Results 3,201-3,220 of 34,778 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: If we continue to have overspending of the Estimates produced today-----

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: -----in the order of €3 million a day, €20 million a week, €100 million a month or more than €1 billion per annum, woe betide the Minister if he does not do his job and the troika must stay.

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: The troika are scheduled to go. They are on the road out of here.

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: They were here for a short period and the Minister, Deputy Howlin, should not mess it up.

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: The Minister should not mess it up.

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: Last Thursday was an interesting day in this Chamber. The public is focused on us today and they all tune in once a year to see what is going on in the House, but I would take them back to Thursday last when the Labour Party voted to renew the bank guarantee in this Chamber. That seems to run counter to everything that party's members stated they would do before they took office. Also...

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: Deputy Howlin is the one who has done the talk. He promised the change.

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: These are civil servants' pensions.

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: I want to be clear. These pensions were for the retired Sir Humphreys. The modern-day Sir Humphreys captured the Minister to look after the retired Sir Humphreys because they will be in that category some fine day.

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: The pensions were for civil servants only. If that had happened in a local authority where it had trouble in the last month of the year meeting the payments for its retired workers, it would have had to have found the money for those pensions out of its own resources and make the necessary cuts. Civil servants, however, were able to walk into the Minister, Deputy Howlin's office and say:...

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: As the Minister knows, this came into being this summer.

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: Yes. The Minister, Deputy Quinn, apologised for the delays but I think he was also apologising for the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform because this is a reform issue. Some 66,000 people applied for third-level grants but, as of today, half of them have not yet been approved. Most TDs are now coming across a new phenomenon in their constituencies. I have had numerous examples of...

Financial Resolution No. 5: Excise (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: I will make a brief point on the first vote in the House. To clarify, the Fianna Fáil Party opposed the changes to the alcohol products tax, but we were supportive of the changes to the tobacco products tax. Since there was a combined vote, we voted against the resolution.

Financial Resolution No. 5: Excise (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: We are used to the practice whereby, similar to Committee Stage,-----

Financial Resolution No. 5: Excise (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: -----there is a group discussion, yet it is unusual to have group voting. We might agree with some measures during the course of the night, yet be forced to oppose them because we are opposed to other resolutions in their groupings. I want people to understand. I will be brief to allow other Deputies an opportunity. My colleague, Deputy Ó Cuív, will wish to discuss Financial...

Financial Resolution No. 5: Excise (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: It was not announced in the budget. A new tax accruing €31 million will be introduced whenever the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, returns from wherever he is.

Financial Resolution No. 5: Excise (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: We will have supplementary budgets to raise revenue during the course of the year, yet I believed that the purpose of tonight was to budget for the full year. When the Taoiseach next gets a chance to speak - he has not been given an opportunity to respond to this debate - he might explain how many supplementary budgets there will be to raise tax during the course of the coming year.

Financial Resolution No. 5: Excise (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: We are generally supportive of the changes to the categories of VRT and motor tax. Fianna Fáil could oppose everything, but we agreed to the €3.5 billion. We must be responsible, put our money where our mouths are and support some measures that we might not particularly like. When the push comes, Deputies cannot support everything in principle and oppose it in detail.

Financial Resolution No. 5: Excise (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: However, we will oppose the resolution in respect of VRT. It is unfortunate that due to the grouping, all three matters are being taken together, including that relating to farmers. We will vote "No" collectively, but we are generally supportive of Financial Resolution No. 5. There will not be an opportunity to vote to demonstrate our support separately.

Financial Resolution No. 6: Income Tax (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: This is the one resolution I expect every Member of the House to support. I cannot see why anybody would oppose it. It deals with people getting what we would all call massive redundancy payments on a voluntary basis excluding the statutory payment. So where somebody, having been in an organisation for 20 or 30 years, gets €30,000 or €40,000 statutory redundancy, if he or she...