Results 1,621-1,640 of 3,356 for speaker:Feargal Quinn

Seanad: Order of Business (12 May 2010)

Feargal Quinn: If this House is under threat, as it is, it is in our own hands to earn respect, regard and our future. That means we should talk about action, what we are going to do and what should take place rather than merely look to the past. I offer a particular case, one that Senator Walsh has brought up on several occasions. It jolted me when he drew our attention to the cost of the various...

Seanad: Order of Business (11 May 2010)

Feargal Quinn: The Leader of the Opposition, Senator Fitzgerald, has called on the Government to do something about job creation and, understandably, criticised the number of reports sought and task forces and committees set up during the years to tackle the issue. However, that is the way we will achieve it. We have the answer in that the way to achieve job creation is through the creation of...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 May 2010)

Feargal Quinn: Last Friday my office rang a Department to ask if there was a reply to a letter I had sent in the first week of March. We were told that owing to the work to rule since January no letters were being replied to. There are times when we can put up with a certain amount of difficulty, but to have a work to rule for that length of time without a function being performed is impossible. We must...

Seanad: Order of Business. (5 May 2010)

Feargal Quinn: I support Senator McFadden's comments on today's 1916 commemoration ceremony. I have attended it on several occasions but found this year's event to be particularly moving because of the remarks of the Bishop of Down and Connor, the Rev. Noel Treanor. Every time he mentioned "education" he also mentioned "research". The success we enjoyed in the economy was due to a number of factors, of...

Seanad: Criminal Law (Insanity) Bill 2010: Report and Final Stages (5 May 2010)

Feargal Quinn: I add my voice to that appeal. The word "insanity" does not fit into the language used nowadays. The term "mental disorder" works a good deal better. I refer to the original Bill when Stewarts Hospital, which I visited recently, was opened in 1870. The word used then was "lunatic". It seems we have changed the word used from "lunatic" to "insanity" and it is time to change it again. I...

Seanad: Ministerial Pensions: Motion (5 May 2010)

Feargal Quinn: I wish to share time with Senators Ross and Doherty.

Seanad: Ministerial Pensions: Motion (5 May 2010)

Feargal Quinn: The Minister of State is welcome. I also welcome the fact that we are having this worthwhile debate. It is interesting because about 25 years ago I made a comment, long before I was ever involved with this House, about ministerial pensions. I said I had been amazed to discover that former Ministers still with the same employer, namely, the State, were drawing ministerial pensions. The...

Seanad: Order of Business. (28 Apr 2010)

Feargal Quinn: I usually object when we seek a division on the Order of Business to delay matters to have an urgent debate but I second Senator O'Toole's call today. This topic has caught the imagination of the House and it was interesting to hear both Senators Ellis and Donohoe speak on it. If we are to attract the best people to politics, we must ensure it is regarded highly. The matter is not just...

Seanad: Order of Business. (22 Apr 2010)

Feargal Quinn: And Kieran Mulvey.

Seanad: Order of Business. (22 Apr 2010)

Feargal Quinn: Senator Mary White made a strong case for the victims of thalidomide. Those of us who have met them know how strongly that case needs to be made. That applied to those thalidomide victims in Europe. An interesting point is that there was no thalidomide allowed into the United States. The reason it was not allowed into the United States was because of a strong woman who was in charge of...

Seanad: Fines Bill 2009: Second Stage. (22 Apr 2010)

Feargal Quinn: I welcome the Fines Bill 2009. The cost to the State of keeping an offender in prison for one week has been estimated at more than €2,000, a sum in excess of the great majority of court fines.

Seanad: Fines Bill 2009: Second Stage. (22 Apr 2010)

Feargal Quinn: I was unsure whether I had done something wrong. The 12 year term for bankruptcy is longer than many jail terms handed down for manslaughter. According to the Free Legal Advice Centre, 276 people were imprisoned last year, some of them twice, on foot of non-payment of civil debt court orders. The jump in the number of people being imprisoned is worrying and I assume it is due to the...

Seanad: Fines Bill 2009: Second Stage. (22 Apr 2010)

Feargal Quinn: ): When is it proposed to take Committee Stage?

Seanad: Fines Bill 2009: Second Stage. (22 Apr 2010)

Feargal Quinn: ): When is it proposed to sit again?

Seanad: Order of Business. (21 Apr 2010)

Feargal Quinn: The announcement today of 1,000 new jobs in the retail sector this year is very welcome. We talked about good news yesterday. Of particular interest is that the retailers are providing 150 places free of charge for training for these jobs. I mention this because it is an example of a section of the community doing something rather than asking the Government to intervene. I have spoken...

Seanad: Order of Business. (20 Apr 2010)

Feargal Quinn: When I am on holidays, I sometimes ask the newsagent if he can give me a newspaper with good news only. That does not often happen. We have had two weeks away from the House and I worry there is a danger that we have forgotten how to talk about good news. We face serious challenges from volcanoes, financial attacks and everything else but there is a great deal of good news out there and I...

Seanad: Order of Business. (20 Apr 2010)

Feargal Quinn: One day a week or better.

Seanad: Order of Business. (20 Apr 2010)

Feargal Quinn: When I played rugby, on one occasion our trainer talked about the attacking and defending teams. I asked what he meant by the attacking team, whether that was when the ball was on the field. He said, "No," but had to think for a moment. He said the attacking team was the team in possession of the ball, even on its own back line. I suggest that is a message we have to send to the rest of...

Seanad: Inland Fisheries Bill 2009: Second Stage. (20 Apr 2010)

Feargal Quinn: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh. This Bill is likely to be welcomed by everybody. When speaking before the Minister in this House some time ago on a different topic I quoted a seanfhocal I recalled from my school days: "Éist le fuaim na habhann agus gheobhfaidh tú breac" or listen to the sound of the river if one wishes to catch a fish. With this Bill the Minister has...

Seanad: Inland Fisheries Bill 2009: Second Stage. (20 Apr 2010)

Feargal Quinn: Wal-Mart plans to continue selling farmed fish but has said it will eventually source all of its wild caught seafood from fisheries certified as sustainable by the US Marine Stewardship Council. A positive development in Ireland comes from Ocean Harvest Technology. This Galway-based company has developed a product called OceanFeed to replace the synthetic additives currently used in...