Results 9,301-9,320 of 15,491 for speaker:Eamon Gilmore

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: This is a Government that has allowed unemployment to climb to unprecedented levels and permitted emigration to return to levels not seen since the 1980s. This is a Government that has presided over massive job losses at Dell, in the constituency of the Minister, Deputy O'Dea, at Waterford Crystal and in many other plants without taking any meaningful action to try and save those jobs. This...

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: It did nothing to even try to save the jobs in Bank of Scotland-Ireland. This is a Fianna Fáil Government that has placed a financial millstone around the necks of not just the current generation of taxpayers, but of Irish taxpayers for generations to come. This is a Government that wrote a blank cheque for the banks when it agreed in as yet unexplained circumstances on the night of 30...

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: The Minister, Deputy O'Dea, as a member of the Cabinet must accept his share of the responsibility for the economic damage and social destruction that Fianna Fáil has wrought on the people. However, it is another matter, of enormous importance and significance that has led to the tabling of this motion of no confidence in the Minister. Leaving aside the broader issues I referred to, there...

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: In his personal explanation to the House last night, the Minister said, "I have never said that I lied on oath, as I was never on oath".

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: However, an affidavit is sworn evidence, given on oath and is the equivalent of evidence given on oath in the witness box.

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: My understanding is that any person making a sworn affidavit to the High Court must do so in the presence of a Commissioner for Oaths. The commissioner then reads over the affidavit to the person making it who will then be asked to either agree or disagree with its content. If one agrees with its content, one takes the Bible in one's right hand and swears to almighty God, or alternatively...

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: The same rules of evidence must apply to everyone regardless of one's rank or position in Irish society.

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: The Minister wants us to examine his swearing a false affidavit only from the point where his barrister made an agreement with Councillor Quinlivan's barrister – an agreement duly reported to the court. Councillor Quinlivan's reasons for accepting an amount in damages and his costs in return for agreeing a settlement statement is entirely a matter for him. The issue that affects Deputy...

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: Faced with incontrovertible evidence the Minister asks us to believe that he acknowledged his error. He forgot. How could be forget creeping around Limerick alleging a rival candidate was running a brothel?

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: How could anyone forget making such a charge?

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: Would any other Member stoop to making such a charge in the first place, if it were untrue? Is it acceptable behaviour for any Member, whether a Minister or not, to use a political campaign to slander a rival candidate and to implicate him in particularly grubby criminal behaviour?

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: Not only did Deputy O'Dea have no qualms about imputing criminal conduct to a political rival, he had no regard for the integrity of the journalist to whom he whispered his lies. Only when the journalist sought to defend his integrity by producing the tapes did the Minister remember his "mistake".

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: The only explanation for Deputy O'Dea forgetting that he called a rival a brothel keeper is that it is a pretty commonplace charge for him to make. I am amazed that the Taoiseach should seek to retain in Cabinet a man who wilfully committed perjury. If this happened in the neighbouring jurisdiction, a Minister would not last until the end of the day. Deputy O'Dea is – as he is fond of...

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: Why is that not an unfamiliar feeling? It is one thing for the Taoiseach not to take the Green Party seriously and he has them not just as passengers but as hitchhikers in Government.

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: The Taoiseach should stop humiliating them. I felt embarrassed for the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources who the Taoiseach dragged into the House to say things he did not believe.

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: This is a disreputable chapter that will bring this House into disrepute if a majority in the House supports this kind of conduct by a Minister. What standards will apply in this House if a Minister can plead honest mistake because he supposedly forgot giving an interview connecting a political rival to brothel keeping? Deputy O'Dea is not just any Minister. He has political responsibility...

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: An allegation of having sworn a false affidavit would be a serious matter for any Minister. In the case of Deputy O'Dea the allegation is of such seriousness that it renders him unsuitable to hold the office he now occupies.

Confidence in Minister for Defence: Motion (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: Hear, hear.

Order of Business (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: I, too, got a similar telephone call. It is always very nice to hear from your office, a Cheann Comhairle, but as you know there is a rule that you apply to the rest of us. You regularly remind us that we should not anticipate debate. I believe you were anticipating debate and an approach to this issue that you should not have anticipated. As it turned out, it was not necessary for you to...

Order of Business (17 Feb 2010)

Eamon Gilmore: -----that the arrangement eventually arrived at here yesterday evening was a very unsatisfactory one whereby the Minister gave a statement but no opportunity was provided to Members of the House to ask him questions or to respond to the statement he made. I appreciate that the Ceann Comhairle responded to a request from the Minister to allow him an opportunity to make a statement of personal...