Results 6,361-6,380 of 7,604 for speaker:James Bannon
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (16 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: The Minister should have little difficulty in accepting this amendment.
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (16 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: Section 32 of this Bill is designed to make non-textual amendments to the Act of 1885 and it modifies that Act without changing the wording. My understanding of best practice is that we should make textual amendments wherever possible and that is proposed by means of amendment No. 56. I would appreciate it if this amendment were accepted by the Minister of State.
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (16 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: I move amendment No. 1: In page 9, subsection (1), to delete line 25. This is a technical amendment to assist the reader. Concepts and definitions should be kept to a minimum. Good drafting practice requires that where the concept occurs more than twice, it is best to define it, but we refer to the Act of 1851 only once in the body of the Bill. Its definition is not justified and should be...
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (16 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: I move amendment No. 20: In page 14, line 18, to delete "shall come" and substitute "comes". The use of active voice in the legislation was recommended by the Law Reform Commission in its report on legislative drafting. It is important that the style of our legislation should represent best practice and be made more readable for the public. Amendments Nos. 26, 29 and 31 are technical...
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (16 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: I move amendment No. 21: In page 15, between lines 13 and 14, to insert the following subsection: "(2) A further purpose of this Act is to ensure the widespread availability of fresh water to the population without any charge.". My party is opposed to the imposition of water charges. While the Bill was initiated in December 2003, we are only debating in detail its provisions following the...
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (16 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: I move amendment No. 22: In page 15, subsection (1), line 15, after "purposes of" to insert "discharging". This is another technical amendment. Perhaps the Minister of State will see fit to accept it. I am fearful of the imposition of water charges and I am not too happy with the Minister's response on this issue. He should give us a clearer statement about the reintroduction of water...
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (16 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: Does this mean the Minister can give us a guarantee that no domestic water charges will be introduced during the term of this Government?
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (16 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: I disagree with the Minister. In areas of high development the mapping of water pipes should be updated in order to address the problem of burst water mains. This serious problem would not occur if maps were updated regularly and made available for inspection. It is not unreasonable to expect maps to be updated after the completion of works. If there is a delay of six months, the issue is...
- Seanad: Water Services Bill 2003: Committee Stage. (16 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: We all know of cases where roadworks have been the cause of burst mains. It cannot be beyond the Minister's remit to change this a little because six months down the road, when grants and so on have been drawn down, there is not the same interest in a project and there is little interest in completing it. It is important to have the arrangements in place within the shortest possible period...
- Seanad: Order of Business. (16 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: In the past few days there has been considerable squabbling between the Government parties, Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats. The only way to resolve this squabbling is for the Taoiseach to go to the country and let the people give their verdict.
- Seanad: Order of Business. (16 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: On another issue, extraordinarily high levels of radon gas have been found in various locations.
- Seanad: Order of Business. (16 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: The highest levels ever found in Europe have been found in Tralee, Galway and Castleisland.
- Seanad: Order of Business. (16 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: Health professionals have expressed great concerns over the links to lung cancer etc. This is very disturbing news for residents in these areas. It is important for us to have a debate and I call on the Leader to invite both the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the Minister for Health and Children to the House to give us an update on the Government's plans to...
- Seanad: Order of Business. (15 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: I thank the Leader.
- Seanad: Order of Business. (15 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: It was my brother.
- Seanad: Order of Business. (15 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: I join my colleagues in complimenting and congratulating all those who placed their names on ballot papers for last Friday's European and local elections. Local government is democratically elected by the people and they gave their verdict at the weekend. Fine Gael won outright control of the councils in my constituency, wiping the Progressive Democrats completely off the map and melting down...
- Seanad: Order of Business. (15 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: Now that the people have given their verdict, it is important that we debate the economy, crime, the health services and funding for local authorities.
- Seanad: Order of Business. (15 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: Those of us on the Opposition benches who met people on the doorsteps know these issues are of great concern to the public. They are annoyed with the Government in terms of the policies it has pursued for the past two years. The Government has let the people down. It is important we debate these issues of grave public concern before the summer recess because I do not believe the Government...
- Seanad: Order of Business. (15 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: We had it last week.
- Seanad: Order of Business. (15 Jun 2004)
James Bannon: And promised A, B and C.