Results 3,761-3,780 of 15,805 for speaker:Michael Ring

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: The Minister for Finance——

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: We will talk about them tomorrow on the Social Welfare Bill.

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: The Government has squandered our money. I will remind the Deputies opposite of something of which the Government has made a total mess. The Minister, Deputy Cowen, spoke last week about the reform of stamp duty. He had three or four opportunities to deal with stamp duty over the past year, after he received warnings from everybody in the industry. I have no sympathy for the builders. I...

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: I hope every second one of them goes bankrupt because they robbed, blackguarded and destroyed young people in this country. I can give an example from last Thursday's The Irish Times. There might not be as many builders running into the Fianna Fáil tent at the Galway Races next year. They might be on the Green Party's bicycles next year because they will not be in their Mercs.

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: They will not have the money next year to be throwing it into Fianna Fáil.

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: The Irish Times reported last Thursday that builders and developers had been able to drop the price of houses — not by €1,000, not by €5,000 but by €100,000. Shame on them because if they could sell the houses for €100,000 less last week, they should have sold them for €100,000 less last year.

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: They were robbing the young people of this country by mortgaging them in a way that puts them under pressure for the next 40 years. Thanks be to God that the good days are over for the builders because they ripped off the young people of this country when they had the opportunity to do so. They blackguarded them. Having spoken to auctioneers, I know they were not satisfied to be getting...

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: Shame on the Minister.

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: He could not manage the country——

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: ——at a time when it was going well.

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: He squandered our boom. He squandered our future.

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: Now we are back to the hairshirt budgets again.

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: The Government will know before next year that the increase of 7% or 14% in the health budget will not pay for the wage increases under the benchmarking process. It will not even meet inflation, and by God will we have inflation given that medical inflation is twice as high again. People protested about cancer services outside the Dáil a few weeks ago. People are waiting for hip...

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: Deputy Blaney's uncle would turn in his grave if he heard that. The Minister for Health and Children, the Department of Health and Children and the Government, rather than the National Treatment Purchase Fund, should be providing such services. We should not have to send our loved ones to England or Northern Ireland to be operated on.

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: We are not able to do it here despite all the money we are spending on health. We should be doing it here. Is the National Treatment Purchase Fund the best answer Deputy Blaney can come up with? His comments remind me of the reply I received today when I tabled a question to the Minister for Education and Science about the results of a young man's junior certificate examination. The...

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: Has the chairmanship improved the Deputy? I want to tell him about a young man whose future was affected by the Government.

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: We are paying people to correct exams. Perhaps Deputy Blaney once worked as a teacher — if so, he will understand what I am about to say. The young man in question did his examinations and got his results. His teacher said that the result of one examination, which the young man had supposedly failed, could not be correct because he was the best in his class at the subject in question....

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: Ministers are not responsible for anything anymore. The country is being run by commissioners, regulators and EU officials.

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: I would like to return to the issue of health. What are we doing with medical cards? People on social welfare do not even qualify anymore, when the rules and regulations are implemented strictly, because the guidelines have not been changed properly in the last few years. We are to have another review. More consultants will be asked to look at the matter. It is very simple — we should...

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)

Michael Ring: It is like another matter I used to raise in the House.