Results 2,121-2,140 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Official Engagements (24 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: Question 5: To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his most recent talks with British Prime Minister Cameron. [11494/11]

Official Engagements (24 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: Did it occur to the Taoiseach at all that the political establishment in this State, and the established media, lost their collective reason over the past week and seemed to have lost all touch with reality, with the intoxication of the visits by high profile establishment figures, the Queen and the Prime Minister of Britain and President Obama? Is it not clear that all elements of the...

Official Engagements (24 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: The Taoiseach is saying that he did not discuss with the Prime Minister the single issue that the Prime Minister controls, the interest rate on that debt.

Official Engagements (24 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: That is incredible.

Official Engagements (24 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: Yes.

Official Engagements (24 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: The Taoiseach did not discuss the only issue that the Prime Minister could determine.

Official Engagements (24 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: The Ceann Comhairle should not encourage the Taoiseach.

Official Engagements (24 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: The loan the British Government extended to the Irish State for its own clear economic and selfish reasons is set at a relatively high interest rate over which Prime Minister Cameron has complete control. Why did the Taoiseach not discuss a reduction of this interest rate when he met the Prime Minister?

Ministerial Air Transport (24 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: Question 52: To ask the Minister for Defence the projected costs of using the Government jet for 2011. [10395/11]

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2011: Second Stage (24 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: I wish to share time with Deputies Luke Flanagan, Catherine Murphy and Richard Boyd Barrett.

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2011: Second Stage (24 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: Sadly, this Finance Bill is a caricature of a real job creation strategy. This is all against a background of almost 500,000 of our people unemployed, the spectre of long-term unemployment within that cohort increasing and thousands of young people leaving the country yearly. In all of this hardship, we have had a consistently reducing scale of ambition by the Government parties from the...

Finance (No. 2) Bill 2011: Second Stage (24 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: Sadly, the reduction in VAT from 13.5% to 9% will not have the dramatic impact the Government hopes it will have. We are, unfortunately, talking here about the background of the wider crisis. Ordinary working class people from Britain, those on whom we depend most to come here and share their hard earned wealth with us, are being mercilessly hammered by Prime Minister Cameron and the...

Leaders' Questions (25 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: As the Taoiseach is aware, pyrite is a mineral, an iron sulfide, which, when contained in the crush rock under concrete floors in new homes and exposed to moisture, oxygen and certain other minerals, expands slowly but with incredible force causing devastating structural damage, the splitting of walls and ceilings etc. I wish the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government...

Leaders' Questions (25 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: I say the Taoiseach is aware because one year ago he visited homes affected by pyrite in County Meath along with the now Minister of State, Deputy McEntee. In a statement with the big headline, "Enda Kenny Visits Pyrite Infected Houses in Meath", the Taoiseach stated: I am shocked at the level of destruction I have seen. These are people's homes and it is an outrage that the current...

Leaders' Questions (25 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: Does the Taoiseach agree that it is not a private issue and that home owners are the victims of criminal negligence by State authorities and builders? The science of this has been known since the 1950s and 1960s. Standards were introduced in England and Britain in 1975. Will the Taoiseach take charge and alleviate the suffering and stress by immediately establishing a taskforce on pyrite...

Leaders' Questions (25 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: The Taoiseach described the problems well but he did not give the assurances we need. The victims of pyrite are the same home owners who were caught in the vicious circle of rocketing house prices up to 2007 that made mega-profits for developers. As taxpayers they are now bailing out those same developers since they crashed to the tune of billions or euro. They are in negative equity and...

Leaders' Questions (25 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: I am asking the Taoiseach not just to study a court case, I am asking for the Minister and the Government to establish a taskforce, with immediate effect, to look into all aspects of this problem. Yes, the Minister should meet those who have been affected but he must come up with a remediation scheme that will allow these structural defects to be repaired without crushing the victims...

Leaders' Questions (25 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: We know that.

Leaders' Questions (25 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: These are not my problems.

Leaders' Questions (25 May 2011)

Joe Higgins: They washed their hands.