Results 16,921-16,940 of 19,173 for speaker:Shane Ross

Leaders' Questions (5 Oct 2011)

Shane Ross: Wait until this week.

Leaders' Questions (5 Oct 2011)

Shane Ross: What about the procedures?

Leaders' Questions (5 Oct 2011)

Shane Ross: Two weeks ago I raised an issue about the vast payment of €700,000 to the Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach on his retirement. I was given a plausible, albeit unconvincing, response that it was a legacy issue resulting from a deal negotiated under the previous Government. I propose to touch on something Deputy Martin addressed which is not a legacy issue. It is related...

Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2011)

Shane Ross: I am getting used to the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach replying to my questions by agreeing with the sentiments in them and then doing absolutely nothing. The vast fees paid to PwC, KPMG, Deloitte and Ernst & Young, a company that disgraced itself in Anglo Irish Bank, are completely indefensible. How long will the Government continue to pay these fees when there are equally reputable - or...

Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2011)

Shane Ross: I would like to lighten the Tánaiste's burden this morning by bringing him some good news from Frankfurt.

Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2011)

Shane Ross: The Tánaiste will be aware that Europe has woken up to the fact that bankers are not the only scandals in suits in the financial crisis. The draft regulation has surfaced this week pointing the finger very decidedly at auditors. They say there is no longer any trust between the clients of auditors, the public and the Government because auditors have betrayed that trust particularly in the...

Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2011)

Shane Ross: It also points out specifically - this is where Ireland comes in - that the auditing world is dominated by what it calls an oligopoly. By that, it means the big four - PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Deloitte & Touche and Ernst & Young. Nowhere is that problem greater than in Ireland, and the kernel of the problem is the consultancy work that has been given to auditors who are also auditing...

Leaders' Questions (29 Sep 2011)

Shane Ross: I have a question coming. The Government has invariably employed the big four to do consultancy work in the case of the banks, and at the same time, in many high-profile cases, they have passed the banks and given the all-clear for the solvency test. How long will the Government continue to accept the independence of these guys when they are patently compromised? How long will it continue...

Employment and National Internship Scheme: Motion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2011)

Shane Ross: Hear, hear.

Employment and National Internship Scheme: Motion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2011)

Shane Ross: Let me deal with the criticism regarding the absence of the Independent group last night. It is fair enough and I am as guilty as anybody if the group's number was not as high as it should have been. This is dangerous territory in which to tread, however, because, since I entered the House this evening, I have not seen a single Minister, in spite of this being a debate on jobs. I have seen...

Employment and National Internship Scheme: Motion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2011)

Shane Ross: Yes, but she was not here for a period of the debate.

Employment and National Internship Scheme: Motion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2011)

Shane Ross: This is the type of politics in which we should not indulge, but it started on the Government side of the House and people in glasshouses should not throw stones.

Employment and National Internship Scheme: Motion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2011)

Shane Ross: This is the only comment I will make on the matter as it is unproductive. This is a serious debate and if the only contribution people on the Government side have to make is to state not enough members of the Technical Group are present, it looks to me as though they are pretty bankrupt of ideas for sorting out the jobs problem.

Employment and National Internship Scheme: Motion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2011)

Shane Ross: I have not seen before or during this debate, or in Government thinking since it came to office, any radical change in its attitude towards job creation. Nobody on the Government side appears to think in any way outside the box. They seem to think with exactly the same paralysis as the previous Government on this issue. I acknowledge the internship programme and it is not fair necessarily...

Employment and National Internship Scheme: Motion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2011)

Shane Ross: I am glad to hear the Minister of State interrupting. He has come to life and I am glad to see that someone on the Government side has come to life. It is good. Stand up, speak and interrupt whenever you like. The other area in which the Government could do something is that of credit, which was mentioned by a speaker on the Government side of whom the Minister of State did not take any...

Employment and National Internship Scheme: Motion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2011)

Shane Ross: Enterprise Ireland is one of the least efficient organisations among the semi-State satellites and, I can tell you, that is saying something.

Employment and National Internship Scheme: Motion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2011)

Shane Ross: I agree with much of the Sinn Féin proposal-----

Employment and National Internship Scheme: Motion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2011)

Shane Ross: -----that many of these job creation entities should be merged, because they are quangos which do very little. They are established as window dressing to protect Governments so they can hide behind them and summon them.

Employment and National Internship Scheme: Motion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2011)

Shane Ross: The previous Taoiseach's solution to the unemployment problem was to knock together of all of the heads of the quangos but nothing happened. The Government is doing exactly the same.

Employment and National Internship Scheme: Motion (Resumed) (28 Sep 2011)

Shane Ross: I am glad the Minister of State is awake. Thank God for a voice from the Government benches.