Results 2,201-2,220 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Order of Business (8 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: It must also be audited and the audit presented to the Minister for Finance on a yearly basis.

Order of Business (8 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: This Social Welfare and Pensions Bill contains one of the most reactionary measures that will ever come before Dáil Éireann-----

Order of Business (8 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: -----and the Government proposes to ram through after a very curtailed discussion a decision that will force those workers who will depend on the State for their pension to stay at work until they are 68 years of age. One of the gains of the Labour movement in its attempt-----

Order of Business (8 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: That is the type of comment I come to expect from the backbenchers of this Government. The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, you are making a decision for workers 15 years from now when most of you will have departed the scene with fat pensions-----

Order of Business (8 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: -----condemning them to stay at work for years longer.

Order of Business (8 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: On a serious note, the Ceann Comhairle will have to do something about discipline on the Government side. It is getting increasingly difficult to make rational points.

Order of Business (8 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: Many of them are not at all resigned to their lowly status - that seems to be the problem. Maybe the Taoiseach should give them each a board of scrabble or snakes and ladders every morning to keep them busy while we are trying to make serious points here.

Order of Business (8 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: One of the gains of the Labour movement historically was to achieve a civilising influence on the exploitation of the capitalist system by having a shorter working day, shorter working week, shorter working year and shorter working life and the Taoiseach presumes to reverse all that in the space of a few hours here. It is shameful. He could at least extend the debate into tomorrow. I know...

Order of Business (8 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: -----because the welfare of animals is important but the debate on it could be moved forward to another day. I ask for an extension of this debate into tomorrow.

Order of Business (8 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: A Cheann Comhairle-----

Official Engagements (8 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: I put it to the Taoiseach that the admission he has made that he did not raise the need for a reduction in interest on the British loan with the British Prime Minister will leave taxpayers and the citizens of this country open-mouthed and raise a serious question about the Taoiseach's competence-----

Official Engagements (8 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: Against a background of much hyperbole about the visit of Prime Minister Cameron and the Queen solidifying a new relationship between Ireland and Britain - now best friends forever - the Taoiseach said he and the Prime Minister discussed the IMF-EU deal. Presumably, the Taoiseach told him about the difficulties and about the fact he was taking money from disabled people to pay off the...

Official Engagements (8 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: Given what the Taoiseach has now admitted and what was revealed yesterday by the Minister for Finance, does the Taoiseach agree that his Government is in full flight before the EU establishment, which has dictated that working people and the poor in this country will be the beasts of burden to pay off and rescue the European bankers? The Taoiseach is in full flight before them.

Official Engagements (8 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: This has nothing to do with my question.

Official Engagements (8 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: Why did the Taoiseach not ask the British Prime Minister for a reduction in the interest rate? That is the question.

State Visits (8 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: Whether the United States Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Geithner, did or did not make the particular remarks is not the issue. The fact is that the issue was flagged. As the Taoiseach's borrowed rhetoric in College Green soared to lofty heights, and no doubt he was concentrating on that, he also was looking at tens of thousands of citizens, the victims of the financial crisis. Should it...

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2011: Second Stage (Resumed) (8 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: What about the increase in the pension age?

Order of Business (9 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: This is the second guillotine in as many days imposed by the Government. In the first week or two of this Dáil and in the programme for Government it made a virtue of the fact that guillotines would not be used in this manner and that there would be adequate time afforded for discussion on serious issues. It seems as if the reputation of the Government of being continuity Fianna Fáil is...

Order of Business (9 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: Putting vital issues such as this at the tail-end of work on a Thursday is not acceptable. I will not reiterate the arguments that have just been made but I agree with them. The Government should make sufficient time available and, if necessary, extend it into next week when perhaps there will be more information. This is all the more critical in view of the tragic situation of yet another...

Order of Business (Resumed) (9 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: I wish to ask about legislation, but I will preface my remarks by saying we should pay tribute to those vulnerable workers who brought the scandal of Rostrevor and what was happening to our elderly to the public's attention. Let us reflect on the question of why care of the elderly should be a profit-making enterprise in the first instance. Regarding promised legislation, as the Minister...