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<title>Tommy Broughan - Recent appearances (From KildareStreet.com)</title>
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<dc:date>2009-04-15T16:11:17+00:00</dc:date>

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<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-09.30.0&amp;m=99#g301.0">
	<title>Order of Business | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-09.30.0&amp;m=99#g301.0</link>
	<description>We have lost approximately 60 routes and 1,000 journeys; it is another disaster from Deputy Dempsey.  People will be walking to work next week and it is not a laughing matter.</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="301.1">We have lost approximately 60 routes and 1,000 journeys; it is another disaster from Deputy Dempsey.  People will be walking to work next week and it is not a laughing matter.</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-09T11:00:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-09.30.0&amp;m=99#g299.0">
	<title>Order of Business | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-09.30.0&amp;m=99#g299.0</link>
	<description>Another Bill on which the Government has been working for approximately 12 years is the bus licensing Bill.  Will we have an opportunity before the session ends today to discuss the incredible...</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="299.1">Another Bill on which the Government has been working for approximately 12 years is the bus licensing Bill.  Will we have an opportunity before the session ends today to discuss the incredible Dempsey bus cutbacks which were listed this morning?</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-09T11:00:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-09.2.0&amp;m=99#g28.0">
	<title>Requests to move Adjournment of D&Atilde;&iexcl;il under Standing Order 32 | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-09.2.0&amp;m=99#g28.0</link>
	<description>I seek the adjournment of the D&Atilde;&iexcl;il under Standing Order 32 to raise a matter of local and national importance, namely, the need for the Minister for Transport to ensure that vital Dublin Bus and...</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="28.1">I seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 32 to raise a matter of local and national importance, namely, the need for the Minister for Transport to ensure that vital Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann fleets and services are fully maintained and protected; to abandon the appalling programmes of bus cutbacks, which were apparently confirmed last night or this morning, in light of the critical role of buses for urban and rural communities across Ireland; to report to the Dáil, as a matter of urgency, on the steps he and his colleagues are taking to address the serious industrial relations difficulties at Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann; and to use all of the State’s industrial relations mechanisms to avoid a disruption to bus services from this weekend.  If the Ceann Comhairle does not agree to this request, perhaps he will allow me to ask a Private Notice Question on the same subject later today.</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-09T10:30:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-08.329.0&amp;m=99#g617.0">
	<title>Financial Resolution No. 11: General (Resumed) | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-08.329.0&amp;m=99#g617.0</link>
	<description>I intend to address transport issues and the bail-out of the banks.  Earlier today I witnessed the pathetic attempts by the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Ryan,...</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="617.1">I intend to address transport issues and the bail-out of the banks.  Earlier today I witnessed the pathetic attempts by the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Ryan, to explain his wretched party’s decision to support the bail-out.  Last night, the Green Party crossed the Rubicon.  Not only is it propping up the efforts of Fianna Fáil to bail out its developer and banking friends but it has also sold out its key principle of sustainable public transport.  More than €315 million was slashed from the transport budget.  This reduces the 2009 public transport provision to €630 million, whereas the vast bulk of expenditure is still going on roads.  Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann are set to lose nearly 300 buses from their fleets under the current programme of cutbacks overseen by the Minister for Transport, Deputy Dempsey.  Commuters in communities across Ireland have been devastated by this news, which will particularly impact on low income families, senior and other vulnerable citizens.  The Green Party backed the Minister’s disturbing comment that the €10 million in cuts to CIE’s subsidy will be offset by the sale of public transport lands.  This fatally undermines any prospect for integrated public transport.</p><p pid="617.2">I was amazed to be presented this morning with a glossy copy of the Government’s third annual report on Transport 21.  This has become a work of fiction given that all the modest Transport 21 gains for the Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann fleets will be wiped out under the proposals to cut 300 buses from their fleets.  In terms of critical bus services, therefore, the new report is obsolete.  A further €150 million has been slashed from public transport funding.</p><p pid="617.3">The most alarming element of the supplementary budget summary presented by the Minister for Finance refers to deferrals and rescheduling of public transport projects.  I am left with the suspicion this is just a fig leaf for the abandonment of key public transport projects.  