Results 2,701-2,720 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed). (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: It is a world out of touch with the reality of young families——

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed). (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: I imagine there are as many such families in Tullamore as there are in Dublin West, Dublin North-Central or Cork South-Central.

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed). (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: The reality facing many such young couples is that we lack proper social policies for dealing with child care, their health needs and their housing needs.

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed). (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: Members should consider the manner in which, through lack of proper strategic planning, we have put people onto impossible treadmills of long commuting, high child care costs and lack of support in critical areas. Such an environment has been created for young families. The home care credit is one element of a much wider spectrum of policy in which we have been negligent regarding the...

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed). (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: It does not——

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed). (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: ——prove that in any way.

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed). (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: The Minister has been given a long opportunity to debate this point. Regardless of whether he has all of this data at his fingertips to prove Ireland has been uniquely good to young families, one must be below the minimum wage to qualify for a medical card that would give such hard-pressed families access to a GP. In the part of Dublin city that I represent, so-called affordable housing is...

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed). (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: This is the reason they are outside. Such people are not even earning the minimum wage.

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed). (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: The Minister tries to come before the House and pretend——

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed). (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: ——that this wonderful social innovation, that people——

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed). (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: A dose of economic and social reality is required. Members must reconsider——

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed). (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: ——the manner in which those families that bear the burden of the so-called Celtic tiger are being supported. They are the ones who are making the huge investment in the housing capital that must be done in such a rapid period. They are the ones who are being abandoned in respect of their child care needs. They are the ones who are being obliged to undertake long commutes and who are...

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed). (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: The development of child care provision is an issue to which we need to give a great deal more thought. The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform operates a scheme of capital grants which have had a certain impact. However, given the requirement, a vast gap remains. The difficulty is that unless child care projects are supported on the basis of their running costs also which...

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed). (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: The issue of travel patterns needs to be addressed. We have allowed ourselves to slip into unsustainable patterns of growth and much of that is driven by the planning system and the failure to integrate public transport systems with the significant growth in housing over the past decade, with 600,000 new houses being built. There was not a commensurate expansion in public transport to...

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed). (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: I move amendment No. 19: In page 21, between lines 1 and 2, to insert the following: "14.—The Principal Act is amended in section 779 by inserting the following new subsection: "(3) A person, none of whose taxable income is chargeable at the higher rate, who makes a pension contribution within the limit set out in this section, shall be entitled to receive a tax credit contributed to the...

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed). (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: I will make a couple of comments in response to the Minister. Of course we need to be aware of macro-stability and competitiveness in doing this but let us not pretend that we are not spending €3.5 billion in this field already. The issue which should first be addressed is how equitable is the way we are spending that amount of money. That does not involve any issues of macro-economic...

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed). (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: There certainly has. Perhaps the Minister could send me the information so we could see it.

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed). (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: It would be interesting to see the information the Minister will send.

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed). (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: The Department was willing to make an assessment, very different from the figures being suggested now. If the momentum which ought to be behind this issue existed on the Minister's side of the House, it would be developed to a degree where we would have very accurate Estimates and we would know exactly what is involved. I am disappointed that there appears to be a slackening of momentum in...

Finance Bill 2007: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (7 Mar 2007)

Richard Bruton: I am disappointed by the Minister's attitude. None the less, we will need to return to this issue regardless of who is on that side of the House. Far-reaching decisions must be made to create a fairer and more equitable system. I do not know who will be over there to do this work, but someone must do it in the not-too-distant future.