Results 21-40 of 5,010 for speaker:Joe O'Reilly

Seanad: Energy Security and Climate Change: Motion (7 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I second the amendment. I join with my colleague, Senator Coffey, in welcoming the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, for his maiden speech in the Seanad. It is clear from the thrust of the two previous contributions, and from all reasonable debate on this area, that in future there must be a push for increased use of geothermal energy in housing and on a larger scale in power stations. There...

Seanad: Energy Security and Climate Change: Motion (7 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: It is certainly the case.

Seanad: Energy Security and Climate Change: Motion (7 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: We would welcome the addition of more.

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I ask the Leader to contact the Ministers for Social and Family Affairs and Finance and arrange a debate on the following matter. Some 40,000 people receive non-contributory pensions in Ireland, under a means tested process. Up to 30,000 of these are women who were forced out of the workplace because of the marriage ban. For reasons outside their control they do not have enough credits to...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I rise to support the views expressed by Senator O'Toole and echoed by others on the barbarous treatment of the young Saudi woman. We should be unequivocal in our condemnation of this at the highest levels and I ask the Leader of the House to ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs to raise this issue at the relevant forum and make a firm statement on it. In the light of Government policy on...

Seanad: Postal Services: Motion (21 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I move: That Seanad Éireann: notes that an efficient and speedy postal service is an integral part of a competitive economy; is deeply concerned by the 247 post offices that were closed down from 2002 to 2006 and the further 15 closed up to July 2007 and the knock-on effect in rural communities of such closures; notes that it is rural parts of Ireland that are suffering most in terms of...

Seanad: Postal Services: Motion (21 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I join with Senator Brady and others in welcoming An Post's representatives. I was unaware of their presence when I spoke earlier. I particularly welcome Mr. Angus Laverty, a senior manager in communications, who is particularly helpful in his contact. I acknowledge and applaud Senator Brady's previous professional involvement with An Post, his role in the trade union movement there and...

Seanad: Postal Services: Motion (21 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: Absolutely. He talked about negativity in our presentation of the motion but that was groundless and the record will substantiate this. I acknowledged An Post's 4% improvement in next-day deliveries this year. I acknowledged the advance in industrial relations, for which management must accept some plaudits. Senator Brady was aware of this because of his former trade union activities. I...

Seanad: Education Policy: Statements (22 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I welcome the Minister and acknowledge her courtesy to my three sons when they recently visited Leinster House. The Minister chatted to them and they were taken with her description of the Seanad as a centre for talented adults. I hope today's debate confirms that. This is a significant debate on an important area. Education is the greatest catalyst for opportunity we have. It liberates...

Seanad: Order of Business (29 Nov 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: It would be in order and timely if the Leader again conveyed our very best wishes to Cardinal Seán Brady, who is making his return from Rome today. He is to arrive in Dublin and will later be escorted by the PSNI from the Border. It is an historic day for Ireland and the Cardinal personally. It merits repeating that he is an exceptional pastor and a great scholar, and he is absolutely and...

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: The crisis caused by cocaine and substance abuse is extremely serious and pernicious, reaching into every community. We need to debate a strategy to deal with this. Young people need the confidence to say "No". There should be a drop-in centre for young people in every urban centre in the country, such as a café with discreet counselling services and an infrastructure for youth. The...

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I concur with Senator Ó Murchú's remarks about celebrities and the media. This is a national crisis which requires all-party agreement, the relevant Minister to come to the House, harnessing all State agencies and taking a holistic approach. We must, however, create a society in which young people can have the confidence to say "No". That is the kernel of the solution.

Seanad: Budget Statement 2008: Statements (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: The Senator has a short memory.

Seanad: Budget Statement 2008: Statements (Resumed). (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Noel Ahern, to the House. The tragic backdrop to today's budget is the waste of the boom years. There is no improvement in services, traffic is in gridlock, class sizes are enormous in suburban schools and the health service is paralysed. We have created neither a fair society with the money earned in the boom nor a...

Seanad: Budget Statement 2008: Statements (Resumed). (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: For capital expenditure too. The budget is not progressive. In the year 2000 the Government published a climate change strategy that proposed a carbon tax by 2002, more investment in buses, the cessation of coal use at Moneypoint power station by 2008, rebalancing vehicle registration tax and integrated traffic management. None of this happened and consequently we are over our emissions...

Seanad: Budget Statement 2008: Statements (Resumed). (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: There should also have been a provision to grant aid the marshalling of water from old corn and flax mills to provide power to alternators to create electricity locally. I should acknowledge that my colleague, Senator Burke, has raised the question of domestic wind turbines on a number of occasions in this House. The increases in social welfare are just about adequate but do not take enough...

Seanad: Budget Statement 2008: Statements (Resumed). (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: More than €1.5 billion is to be borrowed and there is no statement that we will arrive at current expenditure.

Seanad: Budget Statement 2008: Statements (Resumed). (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: On a point of information, would it be in order to ask——

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: It is timely, after yesterday's budget, for me to renew my plea to the Leader on behalf of non-contributory old-age pensioners and those who will shortly apply for this pension. I propose that we remove the means test for this pension. The bulk of pensioners in this country are on a contributory pension, have a State pension or have private pension schemes. We are talking about...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: ——who did not come above the radar on tax and PRSI, and people who were duped in the workplace and did not have their cards stamped, to use the old colloquialism, or in other words people whose employers did not pay their PRSI contribution. The majority of people who apply and receive non-contributory old-age pensions are deserving. The cost of administering the means test must at least...