Results 34,641-34,660 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Topical Issue Debate: Water Quality (15 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: Seven beaches were closed in north County Dublin during the recent spell of fine weather which the rest of the country was celebrating. Beaches that are well known and were named for their beauty such as Velvet Strand were closed because faecal waste, nappies and so on were floating in the water owing to heavy rain, as a result of which the pumping stations were overflowing. It seems...

Topical Issue Debate: Water Quality (15 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: It appears from all the statements being made about housing development that this particular part of Fingal, and the rest of Fingal, will be the largest area of housing development in the county generally over the next period of time and yet the Minister appears in terms of the reply to be washing his hands of the issue with no concern. Developers did very well out of the people in the area....

Report of Standing Order 112 Select Committee on the Proposal for a Council Directive amending Directive 2013/34/EU: Motion (15 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: As we have heard from Deputies Fleming and Brophy, the all-party committee argues that the proposal offends against the principal of subsidiarity. With respect, I do not see how it does so. Subsidiarty is defined such that in areas which do not fall within its exclusive competence, the Union can act only if and in so far as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently...

Report of Standing Order 112 Select Committee on the Proposal for a Council Directive amending Directive 2013/34/EU: Motion (15 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: That is to the detriment of small and medium-sized companies in almost every country.

Estimates for Public Services 2016 (15 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: I wish the Minister well in his appointment to the education portfolio. He has expressed an interest in becoming Minister for Education and Skills from time to time and I hope that, now that he is Minister, he will enjoy it. It is 100 years since the Easter Rising, and many of the signatories of the Proclamation who were executed after the Rising, from James Connolly to Pádraig Pearse...

Estimates for Public Services 2016 (15 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: This is the same document that was published at budget time.

Estimates for Public Services 2016 (15 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: I know they are unchanged but we are in the sixth month of the financial year. We should have been able to get these in the middle of March but this was not possible. However, we should then have been able to get them almost immediately following the formation of the Government and yet they were published this morning. I note in the book we were offered that there are only four Votes,...

Estimates for Public Services 2016 (15 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: I invite the Minister to visit some of the schools in Dublin West where there are as many as 70 different nationalities, reflective of significant religious and faith diversity, and see how separating children in terms of the school day for a particular subject would be a really bad idea. It is one on which the Minister needs to reflect.

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: Perhaps the Minister could make a copy available to the committee?

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: First, I welcome the statement the Minister, Deputy Noonan, made about the role of the committee and giving due consideration, as well as the opening statement on the historic opportunity to enhance the relationship between the Government and the Oireachtas. The key to this will be the timeliness of information and its adequacy. In that context, I ask the Minister whether certain areas of...

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: Very well. I have made this point at this committee previously but in terms of ground rules, the timeliness, amount and quality of the information are key to the successful relationship the Ministers envisage in their submission to the committee. A second proposal would be to consider the monthly statements at the end of the month and the subsequent expenditure reports that are produced by...

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: No, they are published. I refer to the expenditure profiles that go to the Cabinet; the detailed reports that go to the Cabinet in respect of each Department, where the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform reports on them. I propose they should be published, say, ten days after going to the Cabinet because they contain key data. While the information in some cases is tentative and...

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: This is to both Ministers because there are tax profiles, which leads me to my next question. On the details of taxation, the most important issue is to have information about the costings and profiles on tax, and this point relates to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. All Departments make bids at various times during the year and continually regarding things they would like...

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: The Minister might explain what the problem was in terms of a good submission by the Government.

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: One of the questions I asked was whether the Minister would be agreeable to publishing the information that goes to Cabinet in relation to the expenditure profiles and expenditure reports, because they are done regularly. I appreciate that before they go to Cabinet these are confidential, but once they have gone to Cabinet, why would they not be available, particularly for a committee such...

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: I proposed that we have a debate.

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: On a related point, there is a programme for Government that is not costed. Since the Government is up and running for some time, I presume it has costings for a range of commitments, if not for every Department. Obviously, the Department of Health is a morass but if the costings for most of the other Departments were made available to us, it would ease the process. We want the public to...

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: Yes. Are we meeting again at 3 p.m.?

Committee on Arrangements for Budgetary Scrutiny: Engagement with Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (15 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: Will there be a piece of paper?

Order of Business (16 Jun 2016)

Joan Burton: I join colleagues in saying that the families of those bereaved by what happened in Berkeley a year ago are in our thoughts and prayers today. Many of those who were injured are on a long road to recovery and I hope they make as full a recovery as possible. There were reports in the media yesterday that child benefit would no longer automatically be paid to mothers under proposals which...