Results 361-380 of 3,241 for speaker:Brian Ó Domhnaill

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: And Tory Island.

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: I support Senator Ó Clochartaigh on the farcical situation regarding Meitheal Forbartha na Gaeltachta, which continues to emerge with no finality being brought to bear on the matter. As Senator Ó Clochartaigh mentioned, people working for the organisation have not been issued with P45s or given a direction on whether they will obtain employment in a new organisation. The Minister for the...

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: I do. I support the call for the Minister for Health to come to the House. Last year, he undertook the Dublin marathon with myself and others and I have not seen him since. He may have got lost on the course-----

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: -----but I appeal to the Leader if he is on mile 19 or 20 to go out and collect him and bring him to the House so we can discuss with him the real issues of the day. A major issue facing disabled people who have been in receipt of motorised transport grants for the past ten, 12 or 15 years from the Department of Health as the applications they are making this year are being refused. Over the...

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: It would be very appropriate to see the Minister for Social Protection come to the House to explain why resources are not being made available to process and pay out these applications. Families are struggling to keep their children in school. It is an absolutely farcical situation.

Seanad: Sport: Statements (4 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Ring, to the Chamber. His was a passionate address, particularly the last minutes of it. It was like the all-Ireland football final when Dublin overtook Kerry in the last couple of hundred seconds. Given the passion at the end of his speech, I hope he will tog out for the Oireachtas Gaelic football team when it plays the sports journalists in Croke...

Seanad: Sport: Statements (4 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: We might even allow him to score a point. I understand that Senator Eamonn Coghlan is in goals. Senator Harte will represent us at another sporting occasion elsewhere in the world. There are certainly sports people in the Chamber. This is an important debate. Often, sectors like sports and the arts get squeezed, particularly at a time of economic necessity when people are watching how...

Seanad: Sport: Statements (4 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: Perhaps an invitation could be extended through the Chair.

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: I support the calls for a debate on the mortgage issue which is crippling the country with more than 60,000 families in mortgage arrears. The Minister for Finance should come to the House to address a range of issues. The Keane report has taken an excessively simplistic approach to solving the problem and we need to think outside the box to solve it. I support Senator Jim D'Arcy's call for...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: Devolved powers have been given to the Stormont Assembly.

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: It is very rich to claim it does not believe in cuts in the Republic while presiding over those same cuts 60 miles up the road. Sinn Féin Members cannot talk out of both sides of their mouths just because they believe the electorate want to hear what they have to say.

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: We need a debate on that issue and let us challenge the position coming from those in Sinn Féin who are doing one thing in Belfast and saying another thing in Dublin.

Seanad: Public Policy and Planning: Statements (13 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe, to the House. The significance of statistics in shaping public policy is often overlooked. Often when we think of statistical information, we think of the work of the Central Statistics Office. However, we generally only think of the Central Statistics Office when there is a census and forget about the important work it does between censuses....

Seanad: Public Policy and Planning: Statements (13 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: While there are many small farmers in County Donegal, there are many excellent farms in the Minister of State's constituency.

Seanad: Public Policy and Planning: Statements (13 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: They have the prospect of benefiting hugely from the CAP proposals announced yesterday. I wish to make a final point in respect of ghost estates.

Seanad: Public Policy and Planning: Statements (13 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: It is an indication of how the gathering of statistics can be highly beneficial. In fairness to the Minister of State, Deputy Penrose, almost 3,000 ghost estates have been found and 179,000 units are lying empty. This information is of critical importance, as a database now is available of what works must be done and how this can be got on target. The only thing not available is the money...

Seanad: Special Educational Needs (13 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: My motion relates to funding that was approved for the autism unit in Finn Valley College, Stranorlar, County Donegal, which has more than 300 students. Funding was approved for the old building of the former school before the new building was built. That building has recently been completed and the students moved in in September. The previous Minister approved funding for an autism unit...

Seanad: Welfare of Greyhounds Bill 2011: Second Stage (25 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: I welcome the Minister of State to the House and the fact that he has dealt with this matter appropriately, on the basis that agreement was reached when the dog breeding establishments legislation was brought before the previous Oireachtas. It was agreed at the time that separate legislation would be brought forward to cover the greyhound industry. I pay tribute to many of my colleagues in...

Seanad: Fur Farming (25 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: This matter relates to the fur farming industry in Ireland and I am glad to see the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, in the Chamber to take the matter, which is a burning issue in my own area. There are five fur farms nationally, with two of them from my part of the country. Fur farms last year exported 200,000 mink pelts to the value of €7.5 million, produced from local raw materials....

Seanad: Fur Farming (25 Oct 2011)

Brian Ó Domhnaill: I thank the Minister of State. I fully appreciate his point of view, but the difficulty the industry is facing at the moment is that the operators do not know whether they will have a future. They need to know one way or another because they wish to invest in their farms to build the industry up to the level they desire. If they invest in raw materials over the winter, when they are...