Results 18,141-18,160 of 19,173 for speaker:Shane Ross

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: I thank the Chair.

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: I promise I will not interrupt him. The Minister will have a chance to reply to me. The cheque will be for €50 million every year for 12 years. That is my understanding.

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: That is €600 million.

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: That is also linked to the cost of living.

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: Neither I nor the Minister know what that will be between now and 2020. At the rate at which the Government is going, with the highest inflation rate in Europe, it will much nearer to €1,000 million than to €600 million.

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: What the Minister could do——

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: It is a very limited chance but I will continue if I may.

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: I thank the Chairman. I apologise to the Minister if I angered him. It was not my intention to do so. I still need to put a couple of things on the record which he may find somewhat unpalatable. In order to ensure that does not happen again I will try to make my remarks as milk-and-watery as possible. Having listened to him on "Morning Ireland" that day I heard a question being put to...

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: I did not say it was a condition laid down by the Minister.

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: The Minister is not at some Fianna Fáil local parish meeting——

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: ——but is in one of the Houses of the Oireachtas and he ought to behave as though he had the dignity of a Cabinet Minister and that he is in the House.

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: Perhaps we should have——

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: I shall return to that interview which the Minister gave on "Morning Ireland" which was very entertaining. I listened to it because I had been speaking beforehand. Apart from the fact that he made remarks similar to those he is making here about the contribution I had made earlier, he did not answer the question about the demand management report. The problem we have with his proposal for...

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: I am trying very hard to address the Chair but it is somewhat difficult. I will continue to where I was before I was so politely interrupted. The problem with the demand management report is that it is set up to manage the traffic after 2008 and to make recommendations. According to the Minister — I believe him — the tolling arrangement which is proposed is going to stay, once it is...

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: Without interruption.

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: I must have got something right.

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: The Minister said that. This is the most ridiculous and preposterous suggestion and hypothesis that I have ever heard. It is a statement made to carry the Minister through until May or possibly June and he knows he cannot bind his predecessors by this.

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: It is absurd to suggest that one has a demand management report which will not and has not produced alternative tolling arrangements. That is what it is about. It is about traffic management. The alternatives in this report are as follows. First, as the Minister rightly says, single point tolling in the same place. The Minister is right. Second, that tolling is put at certain selected...

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: I ask the Minister to wait a minute.

Seanad: Roads Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Shane Ross: The Minister is not down in Waterford Castle.