Results 481-500 of 3,356 for speaker:Feargal Quinn

Seanad: Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Second Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Feargal Quinn: I welcome the Minister. It is good to see him again. To have a cousin in the Cabinet gives me a certain amount of confidence, although I do not necessarily get to use it on that basis. Last week, my 22-year-old granddaughter graduated from Shanghai University and last Thursday, she spoke to the 600 graduates at her masters ceremony. I am rather pleased that Irish and European students -...

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Second Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Feargal Quinn: I appreciate the Minister's attention to this issue and the amount of work she has put into it. Well done to her and I wish her every success. Senator Bradford's comment on the need to have a senior Cabinet Minister with responsibility for housing makes a great deal of sense. Senator Healy Eames supported that as well. There has been much talk about using National Asset Management Agency,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Business Growth and Job Creation in Town and Village Centres: (Resumed) ISME and New Generation Development (1 Jul 2014)

Feargal Quinn: I welcome Mr. Fielding. We know about the problems as we have heard about them before. It is interesting to hear his expression of confidence and belief that it is possible to get somewhere. Having confidence is so important. I have said before that there is far too much acceptance of the belief the Government, the council and somebody else should be doing something. I was in a...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Second Stage (26 Jun 2014)

Feargal Quinn: The Minister is very welcome. This is a very interesting Bill. I found it very interesting to hear the Minister's words about An Post, which seems to have taken more attention than anything else among the speakers here. I was involved in An Post for the first ten years of its life and like everybody else I have a good feeling about it. However, I want to ensure we are getting good...

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Jun 2014)

Feargal Quinn: The words of the Irish Kidney Association bring to mind the problem of kidney transplants and the real difficulty we have south of the Border. Apparently, north of the Border, Belfast City Hospital has solved this problem and could help us out. To what extent, are we availing of this opportunity to ensure kidney transplants take place? There is a long waiting list in the South but...

Seanad: Health Insurance (Reform) Bill 2014: Second Stage (25 Jun 2014)

Feargal Quinn: I appreciate the Minister's presence, the effort he made and his consideration. However, I do not appreciate some of what he said. In his speech he indicated that he had urged all the private health insurers to do everything possible to keep down the cost of private health insurance. To me, that sounds a little like the Minister for transport saying 20 years ago that he had urged all the...

Seanad: Health Insurance (Reform) Bill 2014: Second Stage (25 Jun 2014)

Feargal Quinn: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I welcome the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, to the House. We are getting to know him here as he comes in on a regular basis. I hope he will welcome the Bill. I produced this Bill to address concerns which I have had for some time about certain aspects of the health insurance sector in Ireland. There are features within the...

Seanad: Death of Former Member: Expressions of Sympathy (25 Jun 2014)

Feargal Quinn: I, too, welcome Elaine, Marion and Angela to the House. I regard today as a celebration of Sam McAughtry's life. I was a Senator at the same time as Sam and I remember well the first time I met him. Looking at a photograph of Sam published in a newspaper the other day, his smile stands out. He had a great, big smile which seemed to be there all the time. I got to know him very well and I...

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Jun 2014)

Feargal Quinn: My attention was drawn to the fact that rates on sporting clubs do not take into account that a very large amount of sporting clubs' space is not used as it has been rated. One particular club contacted me. Its bar only opens for two days or two and a half days at the most, but the club's rates are based on the total premises, including changing rooms and other facilities. We should have a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Business Growth and Job Creation in Town and Village Centres: (Resumed) Chambers Ireland and RGDATA (24 Jun 2014)

Feargal Quinn: I congratulate the delegation on their stories, it reminded me so much of myself, 50 years ago, going into Dundalk. Some of the problems are the same but some are new. Perhaps the delegation can tell us things that we can do. Perhaps it would outline the position on parking levies, as I am not up to date on them, and on Joint Labour Committee, JLC, wage structures. I had understood this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Business Growth and Job Creation in Town and Village Centres: (Resumed) Chambers Ireland and RGDATA (24 Jun 2014)

Feargal Quinn: I thank the speakers. They were very interesting and covered a wide range of issues. They did not touch on upward only rent reviews. I know that 13 trade associations got together recently to call on the Government to pass that legislation which has already gone through the Seanad. What is the witnesses’ view of it? Do they support the move to abolish it? I have a problem with...

Seanad: Address to Seanad Éireann by Ms Catherine McGuinness (19 Jun 2014)

Feargal Quinn: Judge McGuinness is very welcome, and particularly so because of the words that she used today and the opportunity that she has given us to speak about this topic. It gave me the opportunity to look through - I would not say study - the Report Card of the Children's Rights Alliance. I congratulate Senator Jillian van Turnhout and Tanya Ward on the work done. I have been in this House for...

Seanad: Health Insurance (Reform) Bill 2014: First Stage (19 Jun 2014)

Feargal Quinn: I move: That leave the granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to reform the regulation of the health insurance sector and for that purpose to vest responsibility for the management of the State’s ownership of VHI in the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform; to provide for the regularisation of VHI's regulatory status; to dissolve the Health Insurance Authority and to confer...

Seanad: Health Insurance (Reform) Bill 2014: First Stage (19 Jun 2014)

Feargal Quinn: Next Tuesday.

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Jun 2014)

Feargal Quinn: I propose an amendment to the Order of Business that No. 13 be taken before No. 1 today. I urge the Leader to accept this proposal. During the week the Central Bank warned customers that there was no regulation in Ireland or elsewhere in Europe of crowd funding. Crowd funding is a wonderful idea and those involved are happy to see regulations, but there is no urgency because the small...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Jun 2014)

Feargal Quinn: The House has heard me speak on the length of time it takes to get something done by the Government. Four years and one month ago, the Construction Contracts Bill was introduced in the Seanad. It became law last year but has not been implemented yet. I mention this because I received a letter from Australia from someone who was wondering what was keeping it. The person takes an interest...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Jun 2014)

Feargal Quinn: People have been crying out for it for three years and I received nothing but praise for introducing it, but in recent weeks I have been asked about what has happened to it. People are suffering and going out of business because the Act has not been implemented. I read an interesting article during the week by a former adviser to Mr. Tony Blair. He believed that the National Health Service,...

Seanad: Companies Bill 2012: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2014)

Feargal Quinn: I thank the Minister of State for his response. It was the term "bound book" that got me because I thought it sounded like something from Dickens or whomever. I was also struck by how cloud computing is so big. This morning I dropped into the Springboard demonstration or launch taking place at Customs House Quay. It was amazing to witness hundreds of attendees meeting organisations and...

Seanad: Companies Bill 2012: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2014)

Feargal Quinn: I move amendment No. 63: In page 275, to delete lines 23 to 27.Section 282(2) has the potential to be very confusing for businesses. Senator Reilly referred to red tape and bureaucracy and I am aware that the Minister of State has a campaign to avoid these. The section states: "if those records are not kept by making entries in a bound book [I have never heard that term before] but by some...

Seanad: Companies Bill 2012: Committee Stage (17 Jun 2014)

Feargal Quinn: I will raise it again on Report Stage.