Results 1,721-1,740 of 3,623 for speaker:Ulick Burke

Seanad: Schools Building Projects. (3 May 2006)

Ulick Burke: I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this item. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern, to the House. The proposal is that the Minister for Education and Science would sanction and indicate the resources she will make available for the extension to Mercy College, Woodford, County Galway. This school was built as a stand-alone school in the 1980s for 220 students. With an...

Seanad: Schools Building Projects. (3 May 2006)

Ulick Burke: There was no mention of special needs in the reply and I ask the Minister of State to emphasise that.

Seanad: Order of Business. (27 Apr 2006)

Ulick Burke: I support the call for a debate on voting procedures and the electoral register. I recall that during or immediately after the last general election, at a polling station in south Galway, 40 valid voting papers were declared invalid. I inquired into this because a large number of votes for me, which I considered to be valid, were declared invalid. It would not have made any difference to the...

Seanad: Order of Business. (27 Apr 2006)

Ulick Burke: It is not just a situation concerning the electoral register. The whole appointments procedure for presiding officers and clerks should be scrutinised more carefully than has been the case heretofore.

Seanad: Order of Business. (27 Apr 2006)

Ulick Burke: We cannot legitimately complain about people's lack of determination to vote when, in such instances, one sees a high percentage of votes invalidated through that mechanism. The Minister should attend the House for a debate to review the entire voting procedure, not to mind the question of electronic voting. I shudder to think what would have happened if some of those traditional presiding...

Seanad: Order of Business. (27 Apr 2006)

Ulick Burke: I hope we will have such a debate soon. I ask the Leader to request the Minister for Education and Science to review her determination to publish school evaluations on her Department's website against the wishes of the teachers' unions. In order to maintain goodwill with the teachers, the Minister must carry out further consultations on this matter. Following their recent conferences, some of...

Seanad: Order of Business. (27 Apr 2006)

Ulick Burke: The Senator should remember what happened to Senator White.

Seanad: Order of Business. (27 Apr 2006)

Ulick Burke: The Senator should remember what happened to Senator White.

Seanad: Order of Business. (26 Apr 2006)

Ulick Burke: The Minister of State, Deputy Fahey.

Seanad: Order of Business. (26 Apr 2006)

Ulick Burke: Does the Senator recognise this fact?

Seanad: Order of Business. (26 Apr 2006)

Ulick Burke: He is a socialist.

Seanad: Order of Business. (26 Apr 2006)

Ulick Burke: Over the past four or five months, oil distribution companies in the west have been taken through the courts by the Competition Authority with regard to price fixing. Thankfully, they have been dealt with appropriately but it appears now that that idea is being taken up in the waste collection area. Allegations were made against five refuse collection companies in the west and it is...

Seanad: Order of Business. (26 Apr 2006)

Ulick Burke: The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has stated that an incinerator will not be located in his constituency, while the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government will not allow an incinerator in his constituency in County Wicklow, despite the fact that the majority of illegal dumps are found in that county.

Seanad: Order of Business. (26 Apr 2006)

Ulick Burke: It is important that we have a debate to resolve these difficulties and discover whether the Government has a policy on waste disposal.

Seanad: Water and Sewerage Schemes. (5 Apr 2006)

Ulick Burke: I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this matter for debate on the Adjournment. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, to the House to discuss a project in County Galway that has been promised for a long time. The circumstances in Kinvara Bay are unique. The continued discharge of raw sewage into the bay must be an embarrassment to Galway County Council and to the...

Seanad: Irish Language: Motion. (5 Apr 2006)

Ulick Burke: Cuirim fáilte leis an Aire. Gabhaim buíochas le gach Seanadóir a bhí páirteach sa díospóireacht. Senator Maurice Hayes made a very important statement. I was considering asking my colleagues not to call for a vote on this motion. However, the Minister has made a wildly political statement with regard to the language and this motion. The Fine Gael proposals were designed to initiate a...

Seanad: Irish Language: Motion. (5 Apr 2006)

Ulick Burke: He does not blatantly expound Irish as some do, like Senator White. The choice was offered to students that they could take two subjects in Irish post junior certificate.

Seanad: Irish Language: Motion. (5 Apr 2006)

Ulick Burke: The Minister told the House she was a teacher of Irish up to honours leaving certificate standard for 17 years. It was amazing that she should have said that she would not understand or recognise that when the choice was given, those who would take Irish at the highest level at leaving certificate would be those who wanted to learn and be involved in Irish. It is a point the Minister...

Seanad: Irish Language: Motion. (5 Apr 2006)

Ulick Burke: If we do not tackle the current mindset of the Minister, she will not move forward in a positive way and make Irish a living language for the many students who want it.

Seanad: Irish Language: Motion. (5 Apr 2006)

Ulick Burke: I move: That Seanad Éireann: —noting that our young people receive 1,500 hours of education in the Irish language throughout their schooling, at an estimated cost of €500 million per annum; —recognising that Irish is the only subject that all students are required to take after the junior certificate examination; —deeply concerned at the fact that, in spite of this situation, many...