Results 321-340 of 5,258 for speaker:Joan Collins

Leaders' Questions (8 Dec 2011)

Joan Collins: Why are they being cut?

European Summit: Motion (8 Dec 2011)

Joan Collins: I welcome being part of this debate, which is a very important one to have this week, and I thank the Technical Group for tabling the motion. I speak as an internationalist, a European and an Irish person. It is important to put on the agenda what is happening now and the lessons of the past because I do not believe we have really learned from the lessons of the past. Many economists and...

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Joan Collins: I propose to share time with Deputies Catherine Murphy and Maureen O'Sullivan. These cuts in the Department of Social Protection are the meanest, cruelest, sneakiest and most unnecessary cuts this Chamber has seen. It has shocked people in the communities that a Labour Party Member is implementing these measures with so-called reluctance. In the last week of the election campaign, the...

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Joan Collins: It is a different economy.

Written Answers — FÁS Training Programmes: FÁS Training Programmes (8 Dec 2011)

Joan Collins: Question 13: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on the decision by FÁS - Solas to increase the age of eligibility from 15 to 16 for local training initiative courses, in particular the expected social impacts on previously eligible 15 year olds [39247/11]

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Joan Collins: There was €1.7 billion taken in the past few years, with €475 million to be taken this year. That is not protection.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Joan Collins: Reverse the cuts.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2011)

Joan Collins: I will try not to repeat what other speakers said. Earlier, when I joined the protesters outside the gates, I met a young woman who told me she had been looking forward to returning to work in January until she worked out the figures and discovered she would only gain €20 extra in so doing. The Minister is forcing lifestyle choices on women who are in the main the parent in one-parent...

Local Government (Household Charge) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Second Stage (13 Dec 2011)

Joan Collins: The elderly do not use laptops.

Local Government (Household Charge) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Second Stage (Resumed) (13 Dec 2011)

Joan Collins: I oppose this tax, as do the thousands of people who have already attended the meetings. I have also been knocking on doors in my community and people are absolutely opposed to it. They feel it is a tax too far; it is the straw that will break the camel's back in terms of people's incomes, how they are living and how they are rearing their families. Like every other measure in the budget,...

Leaders' Questions (14 Dec 2011)

Joan Collins: That will not be the case two years from now.

Leaders' Questions (14 Dec 2011)

Joan Collins: There are stealth taxes instead.

Leaders' Questions (14 Dec 2011)

Joan Collins: The Government is giving them back €4 a week and then taking €2 a week off them.

Local Government (Household Charge) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Committee Stage (14 Dec 2011)

Joan Collins: I am opposing this section on the basis of what my colleagues have said. This is a poll tax. It is not progressive in any way. I listened to the Minister, Deputy Hogan, yesterday when he said there will be a cut in the universal social charge for those who earn less than €10,000. The Government is proud of itself for giving €4 back to people before taking €2 off them. I am...

Local Government (Household Charge) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Committee Stage (14 Dec 2011)

Joan Collins: We know that the Government will railroad this through because it has a majority but I want to give the Minister of State an opportunity to consider again those on whom he is forcing this unjust and unfair poll tax. Will he consider exempting people who bought their homes over the past six years for €250,000 or €300,000 and who are in negative equity and who paid stamp duty? They were...

Rural Areas: Motion (Resumed) (14 Dec 2011)

Joan Collins: We must ask whether the Government has a bias against rural Ireland only. In my mind, the bias of Government is against working people and the poor in general, regardless of whether they live in rural or urban areas. It is disingenuous of the Fianna Fáil Party to pose itself as the champion of rural Ireland. It is a false and cynical attempt to create the impression that rural communities...

Written Answers — Local Authority Funding: Local Authority Funding (15 Dec 2011)

Joan Collins: Question 224: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the Local Government Fund grant to each local authority for 2012; the percentage reduction in the local government fund grant to each local authority on the 2011 figure; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40653/11]

Written Answers — Local Authority Housing: Local Authority Housing (15 Dec 2011)

Joan Collins: Question 225: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 129 of 30 November 2011, the date on which refurbishment works commenced on the 12 housing units in the Cranmore Estate, Sligo; the date the refurbishment works will be completed; the date on which the units will be available for re-letting; the funding provided by him...

Written Answers — Community Development: Community Development (15 Dec 2011)

Joan Collins: Question 226: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the fact that funding for the community warden scheme in Cranmore Estate, Sligo, was provided by him through the sustaining communities fund over the period 2008 to 2010; if his further attention has been drawn to the fact that in February 2011 he invited local authorities...

Health Services (11 Jan 2012)

Joan Collins: Question 3: To ask the Minister for Health if he will confirm that cuts in the health budget in 2012 will severely impact on frontline services and will result in longer waiting times for surgical procedures, the shortage of non consultant hospital doctors will mean longer waiting times on trolleys and longer queues in emergency departments and that the planned closure of community nursing...