Results 6,801-6,820 of 20,831 for speaker:David Norris

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: That is what Senators get as an annual salary.

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: How is this relevant to the amendments under discussion?

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: I was a bit bewildered about the relevance of the previous contribution but I did not interrupt because it is always useful to let colleagues have their say. There has been a rather mean-minded reference to the Taoiseach’s income. He is the Taoiseach of this country. The fellow from the IFA got €500,000 plus, while the Taoiseach took a pay cut of 30%.

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: Was it 40%? That is a hell of a lot of a cut. Let us have a bit of respect. We have a Taoiseach making decisions about billions of euro and the future of the country, as the previous Senator referred to, yet we are cheeseparing. Come on. Let us have a bit of respect for the profession of politics. Let us pay people a decent and reasonable wage. If the Taoiseach was earning...

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: Will that include the increment?

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: I was interested in what the Minister said regarding the Constitution.Under the Constitution one cannot discriminate against a subset of a group. The Minister’s predecessor, Brian Lenihan, by selecting from the public servants Members of the Oireachtas alone to suffer the complete abolition of increments accorded selective treatment to a subset of the public service. That seems to...

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: I am intrigued and would like to follow on with this. The Minister, I think under advisement, suggested that politicians were a separate and special category.

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: That means that in fact there is a constitutional question over the removal of the increment because it is was not removed from any other group within the public service. That is a specific targeting of Members of the Oireachtas as against the larger group of civil servants involved. What would the Minister’s sentiments be towards the restoration of the increment? People who have...

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: Yes, exactly. I very much take the Minister’s point, which I heard when he talked about the way the Labour Party in Britain introduced pay for the first time. We do not want a parliament of industrialists and squireens. We want to make it possible for people to come in but given the way politicians are treated that is increasingly unlikely. I have heard several young people who had...

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee and Remaining Stages (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: Can the Acting Chairman give the reason amendment No. 19 was ruled out of order?

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: I wish to raise a general point and ask the Minister to respond. More than 300 amendments have been tabled. It is indicated that quite a few are intended to reverse amendments made on Committee Stage in this House. Are the majority of these Government amendments on which it has had second thoughts or are they amendments made by the Seanad at the instance of Members of the Seanad? It seems...

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: The Bill has 120 pages and there are more than 50 pages of amendments. Therefore, the amendments are half the size of the Bill. I cannot recall a situation quite like this before.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: I will not hold up the debate. It appears to me that it was hastily and unprofessionally drafted.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: That is what it looks like to me.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: The Minister said the Bill has been through the Dáil, it has been through Committee Stage in the Seanad and yet we have this astonishing number of amendments. The Minister said the Bill was presented as a framework only; it is a Bill, it should not be a framework. I do not want to hold up the debate but I want to express my reservations about the situation. Bills are presented as...

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: The Minister uses the phrase tidying up. I think it is more than tidying up; it looks like a major spring clean to me. However, we will leave it at that and get on to the Bill.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: This is a very important matter which involves several new sections. It is worthwhile to point out that its introduction at this stage means Members of the Seanad can only speak once-----

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: I beg your pardon. I had come from the previous debate, which was on Report Stage.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: Thank you for the clarification. I very much welcome section 159, in particular that an apology is not to constitute an admission of guilt. That is a very important point. In situations of clinical liability, where, for example, a child is brain-damaged as a result of some procedure that went wrong in the hospital, these things very often take years and the hospital is inhibited in giving...

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

David Norris: I congratulate the Minister. It is a good humane measure that improves the Bill.