Results 5,721-5,740 of 7,278 for speaker:Dick Roche

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: ——-and south Leitrim "south Leitrim".

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: I understand. It is usual that the north side and south side have difficult relationships, but there you are.

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: Leaving karma and all the rest aside, I will continue to support the commission's finding with regard to Leitrim, although I fully understand the hurt felt on the issue. On another point, I can only claim credit for the four children I have. I cannot claim any credit for the——

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: I thank the Senators who have contributed to this good natured, constructive debate. The issues considered were wide-ranging and issues relating to nomenclature will factor into the discussions of the next commission. Regarding Senator Paddy Burke's point about the green man at Garda stations, in circumstances where the green man cannot stamp one's card it is possible to go to the local...

Seanad: Planning and Development Regulations 2005: Motion. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: I thank the House for taking this matter today. The adoption of the motion by both Houses of the Oireachtas will pave the way for the planning and development regulations to be amended in three different ways. It will be a requirement for shops that wish to change into an off-licence or to sell alcohol as the predominant business to obtain planning permission. It will facilitate consideration...

Seanad: Planning and Development Regulations 2005: Motion. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: It should make it better.

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: On Senator Bradford's point, I have committed to producing guidelines over this summer. I suggested in the Dáil that it would be a good idea to refer these guidelines to the relevant Oireachtas committee. This is one area where politicians know better than most the exact situation. Over the years, every politician has been in a position where he or she believed the register to be incorrect....

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: There are 300,000 more people on the summation of all registers than are eligible to vote, according to the census. This issue is serious regardless of whether the figure is 300,000, or 800,000. The first figure is the lowest figure and the latter figure is extrapolated to take into account numbers of people who are on the register when they should not be, people who should be there and are...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: I apologise but I cannot carry all the figures in my head.

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: It is difficult to get them. One could extrapolate from detailed figures in the first volume of the census to work out who is eligible to vote and what the numbers should be. The results can be precise. It would be a substantial exercise to carry out and the Senator has asked a good question. If the exercise was carried out, one could then objectively highlight where the biggest errors lie...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: Whatever excuse local authorities make this year, they cannot say they are broke because they have received handsome increases. The issue is not resources but whether people are enthusiastic and willing to introduce new technology to do the job they should be doing. If a business was faced with the task of updating the register, it would not use the system operated by local authorities. I do...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: While the Senator was talking I said I intend introducing guidelines which will be available to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment and Local Government. I made that point clear in the Dáil. I hope the committee will have a full debate involving Members from both Houses and all parties. I will take guidance from the committee on this issue. I am very open on this issue, which...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: Resources, however, are not endless. If the local authorities do not do the job for which they are being paid they need not expect to be paid for a job they do not do.

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: It is a statutory part of their job.

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: I am glad the Senator clarified that point because it is consistent with the approach his party adopted in the Dáil. The Government made the point, and the Senator's party accepted it, that it is no use establishing an independent review committee if we decide we do not like its recommendations and pick and mix from them. I am pleased at the different level and tone of the debate in this...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: That is a very healthy situation. Academic observers and critics, and some people in the media who tend to be cynical — we are never short of cynics in this country — have disparaged that relationship, but we must be very careful about accepting it. I make the point that it is, first of all, not appropriate to this legislation. Second, I am grateful the Senator has made it clear he is not...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: The unique relationship between the elected representative in Ireland and the citizen is part of our political culture. Most of the academic literature on this would argue that it is negative, but I find it very positive. It helps to mediate between the citizen and the State, humanising that relationship. It is obviously not possible in the context of this Bill to make the change, since this...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: This discussion is very interesting. Senator Brady is correct on the 1961 Mr. Justice Budd judgment in the O'Donovan case. That was an interesting decision because most of what we have to say on the Constitution and the variance between the numbers of seats and Deputies flows from that judgment. Mr. Justice Budd made the observation that counties do not have a constitutional existence. They...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: This touches on issues of constitutionality. A court challenge may be made at any time to any matter. By the time the election takes place in the spring or early summer of 2007——

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2005: Committee and Remaining Stages. (30 Jun 2005)

Dick Roche: Sometime in May, if I was a betting man. The Taoiseach likes long nights.