Results 101-120 of 274 for long speaker:Sean Barrett

Seanad: National Treasury Management Agency Bill 2014: Second Stage (15 Jul 2014)

Sean Barrett: ...it was published. They were simply campaigns to spend loads of money. There is no stimulus effect in a small open economy. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has said that. We signed up for free trade a long time ago and one creates the stimulus in countries from which people buy the imports. In fact, the Minister, Deputy Noonan, on a previous occasion in the House, said that we must...

Seanad: Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014: Committee Stage (10 Jul 2014)

Sean Barrett: I thank the Minister. The Minister referred to the history of this issue, which goes back a long time. There used to be a fear, almost paranoia, that imported newspapers would dominate the home newspapers. There was a certain amount of media self-obsession. There are 363 media outlets listed in the Institute of Public Administration Yearbook and Diary, that invaluable publication. I am...

Seanad: Health Service Executive (Financial Matters) Bill 2013: Second Stage (3 Jul 2014)

Sean Barrett: ...associated with one of the moves the Minister is reversing - the creation of the HSE - as I served on the Brennan commission. I agree with what the Minister is doing today. We all learn as we go along. Health was local, then regional and then national, and now it is being devolved back to individual hospitals. I think that is the correct way to proceed. I am not trying to justify...

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Second Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Sean Barrett: ...or tax breaks. We on these benches were worried when real estate investment trusts were given favourable tax treatment. The problem previously was that we kept favourable tax treatment going long after it was needed. I hope the Minister from Limerick, Deputy Noonan, will look at this when he is preparing the budget. He should consider whether that stimulus was needed at all and whether...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2014: Second Stage (26 Jun 2014)

Sean Barrett: ...case of double jeopardy. The Minister referred to the requirements for defined benefit schemes to notify people. That is most important. This is an area in which the Minister has had an interest for a long time. Some of the trustees have not been keeping people up to date. Some standard PRSAs with a lump sum worth more than €100,000 can have administration charges as high as...

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Jun 2014)

Sean Barrett: ...bills. It is strange that this statement was made by the commission given that it continues to promote high-cost forms of electricity such as wind, biomass and turf and opposed the Ballylongford project which could have brought low-price gas into the country. The Green Paper on energy does not adequately address this issue or our consumer unfriendly energy policy. I ask the Leader to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Fiscal Assessment Report 2014: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (19 Jun 2014)

Sean Barrett: ...Sunday Business Postreported on €480 million of tax breaks to make films. Deputy Spring's constituents may have had many better uses for it, involving much more basic items in their budget. A long time ago, Kenneth Carter in Canada proposed having a tax system in which a dollar is a dollar is a dollar and in which one does not have all these exemptions, allowances or rent-seeking...

Seanad: 750th Anniversary of First Irish Parliament: Statements (18 Jun 2014)

Sean Barrett: ...it is hereby declared to be established and ascertained for ever, and shall, at no time hereafter, be questioned or questionable.But a negotiation that we thought was to last forever did not last longer than 18 years. The great parliamentarian and the Minister's fellow county man, Daniel O'Connell, speaking in Drogheda in June 1843, said:I want to make all Europe and America know it - I...

Seanad: Companies Bill 2012: Second Stage (10 Jun 2014)

Sean Barrett: ...statutory auditors and the procedures for removing them. There was a view in company law reform debate - a view that seems to have gone somewhat out of fashion - that some auditors were around too long and became part of the problem rather than the solution. The proposal was that there be a limit on the length of time an auditor can stay with any one company. Perhaps the Minister of...

Seanad: Industrial Development (Forfás Dissolution) Bill 2013: Second Stage (29 May 2014)

Sean Barrett: ..., Deputy Howlin, will address. I refer to regulatory capture of Departments by interest groups. The reform of our public administration which is at the core of this Bill - I support the Minister - and it has a very long way to go and I regret that it has not made sufficient progress and that there are not enough reforming colleagues like the Minister, Deputy Bruton, doing that job...

