Results 5,081-5,100 of 5,752 for speaker:Gerard Craughwell

Seanad: Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Report and Final Stages (21 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: On a point of order, this is not about the €100 grant; it is about the database.

Seanad: Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Report and Final Stages (21 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: Another amendment to the Bill.

Seanad: Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Report and Final Stages (21 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I am baffled by what I have heard from the Minister of State and Government Senators. I have some expertise in database systems, having taught the subject for the best part of 20 years. Perhaps I might respond to Senator Cáit Keane's offer to take me outside later but not now. She spoke about insulation grants. Is it not the case if I seek such a grant that I must demonstrate that...

Seanad: Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Report and Final Stages (21 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: If Senators do not mind-----

Seanad: Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Report and Final Stages (21 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I asked what the database is for. If all the Government wants to do is to pay the €100 grant, all it needs to know is the name and address of the person and whether it is the person's principal private residence. That is all the Government needs to know - nothing else. What is all this other stuff for? Why is the Government looking for this information? Now the Minister of State...

Seanad: Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Report and Final Stages (21 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: Regrettably, yes.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: Well done.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I wish to ask the Leader if he could check a matter with the Minister for Justice and Equality. I read a most disturbing account of what took place in Trim court last Friday. I know I cannot name names here and will not do so. Apparently, a member of the public was taken from that court on the instructions of the judge with respect to some query about contempt of court. The man was...

Seanad: Houses of the Oireachtas (Appointments to Certain Offices) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (20 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I cannot believe we are still going down this route. What if we were to legislate to allow a person to serve only once in their life as a Minister? How would that sit with us? It would not sit too well. We are talking about people here. Look at the officials who support the Oireachtas. They work here all the hours God gives. They are here for as long as we are here, they are available...

Seanad: Houses of the Oireachtas (Appointments to Certain Offices) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (20 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I am concerned about what will happen in the case of someone who has been serving as a Clerk Assistant of the Seanad or the Dáil, but whose contract is not renewed at the end of the time period that is being imposed in this legislation for some reason or other. Will that person's career be over? Where will he or she be going in the public service? Where is his or her future? Such a...

Seanad: Houses of the Oireachtas (Appointments to Certain Offices) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (20 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: The Leas-Chathaoirleach made a very useful point when he indicated that the Minister of State had run out of road on this issue. The question Senators have asked has still not been answered. To introduce legislation that has a cloud hanging over it and could have repercussions throughout the public service would be a very serious mistake to make for the Houses. This legislation could...

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I too add my condolences to the family of Alexis Fitzgerald. There is much congratulatory talk this morning on the crew of the LE Eithne. It is rather surprising that the crew has had to put in a claim to be compensated for overseas service and that it has not been met on the same terms as would be afforded were the crew on UN service.I do not know how far that claim has progressed but for...

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: With respect to what we saw on the "Prime Time" programme last night on procurement, will the Leader ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if there is a role for the Garda? There are hundreds of people on trolleys in hospitals yet people are accepting holidays in Portugal and elsewhere. I am not saying anybody is guilty at this stage but if money is going astray, and we heard this...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Weight of Schoolbags (16 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank him for being here. While schools might be out for summer, parents and students will soon be preparing to return in September. The issue of the weight of schoolbags remains unresolved not for another year, but for another decade. The issue was raised in the Dáil as far back as 1996, and the then Minister, Ms Breathnach, gave the...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Weight of Schoolbags (16 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I am concerned that we are pushing things down to boards of management. A recent high-profile case regarding the abuse of a lady while she was a student in a primary school in Cork came back to bite the Department and the Government. As the Legislature, we have a responsibility. We cannot shed it to boards of management. We cannot offload it...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Weight of Schoolbags (16 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank the Minister of State.

Seanad: Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (16 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: The Minister of State is welcome. I too oppose section 47. It is said that incompetent people constantly do incompetent things. From the outset, Irish Water has been handled by incompetents. From the very start, everything about it was wrong. I have no difficulty in paying for water, but please do not tax me a second time. I already pay for water. The Government is beginning to divert...

Seanad: Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (16 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: The issue of public ownership is far from certain. Although we asked for a referendum, we were knocked back. Why was there such great opposition to a referendum? The section asks me to become a revenue collector for Irish Water and submit details of what I do or do not do on my private properties. As Senator Darragh O'Brien said, the Government has stuck the section on the end of a Bill...

Seanad: Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (16 Jul 2015)

Gerard Craughwell: It is a pity the Government did not think of that.