Results 41-60 of 29,292 for speaker:Brendan Howlin

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: That is what the Tánaiste has just embarked upon.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: Then he is ascribing base motives.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: The Tánaiste either is or he is not.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: But nobody is suggesting that.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: The Tánaiste should answer the questions rather than make charges about people.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: The Tánaiste said that I am here a while, and I recognise a debating tactic when I see one. He created a straw man so he could knock it down. It is not proper for the Tánaiste to say that I suggested I want to erode an apolitical public service. Nobody suggested that. I am saying that an evolution is happening. I have tabled amendments over the years to allow for association...

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: This is an association, not individual members. The Bill states, "2A. (1) An association shall not—"

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: An association-----

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: Does the Tánaiste think it right that an association, in saying the association should exist, etc., should not make a public statement or comment concerning a political matter or matter of Government policy?

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: But-----

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: Of course.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: Is the way to resolve that issue that we would agree on to put a blanket prohibition on anything that is Government policy?

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: That is what we are trying to drill down to.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: Yes.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: But is the response that there can be none?

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: We have not reached it. That is the problem.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: I am not trying to be all things to all people.

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: The Tánaiste has indicated that he will reflect on what we have said-----

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: -----and I will see if he comes back with his own-----

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (23 May 2024)

Brendan Howlin: -----that meets what he feels is required.