Results 1,201-1,220 of 4,608 for speaker:Joe O'Toole

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: Name and shame.

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: From what party are they?

Seanad: National Insulation Programme: Motion (18 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: I disagree fundamentally with Senator Boyle.

Seanad: National Insulation Programme: Motion (18 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: I find this to be an extraordinarily divisive motion. I can barely speak and hold my breath dealing with it because I am so angered. I have no problem with my colleague on the other side of the House who was not present, who joined this House only in 2007 and who can hold no responsibility for the things I will mention now. I am angered that Fianna Fáil would dare table a motion aimed at...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: I agree with many of the points made by Senator Fitzgerald. As I said yesterday, I am totally frustrated because I do not understand the Government's strategy. The Government seems reluctant to do a fair deal with the social partners that could be accepted by the general population, even though it has an opportunity to do so. That possibility has been clearly rejected by the Government in...

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: I could not agree more with Senator Fitzgerald's final comments. We have all received telephone calls from schools. This morning I spoke to a representative from a school in Kilrush who was in tears about how the school would deal with a child at the end of a peninsula. The school cannot see how a child who is very seriously disadvantaged can be helped without these classes. We will come...

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: What are we doing? Are the people on these committees clear about what they are doing? They are walking into trouble. There must be a clear understanding about these issues. The regulation committee should be doing the tedious, painstaking work of examining auditing and governance structures, auditing stress tests, reporting procedures and responsibilities, and ethics arising from...

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: It makes one feel a bit stupid and foolish, after all the effort we put into the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act and our demands that it be commenced, that it is suspended. Some of us travelled around the country to explain it to people. Not only has the Act not been commenced but the Minister for Education and Science displayed a cowardly attitude in coming into...

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: Houses have been built for the past nine years under the wrong regulation and we have been aware of it. Nothing was done about it.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: I accept that.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: On a point of order, we were warned by the Government not to call the levy a tax.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: I have regularly raised the issue of bank recapitalisation, but every time I raise this question people tell me why we need to do so. I have no problem with recapitalising the banks but can someone explain to me how that can lead to the release of credit to small shopkeepers and other small businesses?

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: It has not been explained. It has not worked in the United Kingdom or the United States. The British chancellor was almost in tears because after giving billions to the banks over there, they told him to go away. I am not trying to catch the Leader out on this, but if he does not know the answer I would like him to check it. Banks are owned by their shareholders who decide what is to be...

Seanad: Stabilisation of the Public Finances: Statements (5 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Máire Hoctor, to the House. I will not get involved in a debate about who is to blame for all this. We are where we are and we need to find a solution to the problem. The Government's action, standing alone and unchanged, is unacceptable. I received a telephone call yesterday from a nurse who is married...

Seanad: Stabilisation of the Public Finances: Statements (5 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: Some people dipped into their pension, and they should be jailed. In the meantime, I want to tell those workers that this is what the State is for. If I have to pay extra to do that, I will be happy to do so. If people in the public or private sector are in danger of losing their houses because they cannot meet their mortgage repayments and if we are prepared to insure banks, then we...

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: On a point of order, I thought we had dealt with this before. I thought there was an acknowledgement by the Government that when a Minister is on business in the Seanad he or she is automatically paired. I apologise for interrupting the Leader.

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: Is the Cathaoirleach informing me the Opposition parties will not allow a pair?

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: That is appalling.

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Feb 2009)

Joe O'Toole: I thank the Leader of the House for addressing our request to have the issue we raised yesterday dealt with diplomatically with the Head of State at the Vatican. I note it worked wonders and that he responded fully by yesterday afternoon. That is the way the Seanad should be: effective, efficient and topical.