Results 4,021-4,040 of 19,445 for speaker:Brian Cowen

Decentralisation Programme. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: It comprises the people who are implementing the programme. I wish to move on to Question No. 28 as I have exhausted my time with Deputy McGrath. I will certainly not convince him today.

Decentralisation Programme. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: Maybe during his retirement he will come to the opening of the new offices in Mullingar and finally acknowledge that decentralisation became a reality.

Decentralisation Programme. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: I am always there.

Interest Rates. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: As the Deputy will be aware, there is a broad range of factors that determine the effect of changes in interest rates on individual loan repayments. These include, for example, the outstanding loan amount, whether the lending rate is fixed or variable, the length of time over which the increase takes place, the pass-through of interest rate changes to lending rates, the repayment term and the...

Interest Rates. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: Mr. Trichet has been nothing but complimentary about the performance of the Irish economy at every meeting I have attended of either ECOFIN Ministers or euro area Ministers. Future interest rate policy is a matter for the European Central Bank and is not something on which I comment as a matter of policy. The European Central Bank has been excellent in its management of interest rate policy...

Interest Rates. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: The planet on which I am living is the one that contains the country that has seen real interest rates, taking inflation into account, at historically low levels going back over 60 to 70 years.

Interest Rates. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: I want to reply to the Deputy's question. The planet on which I live——

Interest Rates. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: I am not.

Interest Rates. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: The Tír na nÓg in which the Deputy lived before 1997 had an unemployment rate of 10% and working people's average industrial wage was €11,000 lower. The Deputy should not give me lectures on her Tír na nÓg. The future for this country would be best provided by a Government which provides——

Interest Rates. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: The Deputy is making stupid sound bites.

Interest Rates. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: I am talking about the future — the future which has created 0.5 million jobs since we returned to office and the future which is making sure we now have a greater capacity for construction than was the case when the Deputy's party was in office. The Deputy has being doing as much as she can on the ground which has been debilitating against progress in providing more housing despite her...

Interest Rates. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: The changes to the income tax regime since 1997 — the Deputy's party halted reductions in tax for workers — mean that the average tax rate has been reduced at all income levels. After the last budget I brought in, the average tax rate for a single person on the average industrial wage will be 15% as compared with more than 27% in 1997.

Interest Rates. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: A single PAYE payer on the average industrial wage has seen his or her after tax income increase by approximately 44% in real terms since 1997 of which approximately half is due to tax reductions. The last factor influencing repayment ability is the interest rates available to the market. At present mortgage interest rates are approximately 4% down significantly from the rates of 7.1% to...

Interest Rates. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: The Deputy keeps interrupting. When the objective facts are put on the table, the Deputy keeps interrupting. One does not win the argument by interrupting.

Interest Rates. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: I listened respectfully to what the Deputy said and the questions she asked. The minute I try to answer them and the Deputy finds she might lose the argument, she starts to shout me down.

Interest Rates. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: It is infantile behaviour.

Interest Rates. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: I have answered all the arguments the Deputy put.

Interest Rates. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: I have answered all of them. The Deputy did not like the answers. That is the problem.

Industrial Disputes. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: I propose to take Questions Nos. 29 and 106 together. In the dispute at FÁS a Labour Relations Commission proposal has been accepted by both sides. The proposal provides for the parties to enter a process of discussion, facilitated by the LRC, on the arrangements to apply in respect of promotion in light of the relocation of FÁS head office to Birr. The process should conclude not later...

Industrial Disputes. (28 Jun 2006)

Brian Cowen: As I said to the Deputy the last time we discussed this, there was a stand-off in which no discussions were taking place. These issues are now going through the industrial relations process and FÁS is the first organisation to do this. I want to leave it to the industrial relations process. It is not the norm for Government to discuss negotiations just beginning to identify areas in which we...