Results 21-40 of 6,030 for speaker:Brendan Ryan

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: If the Minister said he would consider it, I believe that.

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: If the Minister thinks that I do not believe him, I assure him that I do.

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: Fine.

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: The former Fianna Fáil Chief Whip in this House, Senator Fitzgerald, was appointed as an assistant film censor. I do not know enough about his hobbies to know if he has specific skills and talents in film-making.

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: The Minister provided in the Bill that the people he would appoint would, in his opinion, have a special interest or expertise in the matter.

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: Amendment No. 17 requires the Minister who forms the opinion that a person has a special interest or expertise to state that in writing so the rest of us will know the basis for the appointment. Under the Freedom of Information Act it would be possible to extract the correspondence exchanged in the process. If legislation states that persons are to be appointed who, in the opinion of the...

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: In my naïveté, I assumed that to make an appointment, a Minister considered some documentation and concluded from it that someone was appropriate. All I want is the conclusion the Minister draws from the documentation. Is it a case of an appointee simply raising his or her hand? This could be onerous only is if there is nothing written down already. These are serious appointments to serious...

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: I move amendment No. 17: In page 11, subsection (6)(a), line 22, after "Minister" to insert "for reasons stated in writing and laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas".

Seanad: Business of Seanad. - Digital Hub Development Agency Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: I am astonished by the degree to which the Department of Education and Science and other Departments – I do not include the Minister's Department – seem to believe that when it comes to expertise there is only one sector of third level education. The last time I checked the board of the Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation there was nobody from the technological sector of...

Seanad: Health Services: Motion. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: I move: That Seanad Éireann, noting with alarm the deteriorating condition of the health services and the failure even to make proper provision for the Government's own health strategy, condemns (1) the failure of the Government to provide appropriate additional funding to hospitals affected by the winter vomiting virus, (2) the decision to increase both accident and emergency and drugs...

Seanad: Health Services: Motion. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: There are two approaches I could take in response to this debate. If I were to attempt to respond to the arguments from the Government side, I would have to conclude immediately as I heard nothing that I did not know already. The Government Senators seem to have become clones of the Minister, Deputy Martin, as they spout statistics in large amounts. Anyone who has followed the health service...

Seanad: Health Services: Motion. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: Nobody in the last Government was capable of thinking in new terms. The Labour Party suggested that the country should follow the French health service model, which is the most successful in the world. The Government decided to build on our system, which was not working, so now we have a larger system that still does not work. Fundamentally, we can afford the resources needed by the health...

Seanad: Health Services: Motion. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: When it came to a general election, the people in County Westmeath knew who to vote for, and it was not Senator Glynn but Deputy Willie Penrose who told the people the truth – that they were getting a bad health service.

Seanad: Health Services: Motion. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: They did not listen to the Senator, they listened to Willie Penrose.

Seanad: Health Services: Motion. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: I apologise. I remember the Cathaoirleach's letter and apologise.

Seanad: Health Services: Motion. (23 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: I am intrigued by Senator Glynn telling me I should not forget next time. That is classic Fianna Fáil – forget the future. Fianna Fáil wants to forget its past and the promises made before the general election, all of which will be broken because it lacks the will and ideology to deliver the public services this country needs. Amendment put. The Seanad divided: Tá, 27; Níl, 21. Tá

Seanad: Order of Business. (24 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: It is worth pointing out that teachers have been sacked because church authorities have deemed their behaviour incompatible with the school ethos. It has happened in universities too – it happened in Maynooth. It is not, therefore, just a theoretical abstraction.

Seanad: Order of Business. (24 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: Yes, it was upheld by the Supreme Court. I agree with Senator O'Toole. Our debate should not impinge on the criminal investigations, which I hope are now ongoing, but we need to reflect on the institutional arrangements in the State, the degree to which they can be used to cover up the crimes of individuals and, to the degree that it exists, how the well-being of an institution is assumed to...

Seanad: Sub-committee of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges: Motion (Resumed). (24 Oct 2002)

Brendan Ryan: I have been a Member of this House for over 20 years and have found in that time that Senators are often too defensive about Seanad Éireann. An examination of the campaign for social reform shows that many matters were first discussed in this House at times when they could not have been raised in the other House. The matters to which I refer include controversial topics like divorce and...

Seanad: Order of Business. (6 Nov 2002)

Brendan Ryan: As the officially endorsed representative of the younger generation on these benches since the Members behind me claim seniority and therefore recognise—