Results 18,701-18,720 of 21,514 for speaker:Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin

Order of Business (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: Does the Taoiseach expect it will be published before the general election?

Disclosures relating to the Mahon Tribunal: Statements (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: The Taoiseach was clearly wrong to accept the personal donation at the Manchester event when he was Minister for Finance. It would appear that most people believe he was not personally corrupt, unlike many within his party at the time. However, only the most naive believe he was not aware of what went on in the brown-envelope and blank-cheque culture of the Fianna Fáil leadership and among...

Disclosures relating to the Mahon Tribunal: Statements (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: Of course it was not confined to Fianna Fáil. Fine Gael has shown, through the tribunals, that it too shares a similar culture. There is no suggestion that members of the current Fianna Fáil-PD Cabinet have personally benefited from bribes or backhanders during their term of office. However, there is an old saying about the British journalist that could be adapted to this Government:...

Disclosures relating to the Mahon Tribunal: Statements (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: ——the way Dublin Castle and the Kildare Street Club once were.

Disclosures relating to the Mahon Tribunal: Statements (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: The gulf of inequality within our society has widened, something the new Tánaiste, the self-styled moral guardian of the Government, thinks is a good thing. If it was wrong for the then Minister for Finance to accept money gifts from wealthy business people in 1994, is it not even more wrong for a Taoiseach and the Government to have surrendered the State's housing policy for the past...

Disclosures relating to the Mahon Tribunal: Statements (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: ——with the ever spiralling costs of housing.

Disclosures relating to the Mahon Tribunal: Statements (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: These are the same developers who successfully lobbied the Government to amend Part V of the Planning and Development Act so they would not have to meet their legal obligation to provide 20% social and affordable housing in all developments. This Government has brought in a form of legalised bribery——

Disclosures relating to the Mahon Tribunal: Statements (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: ——because it has allowed the developers to pay off the local authorities.

Disclosures relating to the Mahon Tribunal: Statements (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: What other lobby group could have turned around key legislation in the same way?

Disclosures relating to the Mahon Tribunal: Statements (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: That is just one of the many reasons this Taoiseach, this Tánaiste and the rest of this Cabinet should be thrown out of Government. These are far bigger issues than the current controversy. It is a shame on many in this House and, indeed, on commentators in the media, that they have failed to recognise them.

Disclosures relating to the Mahon Tribunal: Statements (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: If the Manchester payment was, in the words of the Irish Independent, "morally wrong", are decisions which adversely affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of people not also morally wrong? Are they not also deserving of media attention and commentary? What about the massive tax breaks and the allocation of land at public hospital sites for developers of private for-profit hospitals?...

Disclosures relating to the Mahon Tribunal: Statements (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: I might add there are no marches on the streets about the current controversy but people are taking to the streets demanding their healthcare rights, as we saw recently in Monaghan and as we will see again on Saturday, 21 October when we in Sinn Féin hold a healthcare rally in Dublin.

Disclosures relating to the Mahon Tribunal: Statements (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: In the last number of weeks we have seen the announcement of almost 1,400 job losses across this State in Limerick, Carlow, Cork, Waterford, Inchicore in Dublin and in my home county of Monaghan. It is unlikely however, that many of them will have circles of wealthy friends ready to help them out in such a time of financial crisis. Today, at Ballinaboy in Mayo, we saw another example of the...

Disclosures relating to the Mahon Tribunal: Statements (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: It is a pity, a Cheann Comhairle, that you would not endeavour to allow me the same opportunity to be heard in this House as every other Member. However, the cacophony of fools will not drown out the truth as the people know it only too well.

Disclosures relating to the Mahon Tribunal: Statements (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: This morning two of the protesters were injured while being dragged from the road at the behest of Shell. What about the role of former Minister, Ray Burke, in the negotiation of the terms for oil and gas exploration, the most generous offered anywhere in the world to the major multinationals? Let there be no mistake about it, the people deserve an explanation from the Taoiseach about this...

Freedom of Information. (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: Question 3: To ask the Taoiseach the number of freedom of information requests acceded to by his Department since July 2006; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28321/06]

Freedom of Information. (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: Does the Taoiseach have a breakdown by category of the freedom of information requests to his Department? Is that something his Department does? Does the Taoiseach have a breakdown of the number of requests from journalists and those from members of the wider public? If so, will he indicate the numbers approved or refused in each category? In respect of the Taoiseach's Department and the...

Social Partnership Agreements. (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: Question 12: To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the situation in the social partnership process in the wake of union balloting; his role in the implementation of the agreement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28315/06]

Social Partnership Agreements. (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: Is it not the case that Towards 2016 was a poor deal for workers, particularly as the increases they will receive under the agreement will be quickly frittered away by inflation? Does the Taoiseach not accept that this has already been demonstrated in the inflation figures for August that have increased to 4.5% from 4.2% in July and given that Towards 2016 offered workers 10% over 27 months...

Social Partnership Agreements. (3 Oct 2006)

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin: It is not being enforced.