Results 141-160 of 3,664 for speaker:Ciarán Cannon

Seanad: Public Transport Regulation Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (8 Oct 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: The changes proposed in section 45 on page 28, lines 24 to 30, to insert new provisions in section 38(9) of the Act of 1994, lead me to believe the authority constituted under this legislation will have some role in establishing speed limits on roads. Currently the power to impose speed limits on our national primary and national secondary roads rests with the NRA, while the power to impose...

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Oct 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: On 18 June my colleagues and I highlighted the damage the travel tax imposed by the Government in its revised budgetary arrangements would cause to the tourism industry. Many months later the tourism renewal group has finally come around to our opinion. We were criticised in June for rowing in behind the allegedly spurious claims of Michael O'Leary of Ryanair but Aer Lingus, CityJet, the...

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Oct 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: The Senator's 30 seconds are up.

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Oct 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: This morning in County Galway alone 24,000 people got up with nothing to do. They are unemployed but the vast majority of them do not want to be unemployed. They are more than willing to roll up their sleeves and make whatever contribution is needed in their communities. I know this because a huge number of them have told me so. At the same time, Galway County Council, like many local...

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Nov 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I did not intend to speak this morning on the Order of Business until I heard Senator Hanafin make the same hypocritical and cynical call for patriotism which his colleagues have been making for the past few months. It started with the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, during his Budget Statement who was followed by the Tánaiste, Deputy Mary Coughlan, last week. They have been...

Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: The concept of NAMA is born out of a deeply misguided attempt by an inept Government to kickstart our banking system. I do not subscribe to the theory that the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, is engaged in some sort of underhanded attempt to bail out the members of the golden circle who were complicit in bringing us to where we are today. This has never been the case and I genuinely trust...

Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I would prefer to trust the words of the Nobel prize-winning Professor Joseph Stiglitz when he dismissed as nonsense the ideas that governments must act when banks run into difficulty. He went on to say that what we were actually doing was proposing to rob the taxpayers by socialising the losses while privatising the gains associated with the banking crisis. We are asking people to...

Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: Professor Stiglitz went on to confirm the Fine Gael view that protecting the taxpayer from losses-----

Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: -----is the best route to restoring Ireland's economic reputation and creditworthiness. Why would anyone want to lend to or invest in a country that caves in so easily to powerful financial interests? We were also promised that there would be a genuine sharing of the risk associated with NAMA but, despite the assurances given to the Green Party, the risk-sharing commitments now contained in...

Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I suggest it would not be very long. That is the question that should be asked of every proponent of NAMA. Would he or she bet his or her house on it? Would he or she bet his or her family's livelihood on it? Would he or she bet his or her children's future on it? If he or she would not, he or she has no moral authority to take this gamble on behalf of the people of this nation.

Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: We would all have hoped that some sort of credible provision would have been made in the NAMA legislation to ensure that once the banks are bailed out, they would once again begin lending to indigenous businesses. That provision should have been at the very heart of this legislation and we should have seen a significant shift in the balance of power from the bankers to the Government....

Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I did not say the Minister is a criminal.

Seanad: National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (9 Nov 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: NAMA fails on the question of morality, on the question of sound economic thinking and, most sadly of all, it will fail the people who look to us to guide them safely through the toughest economic challenge this country has ever faced. I am deeply saddened that our country is going down this route. It is small consolation to me that I can look my son in the eye in ten years' time and tell...

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Nov 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I congratulate Senator Carroll on his election to the Seanad and wish him well in what surely will be a long and productive career in what remains, despite the actions of a few, a noble profession.

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Nov 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I congratulate the Leader on having the foresight and common decency to arrange for a debate on flooding in this House this afternoon. I believe that decision may have been driven by his experience in his own locality over the weekend. I heard on radio that Senator McFadden and her sisters are currently travelling around Athlone distributing sandbags to their neighbours to help stop the...

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Nov 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I have never witnessed anything like it. People in their 80s, some of whom are neighbours of mine, have never witnessed flooding of the like that has occurred during recent days. That despair was crystalised for me by a conversation I had with a businessman from Gort who telephoned me on Sunday night. He has been unable to secure insurance cover against flooding in recent years because the...

Seanad: Flooding: Statements (25 Nov 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for his good work of recent days in travelling to places throughout the country, such as County Galway, to see the devastation that has befallen people in those areas. He has a sense of the despair and despondency there. Perhaps this sense of what has occurred and of the tragedy that has befallen many people has not dawned on some of his...

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Nov 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: One would get the sense from some contributions this morning that our flooding crisis is over and that we should be conducting a post mortem to establish how to prevent a recurrence. The flooding is far from over; in fact, it is only beginning. In Athlone this morning the water level of the River Shannon is 50 cm above the highest level every recorded. In south Galway ten more families...

Seanad: County Galway School Closure (26 Nov 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy Haughey, is more than familiar with this ongoing saga. He probably has an in-depth knowledge of the issues involved at this stage. Seamount College in Kinvara is one of the finest second level institutions in the country. The community of Kinvara and south Galway was traumatised almost two years ago when the announcement was made by the Sisters of...

Seanad: County Galway School Closure (26 Nov 2009)

Ciarán Cannon: I thank the Minister of State for his response. It was my understanding that at this point the planned provision of second level education at Kinvara is to be done through that leasing arrangement with the nuns. I hoped the response would contain a significant amount of detail on how that leasing arrangement is progressing. However, I thank the Minister for State for his response. I would...