Results 13,341-13,360 of 13,375 for speaker:Pat Rabbitte

Order Of Business. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: When are we going to deal seriously with the question of reforming how we organise our business in this House? It is a disgraceful denigration and debasing of Parliament that the Government Whip already liberally uses the guillotine at the beginning of the second formal week of this term in the second year of the Government's life. A case has already been struck down in the High Court because...

Order Of Business. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: We can stay at home and the Taoiseach can rubber-stamp it.

Order Of Business. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: There is certainly no challenging that.

Order Of Business. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: On that basis we do not need to attend, and it is not just the commission report——

Order Of Business. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: How we have changed.

Order Of Business. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: The Whips' meeting is the place to organise business. The Taoiseach is now offering to extend the time spent debating the report of the Laffoy Commission to about an hour and three quarters, at best, by the time the Order of Business has concluded. This is not adequate to discuss a report of this significance. The Minister for Education and Science can smile all he likes, but he is the one...

Order Of Business. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: The Minister forced the collapse of the commission.

Order Of Business. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: The Minister should read the comments Ms Justice Laffoy made about the Minister and his predecessor. The Taoiseach came to the House and shed crocodile tears about the unfortunate people who were abused and the Minister responsible thinks it is a laughing matter. The Taoiseach has accused me of jumping off the religious. I am not sure what it means but it sounds naughty.

Order Of Business. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: Whatever it means, it is not true.

Order Of Business. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: It is a cheap shot. The Taoiseach went and fixed the deal with Deputy Woods. He was up a pole erecting posters. It is a disgrace for the taxpayer.

Order Of Business. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: Those on the Government benches can laugh all they like. They have got smug and comfortable.

Order Of Business. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: I wonder what kind of noise the Tánaiste, Deputy Harney, would have kicked up if she were sitting on the Opposition benches. She is now so soporific that she would agree to anything.

Order Of Business. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: What the Taoiseach is proposing is not acceptable.

Order Of Business. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: Private Members' Business will interrupt it.

Order Of Business. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: What is good for the goose is good for the gander. Did the Ceann Comhairle not hear the word "lie"?

Order Of Business. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: Is the Taoiseach giving additional time after Private Members' Business to discuss the report of the Laffoy commission?

Order Of Business. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: In effect, we are getting no extra time to discuss the report of the Laffoy commission.

Order Of Business. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: We cannot dispose of it in one 20-minute and four 15-minute speeches. This is an outrageous proposition and the Government knows it.

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: I am prepared to take at face value what the Taoiseach has said in his assessment of the politicians he has dealt with. Is there not a question about the intelligence on which they rely? We have seen dramatic and unprecedented evidence of this in the past 72 hours where the President of the United States is prepared to reverse engines on the reasons for going to war and is now inquiring into...

Dublin-Monaghan Bombings. (3 Feb 2004)

Pat Rabbitte: ——presumably because the British intelligence services are afraid the American inquiry will show they relied on the Brits——