Results 1,721-1,740 of 3,356 for speaker:Feargal Quinn

Seanad: Seanad Reform: Motion (20 Jan 2010)

Feargal Quinn: I wish to share time with Senator Ross. I have listened to every Member who has spoken in this debate and I have found it very interesting. In two weeks' time I will begin my 18th year in the Seanad. I appreciate the opportunity to have become involved and many Members share that view. I have been impressed with the level of debate in the Seanad during those 18 years and with what has...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Jan 2010)

Feargal Quinn: I add my words to those congratulating Senator Pascal Mooney. He is very talented and has shown a great interest in a wide-ranging number of topics. I am delighted to have him back. He has been a Member of the House ever since I came to the House 16 years ago and I have always found him very interesting.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Jan 2010)

Feargal Quinn: I support Senator Norris's call for a debate on the first item. The best part of the proceedings of this House very often takes place on the Order of Business. To restrict that is something we should decide not behind closed doors but in this House and, therefore, I formally second the motion made by Senator Norris. I have a concern about the unbridled use and right to strike. The air...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Jan 2010)

Feargal Quinn: We have a real problem with our economy. We must get our costs down, become competitive and use modern technology. For people to close down, not only our airports and the aeroplanes that fly from and into them but also all passing traffic across the Atlantic which must now veer away from us, is not acceptable. The air traffic controllers in the US went on strike the very week former US...

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (18 Dec 2009)

Feargal Quinn: My question is very simple and echoes the point made by Senator Alex White. Senator White took an example from table 3 so I will take one from table 2. If the intention is that a public servant with a basic salary rate of more than €125,000 should pay 15% of basic salary, which amounts to €31,500, only one line of text is necessary to state it. However, if it is done the way I...

Seanad: Companies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009 [Seanad Bill Amended by the Dáil]: Report and Final Stages (18 Dec 2009)

Feargal Quinn: I add my words to those of Senator John Paul Phelan. There are dangers in Ireland responding too quickly to a need in case it damages our reputation. The steps taken by the Government are attractive but well balanced. It is important from the point of view of the international financial organisations that we do not damage in any way the good name we have established over the years. Other...

Seanad: Companies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009 [Seanad Bill Amended by the Dáil]: Report and Final Stages (18 Dec 2009)

Feargal Quinn: I indicated that I wanted to speak because I understand the challenge faced by the Minister of State in this respect. When this legislation was proposed I wondered how he would sort it out. As he has explained it so well, I do not need to touch on it. The highest price and the lower price of shares must be published on the date of purchase. If there were a number of purchases of a share...

Seanad: Companies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009 [Seanad Bill Amended by the Dáil]: Report and Final Stages (18 Dec 2009)

Feargal Quinn: I had an opportunity to speak on the Order of Business and wished everybody a happy Christmas but I have not yet wished the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, a former Senator before he was demoted to the Lower House, a happy Christmas. I thank him and his team. This is an intricate Bill and progressing it must have taken a great deal of deep thinking. I congratulate him and his team on...

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill 2009: Committee Stage (18 Dec 2009)

Feargal Quinn: I had not planned to speak on this amendment. The Minister said there is considerable difference between business and Government. We talk about having to negotiate. A good manager will negotiate, although there are times when a manager's job is to manage. If that manager's job is to manage and if the alternative is disaster, at some point the manager must say to the unions and employees...

Seanad: Houses of the Oireachtas Commission (Amendment) Bill 2009 [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil]: Report and Final Stages (18 Dec 2009)

Feargal Quinn: I examined the Bill and did not quite understand the need for this so the Minister of State explained it well. In the Constitution if there is a doubt about the meaning of words, the Irish language takes precedence. When I was still in my 20s, I ended up in the Supreme Court with a case against me to do with the word "discrimination". I argued the law being used against me had used the word...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Dec 2009)

Feargal Quinn: This is one of the few days in the year on which we do not call for an urgent debate on a particular topic. I remind Members, in the context of the criticism we have heard in the past year which may weaken our resolve, of what we can achieve in the House. We are listened to and have the power to influence issues. Yesterday a number of Members related a coherent expression of concern about...

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill 2009: Second Stage (17 Dec 2009)

Feargal Quinn: I regard my experience in running a business as not unlike the experience of running a Government. It is so easy to do in the good times and it is so easy to be critical in the bad times. In the good times of running either a Government or a business it is easy to explain that challenges exist which need to be faced but that everything is going well and the profits can be divided and...

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Dec 2009)

Feargal Quinn: One very important development in education in the past 13 years has been the leaving cert applied. I was chairman of the committee of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment that established it 13 or 14 years ago. Since then, thousands of students have passed through the leaving cert applied. It is a full leaving cert but it measures the talents and intelligence of people not...

Seanad: Budget 2010: Motion (16 Dec 2009)

Feargal Quinn: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Billy Kelleher. Before the Minister arrived there was an interesting chat between two past college mates, Senator Pascal Donohoe and another Minister of State, Deputy Calleary. I gather they were in the same class. I beat them by approximately 30 or 40 years and I also did national economics under Professor George O'Brien and Professor James Meenan...

Seanad: Order of Business (16 Dec 2009)

Feargal Quinn: It may seem strange to support Senator McFadden's call in regard to the reduction of tax on alcohol. I was contacted yesterday by a person who explained that reducing the duty on alcohol on 9 December means that those small wholesalers referred to by Senator McFadden which bought all of their alcohol before Christmas and have not yet sold it, of which there are approximately 50 in the...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2009: Second Stage (15 Dec 2009)

Feargal Quinn: I thank Senator Norris for sharing time. The Minister is very welcome, as is her speech and the details it contained. The challenges facing the Minister certainly entail many difficult decisions. It will never be easy to make social welfare cuts of any sort. The headline in this week's The Economist read: "Ireland shows the rest of Europe what austerity really means". The article also...

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Dec 2009)

Feargal Quinn: I welcome Senator Ó Brolcháin. It is good to have him in the House and we look forward to lively debates with him in the future. I support what has been said by Senator Hanafin. The future of this country will depend to a very large extent on science. We have taken a viewpoint in recent times that science has gone away from our target policies. I am thinking particularly of the issue to...

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Dec 2009)

Feargal Quinn: Senator Hanafin asked us to be careful about the words we use and referred in particular to suggestions of riots and protests in response to the budget. One of the Government's objectives in the budget, an objective all of us should have, is securing international recognition from the financial markets. It will be interesting to see if we achieve that. It appears that steps being taken in...

Seanad: Climate Change: Statements (10 Dec 2009)

Feargal Quinn: I am delighted this debate is taking place and to have the opportunity to contribute to it. Approximately three years ago I was on Ryan Tubridy's television show, "Tubridy Tonight". There was an interesting debate and towards the end of the show he asked me whether I would go back into the supermarket business if I was starting out in business now. I said "No" and that I believed there...

Seanad: Order of Business (8 Dec 2009)

Feargal Quinn: Will the Leader state whether we are to have a debate on the budget tomorrow? I have been in this House for 16 years and, to the best of my knowledge, we have had a debate on every budget within an hour of its announcement. It seems unusual that we are to debate the expiry dates of gift vouchers, an issue which I am sure is very important. However, if the House is to receive the...