Results 6,381-6,400 of 36,187 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Financial Resolutions 2014 - Budget Statement 2014 (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: The Irish people and their economy are feeling the effects of the Taoiseach's ambitionless policies. We have faced the reality this year, despite the predictions from a few years ago, that there has been zero growth in the economy. Nevertheless, the introduced budget has gone beyond the necessary targets set by the troika. The troika deficit target for this year was 5.1% of GDP but Fine...

Financial Resolutions 2014 - Budget Statement 2014 (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: The Government should send postcards to Perth and Canberra in Australia, and to New York and London, because the young people of this State could not wait for it to get its act together. They have given up and left. It is time the Government got its act together. It announced that policy almost three years ago. When the Government came to power the unemployment rate was 13.5%, as per the...

Financial Resolutions 2014 - Budget Statement 2014 (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: Now it is 13.3%.

Financial Resolutions 2014 - Budget Statement 2014 (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: That is in addition to the 176,000 people who have emigrated on the Government's watch.

Financial Resolutions 2014 - Budget Statement 2014 (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: Some 176,000 people have emigrated on the Taoiseach's watch. Sixty percent of the unemployed are now categorised as long-term unemployed. The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation is fond of saying that the Government does not create jobs. That is one thing we know for sure - it definitely does not. We are in a jobs crisis and the Government's official response has been to hold...

Financial Resolutions 2014 - Budget Statement 2014 (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: There are many other issues we can deal with at a later stage when the Finance Bill is introduced. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald will deal with some of these issues too.

Financial Resolutions 2014 - Budget Statement 2014 (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: The reality is that how the Government treats the deficit can either add to or fix the problem.

Financial Resolutions 2014 - Budget Statement 2014 (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: There is scope for deficit reduction next year from fair measures. Sinn Féin has shown the Government how to do that, but this Government does not do fair. It is not in its dictionary nor in its vocabulary. The Tánaiste left that wee four-letter word outside the door when he entered Government Buildings.

Financial Resolutions 2014 - Budget Statement 2014 (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: In his speech on the first day he was elected, the Taoiseach delivered a powerful observation of where the State stood. He said our Republic had been betrayed, that people were afraid of losing their homes, and that parents were being rendered speechless at the sight of their children boarding planes to countries where our spring is their autumn and our today is their tomorrow.

Financial Resolutions 2014 - Budget Statement 2014 (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: The Taoiseach's words were:Employers are traumatised by laying off staff and shutting down businesses. Workers pray for invisibility as they queue for the dole. Families worry that the neighbours might see the Vincent de Paul calling to their door, dreading the postman dropping bills like stealth bombs into the hall.

Financial Resolutions 2014 - Budget Statement 2014 (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: What has the Government done to make the situation better for the people the Taoiseach described?

Financial Resolutions 2014 - Budget Statement 2014 (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: The answer is "Nothing," because he has intensified their pain, worry and anguish. Our Republic was betrayed. The Taoiseach has had three opportunities to fix it in three budgets. There is nothing in what he offers today, however, that will put the economy on the right track or offer people the solace they need.

Financial Resolutions 2014 - Budget Statement 2014 (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: The bills will still fall through the letter-boxes; the planes will still be full of our young people leaving; the dole queues will still snake around the corner of the block. People are still losing their homes, and the St. Vincent de Paul has never been busier. I say to the Minister, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste that their Government's budget is as empty as were the words of the...

Allocation of Time: Motion (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: It has been normal practice in the Chamber that there is a short brief on each of the resolutions. The pressure of time means we have one hour during the suspension of the sitting to look at the financial resolutions before us. We have been handed a white page, with some points having only seven or eight words, as a brief on some of the financial statements. It is bad form, as the...

Allocation of Time: Motion (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I am talking about the briefing.

Financial Resolutions 2014: No. 1: Alcohol Products Tax (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: This is one of the Government's main taxation proposals. It will take in €145 million in additional taxes from people who consume alcohol. The retention of the 9% VAT rate for the tourism sector been dressed up by the Minister as making up for this, but the 9% VAT rate for 2014 will amount to slightly more - around €290 million from across the entire hospitality and tourism...

Financial Resolutions 2014: No. 2: Tobacco Products Tax (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: It is a bit like a self-help group here.

Financial Resolutions 2014: No. 2: Tobacco Products Tax (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: I say that as a reformed smoker. We articulated our views last year on foot of the measure to increase the price of tobacco products. The Tánaiste will be aware that we called for an increase in our alternative budget submission. We believe the increase should be in the order of 20 cent. If the Tánaiste read our document, he would have read that money should be ring-fenced to...

Financial Resolutions 2014: No. 2: Tobacco Products Tax (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: It has started to drop. There may be a decrease and that is to be welcomed. The various surveys by Retail Ireland and others show that one in every three cigarettes purchased in this State is purchased on the black market or through illicit trade. The surveys show that this costs the Exchequer in the region of €700 million in lost revenue. Statistics show that detections this year...

Financial Resolutions 2014: No. 2: Tobacco Products Tax (15 Oct 2013)

Pearse Doherty: -----or from people who go around housing estates, knocking on doors and selling cigarettes.