Results 7,121-7,140 of 13,375 for speaker:Pat Rabbitte

Written Answers — Unemployment Levels: Unemployment Levels (8 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: Question 58: To ask the Minister for Finance his views on the June 2009 live register figures and the latest quarterly national household survey; if he will provide revised estimates in respect of unemployment figures for year end 2009 end 2010; the way these trends and estimates are expected to impact on the general Government balance for both 2009 and 2010; the way these trends and...

Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: I do not wish to take up too much of the precious time that we have to debate this Bill but I have the same questions as Deputy Charles Flanagan. I hope that we will receive answers because I considered this at length but I am not sure that I can see the difference. Is the nuanced difference being imported into this Bill because the previous definition did not work? Has this section never...

Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: It is entirely fruitless to insinuate that there is any division in this House about the necessity to bring to an end the mayhem on our streets, especially in urban Ireland.

Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: That includes all Deputies on all sides of the House and, if I may take the freedom to say so, Deputy Ó Snodaigh. There is no division. We want to put the gang bosses behind bars. We are horrified on this side of the House at the frequency of resort to extreme violence and the number of fatalities we have seen in recent years. I do not like the word "scum" but these people are the scum...

Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: I did not interrupt the Minister. I am prepared to stand the criminal justice system on its head if that is what is necessary but I have not had the evidence from the Minister that the pivotal measure in this Bill will make it more effective. Deputy O'Donnell asked the Minister to deal with the distinction between witnesses and jurors. All the Minister said was that it would be folly to...

Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: I have a quotation from Mr. Justice Paul Carney, who went to Limerick and who is the most experienced judge in the criminal courts. He said he had no experience of difficulties in getting convictions in his jury court. Deputy Flanagan has been pursuing the Minister to answer a parliamentary question on the intimidation of jurors. The Minister did not answer the question but, in the cut and...

Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: I have the letter here, it is in black and white in the Minister's hand and prepared for him by the Department. The Minister draws attention to the fact that, under section 41 of the Criminal Justice Act 1999 it is an offence to seek to intimidate persons assisting in a criminal investigation. The Minister writes: I am informed by the Garda authorities that separate records are not...

Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: I did not interrupt the Minister, who should contain the bantam cock side of his personality for a moment. If the Minister had any evidence of interference with jurors, he would have included it in that letter to Deputy Flanagan. The Minister does not have any evidence. He says the statistics do not exist and I suggest that the reason they do not exist is because there is none. Mr....

Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: That will make a change in any event.

Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: Deputy O'Donnell wants to know if convictions can be secured in the Special Criminal Court without producing witnesses and the short answer is that it is not possible.

Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: On that point, the Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Bill is already law; it is now an Act. If it were possible to do what the Minister is suggesting under pressure from Deputy O'Donnell one could do it already. It is dubious in the extreme that one could bring home a conviction before three judges on the basis of not producing any witness. It is remotely possible theoretically that a...

Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: The point I want to put to the Minister is that nothing will change in the matter of the protection of witnesses as a result of the Bill. Is that not the case? There is no point in us confusing that with the intimidation of jurors. The Irish Human Rights Commission made a submission to the Minister and it stated that in the absence of supporting data it queried a blanket assumption about...

Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: I agree.

Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: I heard him say that.

Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: I heard him say that, but the DPP had the power in that case to refer it to the Special Criminal Court if he so wished.

Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: The Minister read from a document which he stated was from the Garda Commissioner. Is there any basis on which that document could be made available to the Opposition spokespersons or laid in the Library? We do not operate a privy council system but if there is information contained in that document it may be influential in the debate. Earlier, the Minister stated he proceeded in a certain...

Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: The director told us a couple of months ago that this could not be done because the hospital is across the road.

Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: I do not take any great exception to it either. I rang a lawyer today inquiring about jury intimidation and he said he could not hear me because there was noise coming from his bathroom where a plumber was working in the dust. He had a boiler suit on and his face covered and he was worried that this particular section might be used against his plumber but I assured him that I did not think...

Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: There is some confusion between opinion evidence and expert evidence. I heard what the Minister said earlier. I presume we are talking about an expression of opinion as to the existence of a criminal organisation. In the operation of the Offences against the State Act the Supreme Court was definitive regarding the care to be taken in crafting the decision it handed down in respect of the...

Written Answers — Proposed Legislation: Proposed Legislation (7 Jul 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: Question 50: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment when it is intended to publish anti-victimisation legislation, designed to protect those workers who choose to join a trade union and which was promised by March 2009 under the review of Towards 2016; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27442/09]