Results 1-20 of 4,465 for speaker:Jim Walsh

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Registration of Deaths (3 Feb 2016)

Jim Walsh: Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit go dtí an Teach inniu. Go n-éirí go mór leis sa toghchán romhainn. I welcome the Minister. I would like to start by expressing again our sympathy for the Enright and Walsh families on what was a real tragedy, with the loss of a wife, a daughter and a granddaughter, and a very traumatic event for the family. We covered...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Registration of Deaths (3 Feb 2016)

Jim Walsh: I know from talking with members of the family that they were appreciative of the manner in which the Minister of State approached this sensitive and traumatic situation in which they found themselves. It was a car crash and the mother was obviously driving the car. She was totally in the right and was driving on the correct side of the road when the other car veered across and crashed into...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Registration of Deaths (3 Feb 2016)

Jim Walsh: They ignored all the evidence.

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Registration of Deaths (3 Feb 2016)

Jim Walsh: It will not surprise the Minister of State to know I fundamentally disagree with him on repealing the eighth amendment.

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Feb 2016)

Jim Walsh: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Feb 2016)

Jim Walsh: I join in the tributes to the Cathaoirleach, who has been an exceptionally fair and impartial chairman. I wish him well and hope he might allow me to air a few reflections on what is probably my last day.

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Feb 2016)

Jim Walsh: Apart from that, it is genuinely meant. I will start by noting that I came across a quotation a few years ago that really struck me as commendable as a political philosophy. It was by Fr. Pedro Arrupe, a Superior General of the Jesuits of whom Pope Francis is a particular devotee and it states "Let there be men and women who will bend their energies not to strengthen positions of privilege,...

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Feb 2016)

Jim Walsh: There has been much discussion and focus in the House for some time on drugs and excessive drinking. I wish to turn my attention to the latter. There is a need for the Government to take a much firmer hand in trying to dissuade people, particularly the young, from consuming alcohol to excess. A hotel owner who is a friend of mine said to me some years ago that if we were fortunate enough...

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Feb 2016)

Jim Walsh: I am seeking a general debate on housing.

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Feb 2016)

Jim Walsh: Yes.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Jan 2016)

Jim Walsh: One does not seem to be able to turn on any television or radio station at the moment without hearing a debate on whether taxes should be cut or public spending increased. It is extraordinary but I suppose symptomatic of the failure within the media that at no stage have I heard anyone being questioned about tackling unnecessary or wasteful public expenditure. I have argued it here before,...

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Jan 2016)

Jim Walsh: I have spoken with them.

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Family Support Services (27 Jan 2016)

Jim Walsh: The purpose of this Commencement matter is to ask the Minister to outline the specific initiatives the Government plans to implement to promote and support married families and the objective of addressing child poverty. I was prompted by comments made by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs at the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child where he said that children who grow up in...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Family Support Services (27 Jan 2016)

Jim Walsh: I thank the Minister for her response. Joblessness is certainly an issue and, unfortunately, it is often a consequence of divorce and separation. One of the partners - it is usually the woman with children, especially if she has worked in the home - may find it difficult to cope financially. The problem is that the cycle must be broken. As the Minister correctly stated, children of...

Seanad: Order of Business (27 Jan 2016)

Jim Walsh: I join with other Senators in complimenting our colleagues in the Seanad who served on the banking inquiry.They did Trojan work, as did Members from the Lower House. It shows how important the Members of this House are to the democratic process. They were not in any way outshone by Members of the Lower House. My office is just a few doors away from Senator MacSharry's and I witnessed the...

Seanad: Local Government Review: Statements (26 Jan 2016)

Jim Walsh: Some 19 years ago when I was first elected to this House, I said at one of our parliamentary party meetings that having spent 18 years on Wexford County Council, I was not entitled to anything when I left it. I would get no payment or pension, yet when I arrived here I got a booklet telling me all my entitlements. I felt that it was manifestly unfair and discriminatory against councillors....

Seanad: Local Government Review: Statements (26 Jan 2016)

Jim Walsh: Perhaps a mini cabinet could be formed by the chair of the council and the chairs of the SPCs working together, which was part of the proposals we made at that time. Unfortunately Noel Dempsey was not reappointed to that ministry, where I think progress could have been made. We urgently need a devolution of powers from the Department to the council. I am astonished to learn that Department...

Seanad: Local Government Review: Statements (26 Jan 2016)

Jim Walsh: -----without looking for any benefit because talking about local government is probably my swansong.

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Foreign Conflicts (21 Jan 2016)

Jim Walsh: Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. In putting this Commencement matter to the Minister I wish to emphasise, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade has acknowledged this, the terrible persecution of Christians in the Middle East and Africa by Boko Haram, Daesh and various other bodies. There is a growing awareness that this is a systematic killing of minorities such as Yazidis and...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Foreign Conflicts (21 Jan 2016)

Jim Walsh: I thank the Minister of State for his fairly comprehensive reply. He dealt with the issue of genocide which, as he went on, I thought he would not. We need to be careful. There are radical ideological groups within the UN, in particular. It is not an organisation that is as kosher as it would like to pretend. If our blood brothers and sisters were being taken, raped, forced to convert...