Seanad: Youth Guarantee and Rent Supplement: Statements (28 May 2014)

Sean Barrett: ...we need to do something to take the pressure off prices in the housing market. It is contradictory to have pressure on house prices and empty houses within the same commuting distance. It is not a long commute in any OECD country to travel for 30 minutes. The fact that the house one would really like is somewhere else should not detract from that. We will have to examine social housing...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Forensic Evidence and DNA Database System) Bill 2013: Second Stage (27 May 2014)

Sean Barrett: ...welcome the Minister and wish her well in her new appointment. I echo the sentiments of Senators O'Donovan and Conway in welcoming the Bill and the Minister. It is unfortunate that it has taken a long time for this to happen. We received the report on this from the Law Reform Commission in October 2005. As a new Minister with a new broom, the Morris, Smithwick and Guerin reports...

Seanad: State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (27 May 2014)

Sean Barrett: ...which very often seem to outnumber those of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform or the Department of Finance. Investment for short-term stimulus on all sorts of projects without long-term benefits results in an increase in the debt mountain. This is a problem we face with a debt to GDP ratio of well over 100%. Therefore, stricter controls are required on investment. The...

Seanad: Seanad Electoral (Panel Members) (Amendment) Bill 2014: Second Stage (14 May 2014)

Sean Barrett: ...House continues to expand and help Ministers and the Taoiseach in the governance of this country, for the reasons that I have mentioned. We have played a fantastic role since 1922 and since 1937. Long may it continue. I hope the independent university Senators are not lost, because I value them, just as the Minister does.

Seanad: Friendly Societies and Industrial and Provident Societies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (7 May 2014)

Sean Barrett: ...in Ms Dixon's report. There were some scandals. I heard a man in Spain who had taken money being interviewed by RTE. One deplores that and better regulation is needed. I praise RTE for that piece of investigative journalism. It was a long time ago. I think a youthful George Lee might have been on its perimeter. The money, however, was peanuts compared with what has happened since. If...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process (Resumed): Central Bank of Ireland (30 Apr 2014)

Sean Barrett: ...banks they may pursue whoever built the buy-to-lets, but if we can prove the person has been paying his or her rent the whole time, they cannot evict, directly or indirectly, that person. It is a long time ago since Charles Stewart Parnell was looking for fixity of tenure in Parliament. As we have Professor Honohan here, I ask that the Setanta Insurance issue would be pursued in Malta,...

Seanad: Protection of Children's Health from Tobacco Smoke Bill 2012: Report and Final Stages (17 Apr 2014)

Sean Barrett: ...bringing the matter directly to the Taoiseach and for coming up here to speak about it. Is it not a matter for reflection, as Senator Daly said, that this Bill, on which we are all agreed, has taken so long? Recently a letter went AWOL in the Department of Justice and Equality for 15 days. We really have to question this. We were all elected on a reform agenda. Is the system of...

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Apr 2014)

Sean Barrett: ...hope that asset prices might pick up at some stage delays the recovery of this economy. The ghost estates should be sold, for example. While they may be built in the wrong places, people can trade off longer commuting distances and get a bargain there. As Senator Quinn and I have observed, upward-only rent reviews also delay the recovery. It is not desirable to have NAMA hanging around...

Seanad: Merchant Shipping (Registration of Ships) Bill 2013: Second Stage (15 Apr 2014)

Sean Barrett: ...is listed in Schedule 3. As Senator O'Sullivan has confirmed, it would be pretty hard to get a boat into Tralee to register it at this stage because the canal between Blennerville and Tralee silted up long ago. The list needs to be updated. It would be fairly difficult to get any craft into Westport for registration because the draft is pretty shallow. As the Minister has said, the...

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Apr 2014)

Sean Barrett: ...with us the generous tributes to Daniel O'Connell by her majesty that we also mentioned Thomas D'Arcy Magee as one of the great Irish contributors to Canadian democracy. Later in the same day the longest standing finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, died. In his tribute the Minister, Deputy Noonan, said that he was forever accessible to the Government and the Irish community. He constantly...