Public transport infrastructural projects which are set to be deferred or rescheduled this year reportedly include metro west, the electrification of the Maynooth line, the upgrading of the Dublin-Maynooth and Cherry Orchard-lnchicore lines, the Kilbarry rail station on the Cork-Blarney commuter line and Luas power upgrade works.  The Navan rail line, the western rail corridor and, despite the Minister for Transport’s assertions, the Dublin rail interconnector are also threatened.  This budget represents an appalling surrender by the Green Party on public transport.</p><p pid="617.4">The national assets management agency or bad bank plan proposed in this budget is an unprecedented and outrageous assault on Irish families.  In the words of Joe Stiglitz, “it is a win-win-lose proposal: the banks win, investors win - and taxpayers lose”.  Each Irish citizen will have a burden of as much as €100,000 placed on his or her shoulder as a result of the grotesque incompetence of the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance.</p><p pid="617.5">It is such an appalling gamble with our future that it needs to be placed before the people in a general election.  We need to see change throughout the banking structure and its senior management and we need more change on the benches opposite than a reduction in the number of Ministers of State.  We need a new face in this country, as the rating agency rightly said, and a general election.</p><p pid="617.6">Irish citizens may face liabilities of more than €120 billion in bailing out property developers and speculators.  The dodgy deals that span the globe are dangerous beyond belief.  Why are the chief executives of AIB, Mr. Eugene Sheehy, and the EBS, Mr. Fergus Murphy, still in place?  Why has Bank of Ireland promoted an insider to the position of chief executive officer?  If this Government will not take the banking sector by the scruff of the neck, it must be replaced.</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-08T20:00:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-08.329.0&amp;m=99#g596.0">
	<title>Financial Resolution No. 11: General (Resumed) | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-08.329.0&amp;m=99#g596.0</link>
	<description>There are 400,000 people unemployed.</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="596.1">There are 400,000 people unemployed.</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-08T18:00:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-08.329.0&amp;m=99#g594.0">
	<title>Financial Resolution No. 11: General (Resumed) | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-08.329.0&amp;m=99#g594.0</link>
	<description>The two Cork constituencies.</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="594.1">The two Cork constituencies.</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-08T18:00:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-08.329.0&amp;m=99#g591.0">
	<title>Financial Resolution No. 11: General (Resumed) | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-08.329.0&amp;m=99#g591.0</link>
	<description>It is only a drop in the ocean.</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="591.1">It is only a drop in the ocean.</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-08T18:00:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.562.0&amp;m=99#g667.0">
	<title>Financial Resolution No. 10: Stamp Duties | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.562.0&amp;m=99#g667.0</link>
	<description>The Labour Party is of the view that wealth should be shared.</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="667.1">The Labour Party is of the view that wealth should be shared.</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-07T22:00:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.562.0&amp;m=99#g641.0">
	<title>Financial Resolution No. 10: Stamp Duties | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.562.0&amp;m=99#g641.0</link>
	<description>It does not work anymore.  We are now trying desperately to rebuild a different model.  There were parts of the world in which that rotten, corrupt style of capitalism, the Anglo-Saxon model,...</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="641.1">It does not work anymore.  We are now trying desperately to rebuild a different model.  There were parts of the world in which that rotten, corrupt style of capitalism, the Anglo-Saxon model, never really took hold.  One could cite, for example, the Scandinavian democracies.  Proudly led, for the most part, by Labour Party or social democratic Governments, they were prepared to find the right balance of taxation, including capital taxation, to provide high employment economies with large budgets and considerable spending on health, education, welfare and public transport, whatever was necessary for those states.  We, unfortunately, had the kind of Government Deputy Varadkar still seems to yearn for.</p><p pid="641.2">I agree with the comments of my colleagues with regard to DIRT and the implications of the second last resolution increasing the levy on non-life insurance premiums, which will surely be another deflationary influence and will make things that little bit harder.  Tonight many people following this debate will say this is the straw that broke the camel’s back.  This must end.  Working people cannot support this approach anymore.  Therefore, I say to the Tánaiste, the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance that, in the words of the AIB shareholders, they should just go.  Let us have an election and a proper Government with a mandate, which will bring in policies that will suit the whole country.</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-07T22:00:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.562.0&amp;m=99#g639.0">
	<title>Financial Resolution No. 10: Stamp Duties | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.562.0&amp;m=99#g639.0</link>
