Results 1,841-1,860 of 5,754 for speaker:Gerard Craughwell

Seanad: Air Navigation and Transport Bill 2020: Committee Stage (5 Oct 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I have no doubt about the Minister of State's commitment to date. She has always been an honourable person and I accept her bona fides. My comments are not directed at her at all but she will not always be in her post.

Seanad: Air Navigation and Transport Bill 2020: Committee Stage (5 Oct 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: The Minister of State will move on to greater and better things and she may finish up as Taoiseach, which would be great for Galway. We are talking about the current organisation and not her. We have all said that there is a toxicity in that organisation at the moment. Perhaps a new CEO or chairman will make all of that better but I do not know. This debate is not about the Minister of...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I join with Senator Boylan on the issue of animals. My dog of 11 years died recently and I wanted to replace him. As one cannot find pups in the various rescue centres at the moment, I decided to search online and discovered that puppies are being sold for up to €3,000 each. Let us think about the outrageous amount of money that can be earned from one litter of pups. There also are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank Mr. Fraser for attending the meeting. It is good of him to appear before the committee. He spoke a great deal about process and procedures. Indeed, he spoke at the finance committee in June 2021 about his belief that process and procedure are the way we should do business. I assume that, as the most senior civil servant in the country, he is an expert in process and procedure....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: As the most senior civil servant advising the Taoiseach and the Cabinet, I assume Mr. Fraser has meetings on a weekly or more frequent basis with Government advisers, the chef de cabinet and perhaps Ministers, and I am sure he is well used to a situation where eleventh-hour issues come before the Cabinet, for example, a couple of hours before a Cabinet meeting something urgent arises that he...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: Mr. Fraser was aware of it before the Cabinet meeting. Did he not feel the need to advise the Taoiseach?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: Mr. Fraser is a well-accomplished individual. His appointment as an ambassador came before that Cabinet meeting as well. The allegation before this committee and in the public domain is that this country is dogged with jobs for the boys. Did Mr. Fraser go through a process whereby he applied and was interviewed by the Top-Level Appointments Committee for his post as ambassador? It seems...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I think it is fair.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: In fairness, Zappone-gate is sitting front and centre before us. A senior member of the Civil Service was appointed to a foreign office, that is, an ambassador's role, apparently without any public competition or any appearance before the Top-Level Appointments Committee for civil servants. I think that this committee is entitled to an answer. We cannot put the Zappone appointment in a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: What was the process?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: Mr. Fraser has been very-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: Mr. Fraser has been very straight and honest.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: Given his experience, I would think he is the ideal man for the job in London. That is not the point; the point is that we cannot ring-fence the Zappone appointment and say it was done on a "jobs for the boys" basis, when two senior civil servants were also appointed to ambassadorial roles. They should have been interviewed and should have applied for the posts. The positions should have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: They both speak for Ireland.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I have one final question. It concerns all Ministers' telephones. We have been asking about it for a while, and I was told at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications the other day, that all Ministers' telephones are encrypted. The issue of the Minister for Foreign Affair's phone being hacked is a very serious one. Would Mr. Fraser regard it as being up there with a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I think it is an important one.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank Mr. Fraser. I apologise for any embarrassment I may have caused, but I felt I had to ask those questions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Appointment of Special Envoys: Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach (29 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: Chairman, I respect your integrity above all things. I have always found you very straight. However, Mr. Fraser is on record as being adamant about process and procedures. Process and procedures is what we are talking about here. One cannot ring-fence one appointment from that day and forget about the other two. Three appointments went before Cabinet without process and procedure that is...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (28 Sep 2021)

Gerard Craughwell: Today, the new Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Major-General Seán Clancy, takes over an organisation that is in very poor shape. I wish him the very best. There is a new Secretary General in the Department and I know that she will work with him to try to rebuild the force. My colleague spoke about front-line workers and of how those who worked in the medical sector should be...