Results 4,901-4,920 of 24,326 for speaker:Jerry Buttimer

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: Deputy Kelleher is misleading the House.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: The Deputy is playing politics with disabilities.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: I compliment the Minister on being here, on her excellent speech today and on her stewardship of the Department over the past nine months. She has shown courage and bottle and deserves to be supported. In this debate we are discussing people, many of whom need the State to look after them, and people with disabilities. It ill behoves Members to play politics with sensitive people. I...

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: It is extraordinary. Last night, I stated that the politics of recrimination is one thing, but it really sickens me to hear Members on the other side of the House who for 14 years were in government making decisions which condemned a generation of Irish people. It is genuinely sickening. The budget is not easy and it is not difficult-----

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: It is not difficult to defend because it is about people. It is about building a new Ireland. In her very fine speech today, the Minister stated she wished this was not the way she had to give her first budget. She is correct; none of us entered politics to be the purveyors of bad news or to make tough decisions. It would be great to come here and squander money, like Fianna Fáil did for...

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: You jumped ship Deputy McGrath and you stand for nothing in my mind.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: You are like the wind; you blow wherever it goes. At least Deputy Cowen has the courage of his convictions-----

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: -----and to be fair to them the Sinn Féin Deputies also have their convictions. However Deputy McGrath has none.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: None.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: I want to say to people outside the Chamber who are listening that I wish it was different. I apologise to them for the cuts we are making and for the hard calls we are taking. However it is for the betterment of the Irish people and for the betterment of Irish society. I was a schoolteacher for 20 years and many of my past pupils and clubmates from Bishopstown GAA club have emigrated....

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: Let me finish. You make decisions in government in the North and you have accepted responsibility in the North.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: I will, because the Social Welfare Bill-----

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: I do not need geography at all. I am as republican as Deputy Ó Snodaigh.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: The social welfare rate in the North is much less than here. We now have a paymaster here, the EU-IMF troika, which dictates what we can do. You can act dismayed and make faces at me but this is the reality.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: Our economic sovereignty has been given away-----

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: -----and it behoves all of us to reclaim it, not just to get it back but to give a generation of people, be they supporters of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Labour Party, Sinn Féin or whoever, the opportunity to have an Ireland that is free where they can work and do not have to go cap in hand to Europe to get money, and where we can have a society, be it socialist or capitalist, where work,...

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: Irrespective of whether I agree with Deputy Cowen, at least today he was living in the real world. Sometimes Fianna Fáil voted with us, but Sinn Féin has abandoned all sense of realism and responsibility to the Irish people.

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: The rhetoric of the general election campaign is different from being in government and some day Deputy Ó Snodaigh might know this. If he does I hope I am here-----

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: I hope I am still here. In many ways I will probably be like Joxer in the Christy Moore song as I will have woken up from a bad dream because Deputy Ó Snodaigh will probably be Minister for Defence-----

Social Welfare Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Dec 2011)

Jerry Buttimer: The Deputy beside him, Deputy McDonald, will be Minister for Finance, Deputy McLellan will be Minister for tourism, Deputy Ellis will be Minister for something else and Deputy Mattie McGrath will be Minister for catchall and the country will be bankrupt.