	<description>-----and indebted our people for decades and perhaps generations?  Was the Department of Finance on the bridge when that happened?  How can I accept its predictions when it has been wrong year...</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="639.1">-----and indebted our people for decades and perhaps generations?  Was the Department of Finance on the bridge when that happened?  How can I accept its predictions when it has been wrong year after year on so many issues, including tax returns and gross domestic product?  Will the yield, for example, be a great deal higher than it predicts?  We had the balance right when we were in the territory of 40% capital taxation, whereby people who had made serious gains were required to give some of that super-normal profit back to the people, the community and the State.  The former Taoiseach, Deputy Ahern, the former Tánaiste, Deputy Harney, and former Deputy McCreevy dismantled all that during their great 11-year regime.  They ran the budget on a phoney basis, relying on the property bubble.  That is the central problem we experienced.  Today we are told, and we will be told over the next week, that working families on €40,000 or €50,000 and much less will be paying for this for the rest of their lives.  That is what the Minister has done in his pay-back budget, and the Government will be paid back on 5 June - it had better believe it.</p><p pid="639.2">I do not know where Deputy Varadkar has been over the past year and a half or two years, but his Milton Friedman-Chicago school economic system has collapsed.  It has fallen apart; it has failed.</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-07T22:00:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.562.0&amp;m=99#g637.0">
	<title>Financial Resolution No. 10: Stamp Duties | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.562.0&amp;m=99#g637.0</link>
	<description>I support the remarks of my party leader and Deputy Higgins.  The story of the budget has been one of a savage attack on the incomes of working people in particular and on people who live on...</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="637.1">I support the remarks of my party leader and Deputy Higgins.  The story of the budget has been one of a savage attack on the incomes of working people in particular and on people who live on social welfare benefits.  That is its fundamental impact.</p><p pid="637.2">There is major anger which is now boiling over in people and we have heard it on the phones and in e-mails.  I met a person who was weeping thinking about the kind of threats and implementation in the social welfare budget today.  It is something the Tánaiste should be profoundly aware of because the tumbril is coming for her and the Government.  This budget marks a watershed and the public will feel the need for vengeance on 5 June and on any other date the Government decides to seek a mandate.</p><p pid="637.3">I did not have the opportunity over the six or seven months of this intense financial crisis to make the point that this Government has no mandate.  When people voted two years ago, if they voted for anything they made a last minute decision to stick with the then Taoiseach, for whatever reason.  They were not happy with who they thought might be the alternative Taoiseach.  They stuck with the then Taoiseach and we then got a Government nobody had voted for, led by Deputy Cowen, the Tánaiste and a number of senior Ministers.  The Government has no mandate whatsoever to introduce these fundamental changes.  It is a Government that has an air almost of illegitimacy about it because people have not had a chance to vote on these matters and take decisions about where the country should go.  If a general election was held, no matter what the outcome, people would be prepared to consider all the options prepared by such a Government.  However, the Government does not have that backing, as our spokesperson said, and that is a fundamental problem for our democracy.</p><p pid="637.4">It is a pity we do not have the report of the Commission on Taxation in assessing the resolutions.  It must be said that the resolutions on capital gains propose relatively minor changes.  It is striking that the most important change to capital taxation was made by former Deputy McCreevy, who slashed the rate.  Due to the massive property bubble the resulting gains to the Exchequer were considerable, although that was not predicted by the Department of Finance.  Looking at the overall figures put forward on the capital side by the Department, one can see that for the rest of this year a return of €61 million is predicted, but who can believe the predictions of the Department of Finance?  I have a fundamental problem with the management of our economy by that Department over the past 12 years.  I have raised the issue of forecasting by the Department at the Committee of Public Accounts, of which I am a member, and I will be delighted to raise it in two or three weeks’ time when the Secretary General and his staff come before us again.  I will ask them to provide an account for the whole financial system over the past 12 years.  What on earth happened to the senior Department of State when casino banking took over our banking system, wrecked this economy-----</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-07T22:00:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.405.0&amp;m=99#g460.0">
	<title>Financial Resolution No. 4: Mineral Oil Tax | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.405.0&amp;m=99#g460.0</link>
