Results 5,781-5,800 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Order of Business (9 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: The Taoiseach is in charge.

Order of Business (9 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: It is Report Stage. It can be completed on Thursday and Friday.

Order of Business (9 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: A Cheann Comhairle-----

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (9 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: This amendment is part of the general noxious legislation the Minister is pushing through tonight. On that basis alone, it should be opposed.

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (9 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: Leading the charge.

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (9 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: It may be. The Deputy is absolutely right.

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (9 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: The fact that the Dáil is sitting after midnight, in the early morning of 10 December, to debate for one hour amendments to the Water Services Bill that could easily be debated in time allocated on Thursday and Friday is a tribute to the overweening arrogance of the newly arrived Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. He is newly arrived but already delusional...

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (9 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: I am about to. The Minister brought us here at this hour of the night so we will exercise our prerogative to the best of our ability in the time allotted. Should a plebiscite be held, it should not be confined to the citizens of this State, as proposed in the legislation. My colleague, Deputy Ruth Coppinger, will move amendment No. 7. Why should a plebiscite be confined just to citizens?...

Written Answers — Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Insolvency Payments Scheme Payments (9 Dec 2014)

Joe Higgins: 204. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the recourse available for persons (details supplied) to have their successful claim for unpaid wages against their former employer enforced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46853/14]

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

Joe Higgins: Everything has been said. This issue will be decided in the communities of Ireland and by the people of Ireland in April and succeeding months, not in this Chamber, which is increasingly irrelevant as far as water charges are concerned, and by the tens of thousands who went out onto the streets yesterday representing their fellow citizens all over the country.

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

Joe Higgins: I am opposed to this section. It should be opposed by all.

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

Joe Higgins: We really are into Orwellian-speak territory. Giving something a name — in this case, "conservation grant" — and declaring it to be such although one knows it is something else altogether is exactly what we are talking about here.

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

Joe Higgins: In April, Irish Water, at the behest of the Minister, will be sending 1.5 million bills out to people looking for €40 or €65. In July and October, there will be similar exercises. In October, as Deputy Boyd Barrett said, there will be a small army of civil servants sending €100 in the opposite direction. When the books are prepared at the end of the year, it will be...

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

Joe Higgins: Does that mean the tenants will not get it back?

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

Joe Higgins: I see the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has come to assist so all will probably be well now.

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

Joe Higgins: Ten years on the administrative council of the Labour Party made me greyer than the Minister, believe me.

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

Joe Higgins: Irish Water sent out 2.8 million packs. That is 2.8 million homes. If each one was entitled to €100, in round figures that would be €200 million.

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

Joe Higgins: I thought it was customary for new appointments to the Cabinet to be announced in the Dáil before they appear here from the backbenches.

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

Joe Higgins: Let us clarify these figures. That would be €200 million.

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

Joe Higgins: How many second homes - non-principal private residences - are excluded from this? The number of second homes does not come to 700,000, which is what the Minister would need to bring the figure down to 1.3 million. I ask the Minister to clarify. Will tenants - local authority tenants and tenants of private landlords - get the €100 conservation grant as well?