Results 6,001-6,020 of 6,030 for speaker:Brendan Ryan

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: I believe the grouping, as it has been read out to me, is incorrect.

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: I move amendment No. 1: In page 5, subsection (1), line 24, to delete "shared" and substitute "stored". The current definition of "digital content" is as follows: "Digital content means content shared in a digital format that can be created, manipulated and exchanged electronically." In my innocence I believe that is a misprint and that it should read "stored in a digital format". The phrase,...

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: The Minister is so agreeable that I almost lost track of him. That is fine by me. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: I move amendment No. 2: In page 5, subsection (1), line 25, after "electronically" to insert "but shall include where required content stored electronically in formats other than digital format". I am glad the Minister is considering these amendments. It would a pity to restrict activities to exclusively digital material. There is often a mix in multimedia, particulary in material that would...

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: I move amendment No. 4: In page 6, subsection (1), line 42, after "hub" to insert "and shall as soon as may be publish the reason for making such an order". I am wary of Ministers being able to change boundaries without scrutiny and accountability. I do not wish to launch into a discussion on planning and re-zoning matters, but to leave the power to extend the border of the digital hub...

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: I am never happy, a Chathaoirligh. You know me long enough to know that I am never happy on Committee Stage. I regard myself as being reasonably familiar with legislation but I do not interpret this section as requiring the Minister to bring forward a statutory instrument. However, if the Minister assures me that there is the possibility of the matter being debated in both Houses, either by...

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: My mistake. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Section 3 agreed to. Sections 4 to 8, inclusive, agreed to. SECTION 9.

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: I move amendment No. 5: In page 8, subsection (2)(d), line 22, after "projects" to insert "together with a strategy to ensure access to such educational provision by people suffering from physical or other disability or who are otherwise disadvantaged". This amendment is very appropriate given the Minister's previous portfolio. We ought to have some reference on this and I am quite happy to...

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: I am disappointed. The Minister effectively said that there is merit in the amendment but he then said – and I listened carefully – that he would consider giving a directive. If he would drop the word "consider" and say that he would give a directive, I would be happy, in so far as I can be happy on Committee Stage. I am sure the Minister will consider 100,000 different things between now...

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: If the Minister said he would consider it, I believe that.

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: If the Minister thinks that I do not believe him, I assure him that I do.

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: Fine.

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: The former Fianna Fáil Chief Whip in this House, Senator Fitzgerald, was appointed as an assistant film censor. I do not know enough about his hobbies to know if he has specific skills and talents in film-making.

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: The Minister provided in the Bill that the people he would appoint would, in his opinion, have a special interest or expertise in the matter.

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: Amendment No. 17 requires the Minister who forms the opinion that a person has a special interest or expertise to state that in writing so the rest of us will know the basis for the appointment. Under the Freedom of Information Act it would be possible to extract the correspondence exchanged in the process. If legislation states that persons are to be appointed who, in the opinion of the...

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: In my naïveté, I assumed that to make an appointment, a Minister considered some documentation and concluded from it that someone was appropriate. All I want is the conclusion the Minister draws from the documentation. Is it a case of an appointee simply raising his or her hand? This could be onerous only is if there is nothing written down already. These are serious appointments to serious...

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: I move amendment No. 17: In page 11, subsection (6)(a), line 22, after "Minister" to insert "for reasons stated in writing and laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas".

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: I am astonished by the degree to which the Department of Education and Science and other Departments – I do not include the Minister's Department – seem to believe that when it comes to expertise there is only one sector of third level education. The last time I checked the board of the Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation there was nobody from the technological sector of...

Seanad: Health Services: Motion. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: I move: That Seanad Éireann, noting with alarm the deteriorating condition of the health services and the failure even to make proper provision for the Government's own health strategy, condemns (1) the failure of the Government to provide appropriate additional funding to hospitals affected by the winter vomiting virus, (2) the decision to increase both accident and emergency and drugs...

Seanad: Health Services: Motion. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: There are two approaches I could take in response to this debate. If I were to attempt to respond to the arguments from the Government side, I would have to conclude immediately as I heard nothing that I did not know already. The Government Senators seem to have become clones of the Minister, Deputy Martin, as they spout statistics in large amounts. Anyone who has followed the health service...