Results 7,241-7,260 of 13,375 for speaker:Pat Rabbitte

Order of Business (20 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: Having discussed the issue with Deputy Howlin, any move by Deputy Broughan to follow the example of the House of Commons will not be supported by backbench Labour Party Deputies.

Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009: Second Stage (20 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: I apologise for interrupting the Minister. Am I the only one who does not have a copy of the script the Minister is reading? It would be useful to have it. It is the tradition that we ought to have it.

Prison Building Programme. (20 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: Why does the Minister keep referring to trading Shanganagh for €30 million and spending it on a farm that was worth €6 million, as if that makes it all right? How does trading Shanganagh make it all right? On the auctioneers whom he quoted on the radio, there were several of them who stated that it should have been bought for approximately €6 million. The Comptroller and Auditor...

Prison Building Programme. (20 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: The Minister is not factoring in however much he paid for the site adjacent to Mountjoy. Does he have a figure for the site he bought adjacent to Mountjoy? That must have cost a pretty penny as well.

Prison Building Programme. (20 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: Builders do it all the time.

Prison Building Programme. (20 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: How much did it cost us?

Prison Building Programme. (20 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: Why did the contract break down, which was my main question?

Prison Building Programme. (20 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: The Minister invites me to agree with him that whatever about the preferred bidder, he had other options. He never said anything of the kind. He never communicated to this House that there was any doubt about the preferred bidder. When the same preferred bidder pulled out from housing projects, I asked the Minister repeatedly if he had satisfied himself about its capacity to deliver. All...

Prison Building Programme. (20 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: I wish to get the Minister to focus once again on the figures. If the difference is hundreds of millions, and the difference is 30%, then the full cost of the project must be more than three times hundreds of millions. I do not think the public or the taxpayer has ever heard that figure before today. It seems to me to be the best argument for rethinking the entire project. I put it to the...

Prison Building Programme. (20 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: There used to be allotments in north Dublin. It could be useful for that. The Minister should give the House some idea of the scale of millions about which we are talking. I ask him for the third and last time, why he presumes that if one developer has had this difficulty in sourcing money at an affordable cost, that changing horses to a different developer would allow for the sourcing of...

Prison Building Programme. (20 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: Did I not hear the former Minister this morning, Michael McDowell, saying that it would be ready in 2010? Did the Minister not hear the piece played before he did the interview?

Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed) (20 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: In so far as it updates the criminal law, the Labour Party supports this Bill. We also support bringing into effect the Council decision on the establishment and operation of the Schengen information system. Whereas the greater part of the Bill is concerned with the European arrest warrant system, and with amending the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003, I suspect that the sections concerned...

Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed) (20 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: No. I never have. I am quite prepared to have my mind changed. It is just that the parliamentary question the Minister has answered-----

Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed) (20 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: I have just listened to the Minister for two hours in a different forum today on the Defamation Bill during which he told us how hard put upon he was and all the terrible things that are being said about him now that he wants to reintroduce the offence of blasphemy. He said that he is regarded as a fundamentalist Catholic, an extreme right-winger, looking for votes, courting the Islamic...

Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed) (20 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: I do not know why the Minister is getting so defensive here. I am merely putting to him during the Second Stage debate the representations we are getting. For example, I received a letter from a citizen - I could give the Minister his name if he wanted as I do not suspect there is any secrecy about it. He stated: I have participated in the shooting sports since 1990, representing my...

Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed) (20 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: I agree with the Minister entirely on that. However, I honestly believe that language loses its meaning if we suggest that is what we have. Is there a country in the entire EU that is more rigorous about the licensing of firearms than ours? I do not believe there is. I am very happy to modernise the law and tighten it up further. However, until the Minister persuades me to the contrary,...

Written Answers — Suckler Cow Quota: Suckler Cow Quota (20 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: Question 83: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he plans to reduce the life span of the suckler cow welfare scheme to facilitate the annual payment of €80 per cow; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20185/09]

Written Answers — Animal Feedstuffs: Animal Feedstuffs (20 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: Question 105: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if his Department has undertaken a review of surplus and waste food and its inclusion in the animal feed chain; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20186/09]

Written Answers — Proposed Legislation: Proposed Legislation (20 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: Question 133: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment when she will publish the consolidated bill on company law; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20528/09]

Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland (Protection of Debtors) Bill 2009: Second Stage (19 May 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: I wish to share time with Deputy Morgan. I never cease to be amazed by the breadth of knowledge of the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works and by his involvement in such a wide area of subject matter in the House. The fact he has come racing in to underpin the code worked out with the banks by his colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, means...