Results 5,181-5,200 of 6,030 for speaker:Brendan Ryan

Seanad: Order of Business. (2 Jul 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I will do my best not to react.

Seanad: Order of Business. (2 Jul 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I will do my best not to react. When did the Taoiseach know about it? If he knew as far back as it now appears, why did he not tell anybody? Why did he not tell his colleagues in Government, the Progressive Democrats and, more particularly, why did he not tell the Dáil? These are serious questions about a most important issue and there is a classical fudge from the Taoiseach about what...

Seanad: Forfás Consumer Pricing Report 2003: Statements. (2 Jul 2003)

Brendan Ryan: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Forfás Consumer Pricing Report 2003: Statements. (2 Jul 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I am suffering from the fact that I have organised myself to say too much. The Chair will forgive me. There are two ways of approaching this debate and, as usual, I will try to take both and probably get confused in the process. One way is to look at useful examples that are hard to understand. I accept everything Senator Mansergh said about insurance companies. It is worth noting that the...

Seanad: Common Agricultural Policy: Statements. (2 Jul 2003)

Brendan Ryan: Contrary to what people perhaps believe, there is a significant number of farmers in the Dáil constituency which I unsuccessfully contested in June and they were not rallying to my support. Apart from that, as I think the Minister knows, I have long had an interest in the CAP and in the dilemma of developing a way of sustaining life in agriculture and related activities and sustaining life...

Seanad: Common Agricultural Policy: Statements. (2 Jul 2003)

Brendan Ryan: In that case, I will take that gentle hint. I am not able to evaluate the Minister's achievements or otherwise precisely but those who pretend – as I heard in some speeches from this side of the House – that there is some way to sustain the status quo indefinitely are fooling themselves. There is no overall electoral advantage in pretending to farmers or urban Ireland that the old way of...

Seanad: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission Bill 2002: Report and Final Stages. (2 Jul 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I second the amendment. Senator Higgins has said almost everything that needs to be said but I would like to make one point. People often forget that this House is not entirely subordinate to the Dáil. It has one power where it is equal to the other House, namely, the power to reject a statutory instrument, and there is no procedure for the Dáil to overrule it. The Seanad is not just a...

Seanad: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission Bill 2002: Report and Final Stages. (2 Jul 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I second this amendment. The Clerk of the Seanad is also the returning officer for the elections to the panels of the House. According to its functions, the commission shall provide for the running of the Houses of the Oireachtas. As of now, under this provision, when there is an election to the Seanad, the Clerk of the Seanad will have to apply to the commission to be allowed to use space in...

Seanad: Nuclear Safety: Motion. (2 Jul 2003)

Brendan Ryan: Sellafield is one of the issues on which Government bashing, which we all enjoy, would achieve little. I have learned during my years in politics that there is little point in it, even though I, like most capable Ministers, enjoy it. As Members will be aware from my frequent allusions to my profession, I am a chemical engineer. While I am not a nuclear engineer, I am certain there is no such...

Seanad: Order of Business. (1 Jul 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I agree with my colleagues on the Immigration Bill. No amount of talk of reforming the Oireachtas will have any meaning if this scale of legislative gazumping can be imposed on us without proper debate. These amendments will be subject to a truncated debate in the other House and we will have to discuss them as one in this House, even though, as I understand it, they represent multiple pages...

Seanad: Order of Business. (1 Jul 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I am no great fan of the Taoiseach politically, or of the party he represents, but this was an outrageous intrusion into an entirely private matter where, even though there may be an enormous degree of prurience, there is absolutely no public interest involved. Two weeks ago I called for the sacking of the Rail Procurement Agency. Everything I have learned since confirms my view which I...

Seanad: Order of Business. (1 Jul 2003)

Brendan Ryan: Of course, it is.

Seanad: Order of Business. (1 Jul 2003)

Brendan Ryan: Is the Leader accepting it?

Seanad: Order of Business. (1 Jul 2003)

Brendan Ryan: Yes. Amendment put.

Seanad: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (1 Jul 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I hate to shake my grey hairs but it is 22 years since I was elected to this House. Many people, including public servants outside and some inside the Houses, forget that this is an autonomous House. If someone wants to change the rules relating to security here, it cannot be done without the agreement of this House through its Committee on Procedures and Privileges. A picture cannot be put...

Seanad: Order of Business. (19 Jun 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I hope the Leader can assure us that the Criminal Law (Insanity) Bill 2002 will not be taken before the summer, so that it is not sprung on the House. I share fully Senator Brian Hayes's view that whatever the urgencies of Government positions, the Intoxicating Liquor Bill 2003 makes reference to 14 other pieces of legislation. The Minister has made it clear that the whole area of regulation...

Seanad: European Convention on Human Rights Bill 2001: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I move amendment No. 1: In page 3, subsection (1), line 25, after "14" to insert ", 34 and 46". Although I read the Minister's Second Stage contribution carefully, I am at somewhat of a loss regarding the process by which certain sections of the convention, which are not incorporated in Irish law, will be incorporated in this legislation while others will not. Amendment No. 1 proposes to...

Seanad: European Convention on Human Rights Bill 2001: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Brendan Ryan: Much that the Minister of State said reflects what I said yesterday in respect of the considerable pride this country should take in its early ratification of the idea of extraterritorial jurisdiction for an international institution. I agree with him in that regard. Our commitment to human rights dates back further and, as I have said on many occasions, is manifest in the much-maligned 1937...

Seanad: European Convention on Human Rights Bill 2001: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Brendan Ryan: I move amendment No. 2: In page 3, subsection (1), after line 37, to insert the following new paragraph: "(e) Protocol No. 13 to the Convention concerning the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances, done a Vilnius on the 3rd day of May, 2002;".

Seanad: European Convention on Human Rights Bill 2001: Committee Stage. (19 Jun 2003)

Brendan Ryan: If I had time, I am certain I could find an exception where a protocol which was not in force was incorporated into legislation because it was expected that it would be so in the not too distant future. I do not accept that this is a universal rule. However, I will not fall out with the Minister for State over it. It is a wonderful feature of Irish politics that, as far as I am aware, there...