Results 25,861-25,880 of 27,019 for speaker:Michael Noonan

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: I know. The Minister has taken away the 4% completely and by increasing the PRSI by 1% they still have an advantage of 3%. The calculation is simple. They are paying more up to €200,000 or maybe slightly above, but for every €1 after that they have a 3% advantage. So a tribunal lawyer on €1 million per annum will be €24,000 better off next year. While there are not many people on...

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: Perhaps the Minister is able to justify it, but I have had the best of tax layers contact me today explaining this in detail.

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill 2010: Second Stage (9 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: We will leave it for the Finance Bill. The Fine Gael proposal to abolish the 8.5% of employers PRSI was a better proposal than the abolition of the minimum wage. We capped that at around the total minimum wage and it would mean €30 to an employer taking on somebody. That is a more just incentive than reducing the minimum wage. The employer is worried about the cost of the job and if an...

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: I often admire Deputy Gogarty's sentiments because his heart is in the right place, but it is not possible to move an amendment which would reduce the rate prescribed in the Bill. Any amendment would be ruled out of order because it would involve a charge on the Exchequer

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: I would like to say something that will give Deputy Gogarty the opportunity to vote against the whole Bill if he wants to put the principles he has just enunciated into effect. In his Budget Statement, the Minister for Finance said his objective was "That those who have most, will pay most". Most people in the House agreed with that, including the Minister, but he has dismally failed to...

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: If the Deputy wants an explanation, it is 3% of €600,000, which is the excess over €200,000. Other examples can be calculated through the very simple sum of 3% of the excess above €200,000. The person in that category on €300,000 will be €3,000 better off. The person on €500,000 will be €9,000 better off and the top of the scale tribunal lawyer on €1 million will be...

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: Could the Government have done this deliberately or is it only able to spend money and does not know how to make adjustments? Any Government that claims it is going to protect the poor and hit the wealthy while creating the budgetary hole I have just described should resign immediately. It is a strange sort of social justice to bring forward a budget like that. I do not know whether the...

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: I assure the Deputy there will be amendments to the finance Bill. He talks a great game about the poor and making the wealthy pay most. He now has an opportunity to vote against the Social Welfare Bill 2010 on those grounds.

Financial Resolution No. 34: General (Resumed) (8 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: They are watching the Taoiseach.

Written Answers — Debt Card Charges: Debt Card Charges (7 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: Question 59: To ask the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to concerns by retailers regarding the proposed increased fee for the use of debit cards which are to be introduced from next year (details supplied); if this arrangement has been sanctioned by him; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45943/10]

Written Answers — Fisheries Protection: Fisheries Protection (7 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: Question 290: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will make arrangements to allow the Coonagh licensed fishermen at Coonagh, Limerick to fish for small quantities of salmon; if he will make arrangements with the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board to allow these fishermen participate in the scientific study which identifies the origin of salmon through DNA...

Budget Statement 2011 (7 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: This is the budget of a puppet Government, which is doing what it has been told to do by the IMF, the EU Commission and the European Central Bank. It is doing so in order that the State can draw down the bailout funds now that the country is insolvent. This budget is in an ironic way a fitting tribute to this failed Administration. Fianna Fáil, like the Bourbons, has learned nothing and...

Budget Statement 2011 (7 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: Consequently, its slash and burn policies were counter-productive and it failed to include measures to grow the economy and to protect and create jobs. The Minister has fallen into the same trap today - there is not a single progressive idea in the budget to support job creation or to get our economy growing again.

Budget Statement 2011 (7 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: On fiscal correction, the intentions of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, were sound but his policies were woefully misguided, so the more he did the worse it got. Then some months ago the country became insolvent, or to put it bluntly, we went bust. The misguided budgetary policy would not on its own, however, have destroyed the country. The destruction of the county is due...

Budget Statement 2011 (7 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: Think of the fatal ignoring of the principle of moral hazard, so that although shareholders were wiped out and those who borrowed recklessly were punished, those who lent recklessly were not punished but had their losses underpinned by the taxpayer. How could anyone have confidence in an Irish banking system underpinned by this set of policies promoted by the Minister and his colleagues in...

Budget Statement 2011 (7 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: The current budget deficit has shot up to 32% of GDP and the Government can no longer borrow. That is why it is out of the bond market because if it went to it, it could not borrow any longer. Ireland has become insolvent and that is why we have to be rescued by Europe and the IMF.

Budget Statement 2011 (7 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: In case anybody on the Front Benches or the backbenches thinks that this happened by accident, it did not; it is a direct result of the Minister's banking policies, which we pointed out to him, when he promoted them in the House, would not work. We pointed out that they would cause extra trouble and they have caused it now and that is how we find ourselves where we are. I wonder do members...

Budget Statement 2011 (7 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: I felt ashamed when I read the obsequious letters of the Minister for Finance when applying for assistance to Messrs. Juncker, Reynders, Rehn, and Trichet and separately to Mr. Strauss-Kahn of the IMF. The first two sentences in both of the Minister's letters reads as follows: Ireland faces an economic crisis without parallel in its recent history. The problems of low growth, doubt about...

Budget Statement 2011 (7 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: If it was not so serious, it would be funny. When one reads the letters, they sound like confessions beaten out of him, as if one were reading a thriller. It is as if they water-boarded the Minister in Merrion Street and made him sign the letters, or perhaps they were motivated by the mock humility of the gombeen culture to think that he would get the €85 million more easily if it was a...

Budget Statement 2011 (7 Dec 2010)

Michael Noonan: Is this a hit me now with the child in my arms intervention?