	<description>The documents on the banking rackets are profoundly disturbing.  They are the most outrageous feature of this outrageous budget.  Resolution No. 4 is another whammy for public transport and the...</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="460.1">The documents on the banking rackets are profoundly disturbing.  They are the most outrageous feature of this outrageous budget.  Resolution No. 4 is another whammy for public transport and the transport industry after a series of measures this Government has taken.  For example, all last year the Government had the opportunity to do something about the withdrawal by the European Union of the fuel rebate, to negotiate some sort of continuing support for public transport at EU level, and it failed to do that.  Here again we have another measure which will make things much more difficult.  At the same time in the capital budget we are removing approximately €320 million of spending on transport.  The net impact will be a smaller subsidy for public transport.  The most sinister phrase in the budget on capital spending is, “in public transport the way ahead will also see some deferrals and rescheduling of other programmes”.  This presumably refers to the whole range of public transport initiatives including perhaps, despite the Minister, Deputy Dempsey’s recent speeches, metro north, the interconnector, the western rail corridor, the Navan rail line and so on.  Are they all in danger as a result of today’s debacle?  I oppose Financial Resolution No. 4.</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-07T21:00:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.405.0&amp;m=99#g456.0">
	<title>Financial Resolution No. 4: Mineral Oil Tax | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.405.0&amp;m=99#g456.0</link>
	<description>The overall impact of this budget is profoundly deflationary on an economy that is already going down the tubes.  Resolution No. 4 on transport will increase the magnitude of that deflationary...</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="456.1">The overall impact of this budget is profoundly deflationary on an economy that is already going down the tubes.  Resolution No. 4 on transport will increase the magnitude of that deflationary impact.  The tragedy is that we seem to be doing it to bail out the friends of the Tánaiste, her Government and party.</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-07T21:00:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.405.0&amp;m=99#g436.0">
	<title>Financial Resolution No. 4: Mineral Oil Tax | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.405.0&amp;m=99#g436.0</link>
	<description>Fair play.</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="436.1">Fair play.</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-07T21:00:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.86.0&amp;m=99#g274.0">
	<title>Supplementary Budget Statement 2009 | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.86.0&amp;m=99#g274.0</link>
	<description>Hear, hear.</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="274.1">Hear, hear.</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-07T17:00:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.86.0&amp;m=99#g268.0">
	<title>Supplementary Budget Statement 2009 | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.86.0&amp;m=99#g268.0</link>
	<description>Hear, hear.</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="268.1">Hear, hear.</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-07T17:00:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.86.0&amp;m=99#g266.0">
	<title>Supplementary Budget Statement 2009 | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.86.0&amp;m=99#g266.0</link>
	<description>Hear, hear.</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="266.1">Hear, hear.</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-07T17:00:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.86.0&amp;m=99#g259.0">
	<title>Supplementary Budget Statement 2009 | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-07.86.0&amp;m=99#g259.0</link>
	<description>Hear, hear.</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="259.1">Hear, hear.</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-07T17:00:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-02.634.0&amp;m=99#g642.3">
	<title>Ferry Services. | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-02.634.0&amp;m=99#g642.3</link>
	<description>I warmly support those comments.  The Welsh Assembly and local interests in Cork estimate that the Cork to Swansea ferry was worth approximately &acirc;�&not;70 million to the two economies and it is...</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="642.2">I warmly support those comments.  The Welsh Assembly and local interests in Cork estimate that the Cork to Swansea ferry was worth approximately €70 million to the two economies and it is therefore critical that we get it up and running again.</p><p pid="642.3">In general, it seems to some who observe ferry connectivity with Britain that such connectivity is declining rather than increasing.  There are threats to Stena coming out of the port of Dún Laoghaire into Holyhead and sailings have been seriously cut back to one per day.  Is the Minister of State aware of that and is the Department taking any initiatives to try to increase connectivity from Ireland out of Dún Laoghaire, Cork and our other ports not just to Britain but to continental Europe?</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-02T16:00:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>
<item rdf:about="http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-02.618.0&amp;m=99#g631.2">
	<title>Light Rail Project. | D&amp;aacute;il debates</title>
	<link>http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2009-04-02.618.0&amp;m=99#g631.2</link>
	<description>The money is not down for spending yet.  Contracts have not been signed.</description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p pid="631.2">The money is not down for spending yet.  Contracts have not been signed.</p>]]></content:encoded>
	<dc:date>2009-04-02T16:00:00+00:00</dc:date>
</item>


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