Results 17,821-17,840 of 19,173 for speaker:Shane Ross

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: Are we obliged to take the remainder of what the Leader says as seriously as we must take that comment?

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: I do not trust myself.

Seanad: Postgraduate Medical Training (21 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: Not yet; next year. This matter relates to the need for the Minister for Health and Children to address the lack of specialist registrar training in maxillofacial surgery. This specialist area includes treatment of afflictions relating to facial trauma and cancer of the head, neck and tongue. It is a surgical specialty in which the lack of training is acute and disturbing. To qualify for...

Seanad: Postgraduate Medical Training (21 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: I would like to ask two supplementary questions. When can we expect a training programme to be made available? Can the Minister of State explain what in the name of God she meant when she said "reasons cited for withdrawal of approval included a lack of complexity in workload"?

Seanad: Postgraduate Medical Training (21 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: What does the phrase "lack of complexity in workload" mean? I do not know what it means. I do not understand it.

Seanad: Postgraduate Medical Training (21 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: Yes.

Seanad: Postgraduate Medical Training (21 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: Will the same Minister be taking this matter? The Minister, Deputy Martin, would do it very well as he is a former Minister for Health and Children. He would probably be happy to take it.

Seanad: Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Act 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: I am sure Senator Norris will be pleased with the reference to Independent Members' sitting on the boards of the banks, even though he is not here to hear it. No doubt someone will convey it to him in due course. The speech made by the Minister of State confirmed some of the difficulties many of us have with this scheme. It is as difficult, as the Fine Gael Party has found, to oppose a...

Seanad: Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Act 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: Lots and lots of tax breaks for property. That is where the connivance of the Government lies. These have been extended time and time again, giving developers a field day. Let us not pretend that is not the truth. Let us allocate the blame a bit here and a bit there, but let us not take the line that we are the victim of a global problem. It is my contention that whatever the merits of...

Seanad: Credit Institutions (Financial Support) Act 2008: Motion (17 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: Why?

Seanad: Cycling Facilities. (15 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: This Adjournment motion is about the need for the Government to improve facilities for cyclists in Dublin city. I am aware that the Minister is issuing what he calls a sustainable travel and transport plan and will be bringing it to Cabinet in the coming weeks. It is a very ambitious plan to put 150,000 commuters on the roads, and substitute them for cars by 2020. However, it is a plan...

Seanad: Cycling Facilities. (15 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: I am not a member of the Opposition.

Seanad: Cycling Facilities. (15 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I believe his heart is in the right place. He said that achieving a shift to the bicycle of this magnitude will require actions. That is pretty flabby. Are there commitments to carry out these actions or are they aspirations? Will they be carried out? Is the money there for them or are they simply what the Department of Transport has listed...

Seanad: Budget Statement 2009: Statements (15 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: Many of us on these benches, one of whom is Senator Norris, would have liked to have co-operated and welcomed this budget and the coming Finance Bill. There was a sense that we were in a state of financial emergency and that we should rally around and not be ultra-critical of everything that occurs. It is very easy to be critical and it is easy to be in opposition in this period because any...

Seanad: Primary School Funding: Motion (8 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: I would like to share my time with Senator Buttimer. I was somewhat disappointed with what the Minister had to say, but I welcome the Minister of State to the House. If one reads between the lines of what the Minister had to say, it looks as if there will be a freeze on educational spending next week. The speech he made was peppered with code words like "as resources permit", "in the...

Seanad: Primary School Funding: Motion (8 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: I would have thought the ambition should be one each at this stage. It is devastating that we have such limited ambitions for education, and it appears we are being softened up and at the very best we will get no progress, no expansion and no kept promises. The issue of school buildings is one with which the Minister of State will be familiar. It is totally unacceptable that anybody should...

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: I wish to be associated with the remarks from all sides of the House on the death of Jack Tobin. I remember him very well, as a different type of clerk from the current ones. That is not pejorative or complimentary. He was a rather distant, severe and very traditional man. On my first day in the House I put down a motion on Seanad reform.

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: It is a tribute to him. It was Jack Tobin who put me right on this and told me I was unlikely, in that session, to make a great deal of progress. That was 28 years ago. He was not particularly enthusiastic about the motion, and he got his way. In many other ways he was robust in his views which he could convey in a particularly subtle way. He was never party political in any sense of the...

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Educational Projects (2 Oct 2008)

Shane Ross: The matter I wish to raise is the need for the Minister for Education and Science to expand educational development to increase the numbers of non-denominational schools in Ireland, thus avoiding the reinforcing of sectarian divides by separating children according to denomination during their core school hours. The Minister is well aware that Ireland is a rapidly developing multicultural...