Results 10,981-11,000 of 12,596 for speaker:Willie O'Dea

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Willie O'Dea: Buffoon.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Willie O'Dea: Is that Fine Gael policy?

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Willie O'Dea: It is a separate offence.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Willie O'Dea: I want to dispel the myth that has arisen since the Supreme Court decision was handed down that the Government knew something and, if it did not know, it should have known, and if it knew what it should have known, it could have done something about it. That is a sham and Deputies on all sides of the House are cognisant of that. What could the Government have known? What should it have...

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Willie O'Dea: We would need ten Ministers for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, ten Attorneys General and approximately ten times the staff. That staff would need to be doing nothing else from dawn to dusk. It is extraordinary nonsense.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Willie O'Dea: Every week, one or two of the items coming before the Cabinet is a memorandum of a case being put before the European court by an interest which might have an impact on the Irish economy, jobs or human rights. The Cabinet must decide whether to join the case. Many times we decide to join the case but we do not get the Civil Service to assume the case will go against us.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Willie O'Dea: It is the same. The way every Government in the history of the State has dealt with a constitutional challenge is to fight it up to and including the Supreme Court. When the Supreme Court makes its decision, that is dealt with.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Willie O'Dea: My Government has dealt with it that way and the Deputy's Government would have done the same. It was dealt with under the 1922 and 1937 Constitutions. There has been a suggestion that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform should resign as a result of this. The greatest example of hypocrisy I have seen in 25 years in this House occurred on the Opposition side on Wednesday. Deputy...

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Willie O'Dea: As a result, these people walked free. We are being asked to accept by Deputy Rabbitte——

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Willie O'Dea: They are no more or less morally culpable——

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Willie O'Dea: Deputy Rabbitte expects us to accept the proposition that it was okay for the then Minister for Justice to continue in office when she had received correspondence to the effect that the criminal court designed to try terrorists in this country was improperly constituted for several weeks. He asks us to accept that this was all right and that she was not expected to know that little matter. He...

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Willie O'Dea: There is a campaign in this country which is now becoming more blatant. The Opposition is arguing that the people deserve better standards of honesty and integrity. If the people of this country are waiting for standards of honesty and integrity——

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Willie O'Dea: ——from people who will falsify, distort and misrepresent the facts in this way, they will be waiting for a long time.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Willie O'Dea: The people elected the Deputy as an Independent and he abandoned them.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Willie O'Dea: It was disgraceful.

Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Bill 2006: Second Stage. (2 Jun 2006)

Willie O'Dea: Give us a break.

Written Answers — State Property: State Property (30 May 2006)

Willie O'Dea: The property concerned is vested in the Minister for Finance but is under the administration of my Department. The property was leased to a company which is now is dissolution. A portion of the lands is the subject of a sub-lease to a local rugby club. The legal position in relation to the property arising from the dissolution of the lessee company is under consideration in consultation with...

Written Answers — Departmental Bodies: Departmental Bodies (30 May 2006)

Willie O'Dea: Details in relation to the public bodies under the aegis of my Department are as follows. In addition to these bodies, the Office of the Ombudsman for the Defence Forces as provided for under the Ombudsman (Defence Forces) Act 2004 was established with effect from 31 August 2005. Ms Paulyn Marrinan Quinn SC was appointed by the President as the first Ombudsman for the Defence Forces with...

Written Answers — Decentralisation Programme: Decentralisation Programme (30 May 2006)

Willie O'Dea: The Government Decision on decentralisation, announced by the Minister for Finance in his Budget statement on 3 December 2003, provides for the transfer of all of my Department's Dublin based civil service staff to Newbridge, Co. Kildare. The number of staff to be relocated to Newbridge is 200, all of whom are required to have the office functional. The numbers of staff by category are as...

Written Answers — Departmental Inquiries: Departmental Inquiries (25 May 2006)

Willie O'Dea: The individual concerned was retired, by the President, on the advice of the Government with effect from a date in June, 1969. The retirement was effected pursuant to Section 47(2) of the Defence Act, 1954 and Paragraph 18(1)(f) of Defence Force Regulations A.15, which provide that an officer may be retired "in the interests of the service". The Deputy will appreciate that a decision to...