Results 581-600 of 6,728 for speaker:John Curran
- Financial Resolution No. 2: Stamp Duty (5 Dec 2007)
John Curran: One cannot pay the milk man by cheque.
- Financial Resolution No. 2: Stamp Duty (5 Dec 2007)
John Curran: Most of them want cash.
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)
John Curran: Our national debt is one of the lowest in Europe.
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)
John Curran: This is not a hairshirt budget.
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)
John Curran: We are not.
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)
John Curran: He will be able to sit and listen.
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)
John Curran: That is the problem.
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)
John Curran: I am sure the Deputy will stay in the Chamber to hear it.
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)
John Curran: I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I compliment the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, on delivering a balanced budget in more difficult economic times than in recent years. It was a prudent budget which maintains public services while providing for significant growth in our capital programme. Listening to the delivery of the Budget Statement and reading the reports...
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)
John Curran: It is important that they hear our views on where we see Ireland. It is certainly not the picture that the Deputies tried to portray earlier. Deputy Ring referred in his comments to the budgets of 1995 to 1997 and made a big issue of delivering a budget surplus. He was critical of the Government's borrowing of â¬5 billion.
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)
John Curran: I will go back to 1995 and 1997 in a moment, but to put it in context, the reason we are borrowing this moneyââ
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)
John Curran: The reason we are borrowing â¬5 billion is to maintain a significant capital programme. We will not have stop-start development of infrastructure. The money we are borrowing is about 0.9% of GDP. Before Deputy Ring leaves, there is one comment I want to make which he might find interesting. He comes in hereââ
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)
John Curran: I will let the Deputy go after this.
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)
John Curran: I do not have a prepared script, but I have been making notes on comments made earlier.
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)
John Curran: Deputy Ring made a big issue of the fact that in the period 1995 to 1997 the coalition Government returned a budget surplus. It did so but, to its shame, it did it by abandoning those in need. It delivered the most miserable social welfare increasesââ
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)
John Curran: ââat that time.
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)
John Curran: It was on the backs of the vulnerable people in this country.
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)
John Curran: It was on the backs of those people that Deputy Ring stood up tonight to boast about the budget surpluses. The Deputy's party walked away from them.
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)
John Curran: It was the most miserableââ
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (11 Dec 2007)
John Curran: It was the most miserable increase in social welfare ever, but the Deputy boasted that his party produced a budget surplus.