Results 4,021-4,040 of 15,491 for speaker:Eamon Gilmore

Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: This year FÁS registered 6,000 fewer apprentices than it did two years ago. Next year, it will be worse. The number of apprentices in construction will be down from 4,500 to 1,000 while the number in the electrical trades will be down from 2,500 to 1,000. It has been hard at the best of times for a young man or woman to get an apprenticeship. It will be harder next year. Many in current...

Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: I do not believe the Taoiseach has any sense of the public anger at the lavish extravagance and splurging of taxpayers' moneys involved. Nor do I believe he has any sense of the significant unease that this whole episode has caused for the majority of public servants who work conscientiously and for whom this carry-on is exposing them to being scapegoated and ridiculed. The Taoiseach is a...

Leaders' Questions (25 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: Has the Taoiseach made inquiries as to whether this type of carry-on is going on anywhere else in State agencies or across the public sector? Are board members and top executives of State bodies behaving like latter day Borgias at the taxpayers' expense anywhere else? In fairness to State agencies, those who work in them and the people who head them, some kind of inquiry should be ordered...

Order of Business (25 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: The Labour Party will not agree to any proposal on the Order of Business today until we have an assurance from the Taoiseach that the manner of dealing with the Combat Poverty Agency will be changed. The Minister for Finance announced in his Budget Statement that the Combat Poverty Agency was one of a number of State agencies to be wound up or amalgamated. Since then I have asked on a...

Order of Business (25 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: ——it is being done. I want the Taoiseach to give an assurance that it will be withdrawn from the Social Welfare Bill. It can be brought into this House, if he or the Minister for Social and Family Affairs wants to do so, and debated as separate legislation. It is interesting that the amendments circulated by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs provide for the transfer of...

Order of Business (25 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: It is neutering the agency but making no savings for the public purse in doing so.

Order of Business (25 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: It is very disappointing.

Order of Business (25 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: I concur with Deputies Kenny and Ó Caoláin. During these new times in which we find ourselves, the House should debate the Estimates from the various Departments in plenary session.

Written Answers — Hospital Services: Hospital Services (25 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: Question 104: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the proposals that have been brought to her attention to transfer maternity hospitals in Dublin to the campuses of acute general hospitals; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42433/08]

Written Answers — Long-Term Illness Scheme: Long-Term Illness Scheme (25 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: Question 113: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the progress that has been made in the review of the long-term illness scheme; her views on including other suitable illnesses within the terms of the scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42434/08]

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (25 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: Question 417: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, further to Parliamentary Question No. 1357 of 24 September 2008, the reason a Minister may not apply backdating to a non-statutory scheme such as the free fuel allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42283/08]

Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: Mr. Molloy has done the honourable thing by offering his resignation. I am sure that was a difficult decision for him and I wish him well. From time to time, when things go wrong, we get resignations of senior public servants. However, what we do not get, particularly from Fianna Fáil in Government, is any resignation by Ministers or any sense that there is ministerial accountability....

Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: The Taoiseach's answer is not good enough at all. Telling the taxpayer, who has to pay for this, about circular letters is not an adequate answer.

Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: The Act which was passed by the Oireachtas, the representatives of the people, which set up FÁS, says without any doubt or ambiguity that it is the job of the Minister to approve the expenses regime in FÁS.

Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: I will read it for the Minister. Section 7(2)(a) states, "Such remuneration and allowances for expenses incurred by him . . . [this means any member of staff] . . . as An Foras or the subsidiary, as the case may be, with the consent of the Minister and the Minister for Finance". It is explicitly clear that the approval of expenses regimes in FÁS, as established by this Act, is a job for...

Benchmarking Awards. (26 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: In the Taoiseach's reply on the pay agreement that has been concluded, I understood him to say that it is the Government's intention to honour the terms of the agreement. I would like the Taoiseach to pursue the logic of this. No money has been provided by the Government to honour the agreement's terms. On the contrary, as he has confirmed to the House, there is a requirement on...

Programme for Government. (26 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: Question 5: To ask the Taoiseach when it is intended to publish the progress report on the implementation of An Agreed Programme for Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29623/08]

Programme for Government. (26 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: The Taoiseach has made a very significant acknowledgement to the House this morning that while the programme for Government exists on paper, it no longer exists in reality because it was negotiated and agreed on the assumption that there would be a 4.5% growth rate, which is clearly not the case. Despite the commitments in the programme for Government to reduce tax and class sizes, they are...

Programme for Government. (26 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: There is a commitment in the programme for Government that VAT on certain environmental goods and services will be reduced from 21% to 13.5%. The budget recently increased VAT to 21.5%. Does that commitment to reduce VAT on environmental goods and services still apply? Does the Government have any plans to reduce the VAT rate, particularly following this week's announcement by the British...

Programme for Government. (26 Nov 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: I do not understand how this Government works.