Results 5,621-5,640 of 36,764 for speaker:Enda Kenny

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: This is a budget of no courage or vision and will not live up to the confidence expressed by the Government. It is important to put the budget in the political context in which it is framed. We have a Taoiseach who, by his own admission, is on the way out and will not be leading his party into the next election.

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: It is a while away yet.

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: It might not happen directly, but it is beginning to happen. There is also some rustling in the undergrowth from those who wish to contend against the anointed one. The Minister for Finance has had a favourable press for quite some time. If he was serious about being seen as the iron chancellor, I would have thought he would have measured up in his fourth budget to making some difficult...

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: They introduced three-year budgets for all spending ministries to enable longer-term spending. UK ministries are given full end-year flexibility to carry forward any underspend from one year to the next so that wasteful year end splurges of money merely to get it spent are eliminated. Some areas in the Irish public sector, I understand, now receive cheques and payments for work they have...

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: On 25 March at the Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis we were told taxes would be reduced, but Irish motorists woke up this morning knowing they were misled. The increase in motor tax represents a tax of €83 million that will hit every household and family. The spin from the Government is that this is part of a green agenda. It is not. It is a direct hit on the pockets of hard-pressed people who...

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: The cry will be to blame the Minister, Deputy Gormley. It is a green tax and that is why he is at it and he had to be given something. It will hit hundreds of thousands of people directly. I mentioned the stealth taxes of the accident and emergency bed charges and the drug refund scheme, which represents a €50 million tax attack on the ill in society. It is strange that the Minister told...

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: It is a dull, uninspiring and unimaginative budget from a Minister who is happier to take the easy option than make the difficult decisions. Ordinary families and small businesses will pay for the incompetency and mismanagement of Fianna Fáil running this economy. Whether we have the same Taoiseach this time next year, when we stand in the House we will find the chickens will have come...

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: On a point of information, would the Minister, Deputy Gormley be happy to have Deputy Hogan attend his press conference today as a Fine Gael spokesman in the same way the former Minister, Deputy Roche, used to welcome Deputy O'Dowd to his press conferences?

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: Would the Minister be happy to have him attend?

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: It is the Minister's press conference.

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: It does.

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: If I could just get clarification——

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: Would it be all right for Deputy Hogan to attend the Minister's press conference?

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: I know the Acting Chairman is defending his own Minister but I am asking——

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: This is a public press conference. I want to know whether the Minister would welcome Deputy Hogan's attendance at his press conference.

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: The Minister has not answered the question.

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: Is it "yes" or "no"?

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: He can discuss it at the press conference, in that case. Will the Minister discuss it at the press conference?

Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: This is nonsense. I would attend, if I were Deputy Hogan.

Written Answers — Swimming Pool Projects: Swimming Pool Projects (6 Dec 2007)

Enda Kenny: Question 166: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism if the local authority swimming pools programme has been re-opened; if not, when is it planned to be re-opened; the proposals in place regarding the terms of the programme; if he will increase the maximum available grant aid of €3.8 million per project through the programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33091/07]