Results 41-60 of 3,356 for speaker:Feargal Quinn

Seanad: Finance (Local Property Tax) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2015: Second Stage (8 Dec 2015)

Feargal Quinn: I welcome the Minister of State and I have listened very carefully to what he said. I also checked the Department website and realised the amount of work put into this by Dr. Don Thornhill. He is somebody who has served the State well and even many years after that, he is willing to give time to it. I mentioned another man yesterday, Dr. T.K. Whitaker, to whom I spoke last night and who is...

Seanad: Prisons Bill 2015: Second Stage (7 Dec 2015)

Feargal Quinn: The Minister is very welcome. The Bill is also particularly welcome. I add to what others have said in terms of the great effort the Minister is putting in, but she is also achieving much success. I congratulate her in this regard. We are honoured to have her here so often introducing Bills such as the one before the House. I sent a birthday card today to Dr. T. K. Whitaker, who will be...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Dec 2015)

Feargal Quinn: We do not always recognise or praise the great work done by some people. I have just been at the human dignity award ceremony where the Ceann Comhairle presented an award to Barney Curley. I did not know the story of Barney Curley but the amount of work he does in Zambia, for which he is totally unpaid, is just wonderful. It is great that we in this House can recognise such actions because...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2015: Second Stage (3 Dec 2015)

Feargal Quinn: I welcome the Minister of State. I am delighted to have him here. What is particularly pleasing in the finance results that are coming through is that we have a surplus way beyond that which we anticipated, on which I congratulate the Minister of State and Department. I got one piece of advice from Senator Sean D. Barrett, namely, not to forget the shoebox. I asked him what he meant. I...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2015: Second Stage (3 Dec 2015)

Feargal Quinn: I welcome the chance to speak on this Bill. I would like to raise some issues relating to business, in particular, SMEs. Part 3 deals with various VAT issues. I would like to see the Minister doing more to help the retail sector, something Senator Mullins mentioned. In particular, we need to make it easy for retailers to succeed online. As we saw with black Friday and cyber Monday, this...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2015: Second Stage (3 Dec 2015)

Feargal Quinn: I thank the Acting Chairman.

Seanad: Order of Business (1 Dec 2015)

Feargal Quinn: It is always enlightening to listen to Senator Ó Murchú speak because he does so with concern and commitment. I have a difficulty, however, in that every time we seek to solve problems in other parts of the world we seem to be saying what they should be doing. I have a difficulty with that and especially in the case of Israel and Palestine. Palestine has continued to say it does...

Seanad: Motor Vehicles (Duties and Licences) Bill 2015: Second Stage (1 Dec 2015)

Feargal Quinn: The Minister of State is very welcome. The Bill is a very technical and necessary one. I take the opportunity to raise a couple of issues on the overall tax system for vehicles as a whole. We must ask why gardaí are even monitoring whether people pay their motor tax. In reality, checkpoints are a leftover from the 1920s and they are rarely seen in other European countries anymore....

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Nov 2015)

Feargal Quinn: I support Senator Crown's amendment to the Order of Business in respect of No. 59, which concerns the healthy living Bill. Bernard Hand has been a joy ever since I came in here. He has been a joy to meet and has been a joy to anybody he has shown around this House because he has not just shown people around the Houses of the Oireachtas as part of his job, he has done it with enthusiasm,...

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

Feargal Quinn: I appreciate what the Minister has said. In terms of having somebody who has the expertise but comes from, lives or has moved outside of the State, it would be a shame to limit ourselves and not have that benefit.

Seanad: Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011: Report Stage (26 Nov 2015)

Feargal Quinn: I am sure the Minister has an explanation for this situation. It does not seem to make sense to have two different charges in a modern era. The prices differ by quite a substantial multiple although we did not do the sums. It seems to me to be out of the question to have two different rates.

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Nov 2015)

Feargal Quinn: In the run up to the dark days of winter, should motorists be obliged to use their headlights during the daytime? This is not that they might see ahead of them but to ensure that they are seen. It is particularly important that motorbikes are seen. All cars in the European Union manufactured after 2011 have daytime running lights, DRLs, to improve safety. However, what about cars that...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2015: Second Stage (25 Nov 2015)

Feargal Quinn: I welcome the Minister of State. I am sure he is delighted to be here as the bearer of good news. We do not get good news very often but there is a quite a lot of good news in this year's Social Welfare and Pensions Bill. In the lead up to the general election the Government is prioritising legislation which will increase pay rates for civil servants, social welfare recipients and those on...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Feargal Quinn: I welcome the Minister of State. It is good to know he has listened to contributions on previous Stages and has accepted several of our amendments. I second the amendment. It seems to me that the phrase “have regard to” seems so much weaker. Replacing it with the phrase “to comply with” would strengthen it no end. I hope the Minister of State understands the...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Feargal Quinn: I second the amendment. Senator Barrett has explained the rationale for the proposal very well. There is a danger the Seanad could simply be ignored if this provision is not included in the Bill. We have had proposals on several occasions that only the Dáil should be required to give its approval, by way of resolution, for a particular report or document. It is important we stitch...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Feargal Quinn: I second the amendment. I agree with Senator Barrett in this regard. It is essential to have targets. Otherwise, how will we know how well we are doing? It is simply an aspiration. These amendments are worthy of being accepted.

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Feargal Quinn: I second this amendment. It makes a lot of sense. When I first came into this House 22 years ago, I could not get over the delays that there were with respect to the length of time it takes to get anything done. I noticed at that time that there was no date set for when State bodies had to publish their accounts. I started proposing amendments that they had to be published within three...

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Feargal Quinn: I fully support Senator Barrett's amendment and what Senator Norris has said. Senator Barrett refers to the example of what happened in the banking inquiry where people did not seem to remember advice or did not mention it because the advice was not written down. This proves it is essential that it becomes written down.

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Feargal Quinn: I will happily second it.

Seanad: Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2015)

Feargal Quinn: It makes sense that the Minister of State should accept Senator Barrett's amendment because the phrase "In nominating the chairperson and the ordinary members (other than ordinary members to whom subsection (2) applies) ... " does not seem to make sense. We should have the best advice. We should have those we want on the advisory council. Subsection (4)(a) seems to exclude them and...