Results 4,941-4,960 of 6,030 for speaker:Brendan Ryan

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: I would welcome a debate on regional development. All of these issues — the gradual closing by Teagasc of the smaller stations, the closing of rural post offices and the decline in so many areas — relate to regional infrastructural development. We have a problem in this country in that the major funding body, or determining body, will always say that certain things cannot be justified...

Seanad: Order of Business. (4 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: Am I that ineffective? I am not sure. Yesterday, ICTU and a number of voluntary organisations launched a sportswear campaign in an effort to get all the major sporting equipment multinationals to agree to a code of practice which would not involve child labour or the exploitation of labour in developing countries in the run up to the Olympics, when the market for such goods will be huge. I...

Seanad: Aer Lingus Bill 2003: Second Stage (Resumed). (3 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: Everyone in Ireland feels an emotional twinge about Aer Lingus in a way that was never true of Eircom. I am not sure why that is the case. Perhaps it is because Aer Lingus is the company we identify most with our achievement of a degree of modernisation or perhaps it is a symbol of our independence. I was born long after Aer Lingus was founded and I remember the return of its cancelled...

Seanad: Higher Education: Motion. (3 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: I am glad we are having this debate, however brief, because what is happening in higher education, particularly in the context of Senator Quinn's contribution, deserves more attention. I share his view that the Minister's attitude to the universities is destructive, negative, unhelpful and the antithesis of what one wishes to be the outcome of the review. One can wish for all the wonderful...

Seanad: Higher Education: Motion. (3 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Higher Education: Motion. (3 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Address by Mr. John Hume, MEP. (3 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: Everybody has memories of when they first met John Hume. As his colleague in the Party of European Socialists, he is particularly welcome from the perspective of the Labour Party. It is difficult to follow what has already been said. The issue about which John Hume spoke today and which strikes me most as still so relevant is that we know his extraordinary commitment against violence. What...

Seanad: Order of Business. (3 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: I do not wish to repeat what my two colleagues said, except to make one further point. One of the reasons there is such controversy is precisely the point some people use for arguing in favour of electronic voting. We have an incredible level of computer software expertise in this country. It is from some of that computer software expertise that most of the questions arise and most of the...

Seanad: Order of Business. (3 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: Senator Norris can verify many things, but software is not one with which I was familiar.

Seanad: Order of Business. (3 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: We could resolve this issue. I have spent a good deal time saying I did not think there was a sinister motivation behind this move. However, the more this obdurate determination to ignore everybody else goes on, the more I am forced to change my mind because I cannot see any reason for the way things are being done other than the desire to cover something up. The Government announced a...

Seanad: Order of Business. (3 Mar 2004)

Brendan Ryan: We had a little controversy here some weeks ago and I want to make something clear. If the Leader, as she does with considerable courtesy, advises me in advance that she intends to move an amendment to the Order of Business — I appreciate the courtesy — I still expect a motion to be put to the House to that effect when an amended Order of Business is introduced. If a motion is to be taken...

Seanad: Civil Registration Bill 2003: Motion for Earlier Signature. (25 Feb 2004)

Brendan Ryan: We are entitled to know why there is such urgency with the Civil Registration Bill.

Seanad: Civil Registration Bill 2003: Motion for Earlier Signature. (25 Feb 2004)

Brendan Ryan: The Cabinet has nothing to do with Seanad Éireann.

Seanad: Civil Registration Bill 2003: Motion for Earlier Signature. (25 Feb 2004)

Brendan Ryan: Before the question is put, this House must agree to an amendment to the Order of Business.

Seanad: Dormant Accounts: Motion. (25 Feb 2004)

Brendan Ryan: I second the motion. I thank Fine Gael for asking my party to support this motion which it does enthusiastically. Fine Gael and the Labour Party do not agree about everything and sometimes we disagree quite strongly, but it appears we have an instinctive sense of what is decent in politics that the biggest party in the State has lost. We would make mistakes if we were in Government; we would...

Seanad: Dormant Accounts: Motion. (25 Feb 2004)

Brendan Ryan: Making itself accountable for how it gives out money is what it does not like doing. The evidence is there in the amendment tabled by Senator O'Rourke. I would love to see a PD name on this amendment but there is none. This is among one of the most fatuous amendments I have read from the Government side. The last line of the amendment states: "That Seanad Éireann notes the commitment to...

Seanad: Dormant Accounts: Motion. (25 Feb 2004)

Brendan Ryan: There are two Bills to pass through this House in the next six months. The first is for electronic voting and the second is for this Fianna Fáil slush fund. The Opposition will fight every comma of these Bills. Together they epitomise what is wrong with Fianna Fáil and its majority Government which is oblivious to what anybody else thinks. Fianna Fáil believes it owns the electoral system,...

Seanad: Dormant Accounts: Motion. (25 Feb 2004)

Brendan Ryan: The prospect of losing power, and the patronage that goes with it, is the only influence on Fianna Fáil. If it is afraid that inept and sleazy disbursement of other people's money will bounce back and reverberate, then it might change its mind. However, Fianna Fáil now knows its situation is so desperate. Up to 65% of the population has copped on to it and decided whoever its votes for the...

Seanad: Dormant Accounts: Motion. (25 Feb 2004)

Brendan Ryan: It was the same a year ago.

Seanad: Dormant Accounts: Motion. (25 Feb 2004)

Brendan Ryan: By ten degrees or 90 degrees?