Results 4,721-4,740 of 5,034 for speaker:Billy Timmins

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: I am always concerned when making a proposal here that some vacuous and cheap editor of a newspaper will interpret it incorrectly. For example, in the homelessness debate that has been taking place for the past few days the most obvious solution to avoid having people sleep rough on the streets is the introduction of legislation to make it illegal to sleep on the streets. Sometimes a...

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: The Deputies will not be calm in a few minutes. In recent times Sinn Féin has put itself in the vanguard of opposition. A couple of days ago its Deputy Leader articulated the names of a number of people against whom allegations had been made. I do not believe this served democracy well. It is important, now that the names are in the public domain, that a mechanism be found to get to...

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: It is important, in the context of the attempts being made to destabilise the Government, that we see what people have to offer. To name people in the House and call for the truth in certain matters in only one aspect of Irish society is not satisfactory. I can understand a Member being disorderly and being asked to leave the Dáil; it has happened to me, as sometimes one believes it is...

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: If, following a vote to suspend a Member of the House, that Member refuses to leave the Chamber, a sanction of suspension from the Chamber for in the region of 83 days should apply.

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: This Chamber was recently closed to 165 Members for half a day because of such activity. Where a Member sees fit to cost other Members the loss of a day or half a day in this Chamber, he or she should be punished for doing so, be it Deputy Mary Lou McDonald, Deputy Billy Timmins, Deputy Peter Mathews and so on.

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: I have no difficulty in speaking harshly about Sinn Féin, but there are other groups represented in the Chamber that also deserve a lash.

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: I listened to my colleague, Deputy Shane Ross, articulate a view on the ineffectiveness of the Chamber in recent times. He also outlined an approach which he and Deputies Finian McGrath, Stephen S. Donnelly and John Halligan proposed to take. I am inclined to disagree with him. Trying to move the flower power of the 1960s into the Dáil Chamber might not necessarily be the most...

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: The Leas-Cheann Comhairle has only one more minute to listen to me.

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: A lot of water will flow under the bridge before Deputy Shane Ross turns down a Cabinet position if he can get himself into such a position. The challenge for all of us on this Bill is to have the public believe any of us. I am not an advocate for the concept of independence per se. It is nice and touchy-feely and many Independent Members make a fantastic contribution here, but from the...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Appointment Status (9 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: 352. To ask the Minister for Health the process and wait time in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Wicklow to be added to the pulmonary rehabilitation programme at St. Michael's Hospital, Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47230/14]

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: Even the most partisan Government Member would acknowledge that this has turned into quite a fiasco. I acknowledge that the previous system did not work with 34 local authorities overseeing a system that did not get adequate investment over the years and could not be managed. It is impractical to expect a utility to have so many bodies overseeing it. However, what should have been a good...

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: On PPS numbers, people generally did not have a difficulty in the past giving that information to Government agencies. In fact, in 2012, the Joint Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht recommended that PPS numbers be used as a method of collating information for a body that would be set up in the future to deal with water services. What caused the difficulty in actuality...

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: Deputy Catherine Murphy spoke about PPS numbers in her contribution.

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: The same issue arose in regard to the non-principal private residence tax and gave rise to a great deal of difficulty. It should be a policy of government, irrespective of which parties are in office, that if something is included in a Bill which goes beyond the original remit of that Bill, the Title will be amended to reflect the change. In the case of Irish Water, the manner in which the...

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: I do not think that people are trying to entrap the Minister and I am certainly not doing so. I appreciate it has been a long day for him.

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: I ask for clarification because it is an important issue. The Minister mentioned the figure of 1.3 million primary residences. Does that mean that if someone has a rental property and it is let to tenants, the tenants will be paying water charges but they will not be able to receive the grant? Is that what we are talking about?

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: Houses or people?

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: This is a very simple issue and there should be a simple answer to it. If every eligible household in the country registered for Irish Water, how many households would register? If I am a tenant in a pre-1963 house on the North Circular Road in which there are nine units with nine different tenants on which property tax has been paid, would I be entitled to the conservation grant and would...

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: The Deputy should not scroll down; he might lose it.

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: I appreciate the Minister's comments. If we do not dispute his costs in refuting the argument from Deputy Donnelly, he is taking in more revenue than it costs to finance the operation. Let us say we agree in principle with that.