Results 1-20 of 1,504 for at speaker:Gerard Craughwell

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (29 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: Currently, there is a debate going on in the other House on the triple lock. Somehow or other, the triple lock has got tied in to neutrality. We will have a debate in this House, I assume, at some stage in the near future, on the triple lock. It is particularly embarrassing as I move around diplomatic circles in Dublin that people are telling me that elected Members of Parliament in this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: National Cyber Security Centre: Discussion (29 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I welcome Dr. Browne and Mr. Stephens. First and foremost, I must compliment the witnesses. When we first mentioned cybersecurity in this House, at that stage we were struggling to get proper terms and conditions for the organisation but I believe the NCSC is happy with that now. It has moved quite a distance there. Certainly, internationally, as I travel around Europe, I am aware of the...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (28 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I know that, as a member of the media committee, the Acting Leader will have some interest in what I am about to say. Since the call for the European elections started, the short amount of time allocated to candidates on RTÉ News to try to get their points across is appalling. Then we get the also-running - people who might be less known. The ones who have some bit of a profile are...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (23 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I was contacted by a county man of the Acting Leader's, Councillor Paddy McQuillan, regarding sports capital grants. It is quite shocking that the bureaucracy in this country sometimes goes totally and utterly crazy. Councillor McQuillan told me that local sports clubs work hard to get capital grants but when they are presented with the paperwork to make the application, it is so complex...

Committee on Public Petitions: Reopening of Ennis, Nenagh and St. John's Emergency Departments: Discussion (23 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I will stick with UHL then. The system in the accident and emergency department is such that you go in, you are triaged and, once you are triaged, you are in the system. However, you can lie on a bed for hours without somebody seeing you. Why is there not a process manager in the accident and emergency department in UL who can ensure that a person is seen, even if there is nothing to say...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (22 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I also welcome the people from Castlebar. It is my mother’s home town. She is a Quigley from Snugborough. It is great to have them here and it is good of the father of the House to bring them. On a serious note, we had a debate in this House before the referendum. Serious questions were asked about the tax implications, the implications for social welfare law and other parts of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: ComReg’s Enforcement Functions: Discussion (22 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I come from an era when people used a telephone. Our guests probably do not remember that in order to make a call one had to go into a phone box and when somebody stood close to the phone box one had to open the door and say to the person, "Do you mind? I am on a call." As a result, people would back away. Now, people who are on mobile phones tell the dear, sweet secrets of their lives as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: ComReg’s Enforcement Functions: Discussion (22 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I do a lot of work in cybersecurity. Yesterday, I did some analysis with a local company in Dublin. All I can say is that I was absolutely horrified at the amount of information available on any one of us in this room. That includes mobile phone numbers, your mother's maiden name and your bank account details. It can all be purchased right now on the dark web. Surely, our Internet...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: ComReg’s Enforcement Functions: Discussion (22 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: ...boxes by the dominant player. I have just come back from the UK where I drove through Wiltshire and Somerset. There were telephone boxes all over the place. God help anyone who has a gammy battery in a mobile phone or who just never switched over to mobile phones and does not have a phone at home. I do not suppose there is much ComReg can do about it but it leaves us with a sort of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: Recent Developments in the EU on Security and Defence: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank the Chair for facilitating my attendance. I welcome the guests and thank them for their comprehensive opening statements. I asked the Tánaiste to address this first issue yesterday. The Government has given an undertaking that the Department of Foreign Affairs will set out a briefing document for Members of the Oireachtas on what Irish neutrality is. We have never had it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: Recent Developments in the EU on Security and Defence: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: While Dr. McDonagh is thinking there can I come in with two supplementaries? One is the lack of an intelligence committee in the Oireachtas. He seems to feel that that is a serious deficiency in our oversight. The second question is: as academics, have the witnesses ever been brought into a central forum by any government and asked to lay out what their priorities and research might be to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: Recent Developments in the EU on Security and Defence: Discussion (15 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I have a short input to make. I get worried when I hear people mixing overseas development aid and neutrality. I am looking here at 2013 to 2022. Some €2,236.55 billion was pumped into ten states as overseas development aid. When I look at the states in question and the military armament they have, they have viable air forces and viable navies and massive tanks, personnel carriers...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: The marine services serving Ireland are a vitally important part of our import and export trade.Our major harbours are served by pilots. Our pilots have no set of qualifications that they must adhere to. They have been looking for qualifications and training commensurate with what is available at other European ports but there is nobody interested in driving forward the professionalism of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I thank the Tánaiste for a very comprehensive report. I found it very down to earth. It covered many areas that it is time we covered in the open. I ask the Tánaiste to ask his Department to draft a briefing document for Members of the Oireachtas which explains exactly what neutrality is. Quite frankly, I am tired of being overseas and hearing people talk about Paddy...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: If you look at Mozambique, it has 60 battle tanks, 417 personnel carriers, 24 military aircraft and 30 ships at sea.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Foreign Affairs Council, UN Matters and Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO: Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs (14 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: That is fair enough. The second matter to which I wish to refer is the triple lock. I sincerely hope we will be successful in removing that. If we are, I ask the Tánaiste to look at the possibility of Ireland joining the joint expeditionary force, the purpose of which is to protect the North Atlantic and the assets in the North Atlantic. I am going to cede the remainder of my...

Seanad: Europe Day: Statements (9 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I also congratulate the Minister of State on her elevation to Minister of State with responsibility for defence and European Affairs. As a proud European, I would love to be here speaking on the great things membership of the EU has delivered for Ireland. Sadly, I must devote time to the growing perception of Ireland as a nation of freeloaders weakening Europe and seen as the open back door...

Seanad: Europe Day: Statements (9 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: We need to back away from our Paddy neutrality and become serious about real neutrality. Our negligence in all matters of defence and security will in the heel of the hunt damage Ireland's attractiveness for FDI and, once lost, it will take years to retrieve. I regret having to point out that the Minister of State's portfolio includes defence yet we are told that she has no role in...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (8 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I join the Cathaoirleach in offering my condolences to the D'Arcy family. Today we had the annual Defence Forces 1916 ceremony. The Cathaoirleach did us proud by reading a prayer as Gaeilge, which, as a former sáirsint from An Chéad Cathlán Coisithe, Gaillimh, was lovely to hear. I thank him for that. It is ironic that we were honouring the Defence Forces and the founding...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (2 May 2024)

Gerard Craughwell: I, too, would like to be associated with the sympathies to Michael's family. I welcome the Polish ambassador. I could not trump the Cathaoirleach's words. He said everything we needed to say. The ambassador is always welcome in the House. Yesterday, I mentioned overseas development aid and the moneys flowing out of Ireland to other countries. We have to start asking a question. If...