

Seanad: Order of Business. (11 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: Recently I had the misfortune to hear an Oireachtas Member attempting to justify on the radio the assassination of a 79 year old man, who happened to be part of the British aristocracy, while on holidays in Sligo some years ago. While I am normally fairly well able to handle such comments, it was among the most repulsive things I have heard from an Oireachtas Member. On this matter I am in...

Seanad: Order of Business. (11 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: The Government proposes to hold a referendum on citizenship. On 17 February the Taoiseach told my party leader that the Government had no proposal to hold a referendum to change the Constitution in this regard. On 20 April 1998 he informed my then party leader that no legislation would be proposed by the Government to the Oireachtas, which imposes restrictions on the entitlement to Irish...