Results 81-100 of 3,871 for speaker:Paul Gavan

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: What about the 2.5 million American troops? Is that neutrality?

Seanad: Action Plan for Education: Statements (6 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: I welcome the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Richard Bruton, to the Chamber. He made a fine speech. It is not often a Shinner would say that to a Fine Gael Minister.

Seanad: Action Plan for Education: Statements (6 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: Sinn Féin welcomes the Minister’s aspirations to work towards a world class education system. However, this statement is meaningless without adequate investment. Before we talk about where we want our education system to be, we first need to talk about where the system is right now and how the Government has managed it so far. The education system is a public service which Fine...

Seanad: Action Plan for Education: Statements (6 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: That is not a point of order. The Minister will get his turn at the end to address these points.

Seanad: Action Plan for Education: Statements (6 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: Yes, but we have to follow the rules of the House.

Seanad: Action Plan for Education: Statements (6 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: We need serious public investment in this sector and Sinn Féin is committed to carrying out such investment. The debate is changing and it needs to be presented clearly. Neoliberal right-wing politics has failed and bankrupted this country. While we on the left argue for progressive taxation to fund public services which will be universal for everyone, the parties on the right argue...

Seanad: Action Plan for Education: Statements (6 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Action Plan for Education: Statements (6 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: Fine Gael does not even organise in the North.

Seanad: Action Plan for Education: Statements (6 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: Does the Minister have anything to say to us about the baptism barrier?

Seanad: Budget 2017: Statements (11 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: It is Senator Conway-Walsh.

Seanad: Budget 2017: Statements (11 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: Our budget was costed by Senator Buttimer's Department.

Seanad: Budget 2017: Statements (11 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: I welcome the Minister of State. Today is significant in the history of the State, to be fair, as we have just witnessed the first Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil coalition budget. It is a landmark moment in which the right-wing parties of this State finally come together in a formal coalition of neoliberal politics. The Minister of State is quite a legend in neoliberal politics and the trade...

Seanad: Budget 2017: Statements (11 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: The Government has done nothing about that. It should speak with people in SIPTU who represent child care professionals and listen to what their coalition has to say. It has not done that. This is a regressive budget, a landlord's budget, a building developer's budget and a budget for those people who drove the economy off a cliff. In other words, it is in the best tradition of Fianna...

Seanad: Budget 2017: Statements (11 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: That is only for those being paid more than €100,000.

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: I want to raise one issue from yesterday's budget statement which needs to be aired again, namely the decision to extend the 9% VAT rate for hotels. I am very much against this. I was disappointed last night to see the head of the Restaurants Association of Ireland on Twitter mocking trade unionists who legitimately campaigned for the rate to be reviewed. I know there is a new tradition in...

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: Michael O'Leary.

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: Many Senators are proud to be trade union members. The Restaurants Association of Ireland gains hundreds of millions of euro in subsidies each year, while it refuses to engage with the Workplace Relations Commission and the joint labour committee, JLC, system, re-established by the previous Fine Gael Government. It is an organisation, along with the Irish Hotels Federation, which has...

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: Last week, The Irish Timesreported how a trade unionist in a hotel in Sligo was sacked. She was sacked simply for being a trade unionist. This was found out in an adjudication hearing at the Workplace Relations Commission. I understand the Irish Hotels Federation is now raising a fund to appeal that decision. These organisations are completely hostile to decent working rights in the...

Seanad: Rent Certainty (No. 2) Bill 2016: Second Stage (12 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: My colleague, Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh, has gone into the detail of the Bill and the reasons for it. I am keen to discuss it in terms of the context of the politics we have. I was struck by a phrase in the Dáil yesterday echoed by both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Deputies. The phrase was that the centre must hold. This has been the subject of considerable comment through...

Seanad: Rent Certainty (No. 2) Bill 2016: Second Stage (12 Oct 2016)

Paul Gavan: Hear, hear.