Results 5,281-5,300 of 5,327 for speaker:Joe O'Reilly

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I join other Senators in passing my good wishes and congratulations to Senator Norris on donating his archive to the National Archives of Ireland. I am pleased to hear that additions will be made and that it is not complete yet. I wish to develop the points raised by our leader, Senator Fitzgerald. I appeal to the Leader of the House to arrange an early debate yet again on the mental health...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I am coming to my point. It should also not be the case in a Celtic tiger Ireland. I ask the Leader to raise the following issues with the Minister and to have a debate on a number of specific points. There has been too dramatic a move from institutionalisation to community care and there is still a need for a sufficient core number of institutional places. The move has been too dramatic...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I strongly support Senator Twomey's remarks about nursing homes and about the enactment of legislation. It is an extraordinarily serious matter. We need a well resourced inspectorate and regular inspections. We owe that to our old people. We all know that there are wonderful nursing homes and wonderful people working in them. Great work is being done in most of them but that in no way...

Seanad: Broadband Access: Motion (12 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Killeen. I congratulate my colleagues in the Independent group on tabling this important motion. Broadband represents the future and the Independent Senators have done a worthwhile job in bringing forward the motion which merits serious consideration. There are a number of compelling reasons the availability and use of broadband are important....

Seanad: Water Quality: Statements (6 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: It is creating considerable difficulty.

Seanad: Water Quality: Statements (6 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I assume that we are discussing not only water provision by group schemes but also public water provision. I salute the pioneers who put the rural water schemes in place between the 1960s and 1980s. They were great volunteers and this was the most radical improvement in people's lifestyles after rural electrification. Those people followed the...

Seanad: Water Quality: Statements (6 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: Can the Senator repeat that please?

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: It is timely, after yesterday's budget, for me to renew my plea to the Leader on behalf of non-contributory old-age pensioners and those who will shortly apply for this pension. I propose that we remove the means test for this pension. The bulk of pensioners in this country are on a contributory pension, have a State pension or have private pension schemes. We are talking about...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: ——who did not come above the radar on tax and PRSI, and people who were duped in the workplace and did not have their cards stamped, to use the old colloquialism, or in other words people whose employers did not pay their PRSI contribution. The majority of people who apply and receive non-contributory old-age pensions are deserving. The cost of administering the means test must at least...

Seanad: Budget Statement 2008: Statements (Resumed). (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Noel Ahern, to the House. The tragic backdrop to today's budget is the waste of the boom years. There is no improvement in services, traffic is in gridlock, class sizes are enormous in suburban schools and the health service is paralysed. We have created neither a fair society with the money earned in the boom nor a...

Seanad: Budget Statement 2008: Statements (Resumed). (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: For capital expenditure too. The budget is not progressive. In the year 2000 the Government published a climate change strategy that proposed a carbon tax by 2002, more investment in buses, the cessation of coal use at Moneypoint power station by 2008, rebalancing vehicle registration tax and integrated traffic management. None of this happened and consequently we are over our emissions...

Seanad: Budget Statement 2008: Statements (Resumed). (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: There should also have been a provision to grant aid the marshalling of water from old corn and flax mills to provide power to alternators to create electricity locally. I should acknowledge that my colleague, Senator Burke, has raised the question of domestic wind turbines on a number of occasions in this House. The increases in social welfare are just about adequate but do not take enough...

Seanad: Budget Statement 2008: Statements (Resumed). (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: More than €1.5 billion is to be borrowed and there is no statement that we will arrive at current expenditure.

Seanad: Budget Statement 2008: Statements (Resumed). (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: On a point of information, would it be in order to ask——

Seanad: Budget Statement 2008: Statements (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: The Senator has a short memory.

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: The crisis caused by cocaine and substance abuse is extremely serious and pernicious, reaching into every community. We need to debate a strategy to deal with this. Young people need the confidence to say "No". There should be a drop-in centre for young people in every urban centre in the country, such as a café with discreet counselling services and an infrastructure for youth. The...

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I concur with Senator Ó Murchú's remarks about celebrities and the media. This is a national crisis which requires all-party agreement, the relevant Minister to come to the House, harnessing all State agencies and taking a holistic approach. We must, however, create a society in which young people can have the confidence to say "No". That is the kernel of the solution.

Seanad: Order of Business (29 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: It would be in order and timely if the Leader again conveyed our very best wishes to Cardinal Seán Brady, who is making his return from Rome today. He is to arrive in Dublin and will later be escorted by the PSNI from the Border. It is an historic day for Ireland and the Cardinal personally. It merits repeating that he is an exceptional pastor and a great scholar, and he is absolutely and...

Seanad: Education Policy: Statements (22 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I welcome the Minister and acknowledge her courtesy to my three sons when they recently visited Leinster House. The Minister chatted to them and they were taken with her description of the Seanad as a centre for talented adults. I hope today's debate confirms that. This is a significant debate on an important area. Education is the greatest catalyst for opportunity we have. It liberates...

Seanad: Postal Services: Motion (21 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: Absolutely. He talked about negativity in our presentation of the motion but that was groundless and the record will substantiate this. I acknowledged An Post's 4% improvement in next-day deliveries this year. I acknowledged the advance in industrial relations, for which management must accept some plaudits. Senator Brady was aware of this because of his former trade union activities. I...