Results 6,641-6,660 of 12,637 for speaker:Willie O'Dea

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: The discussions on how this matter was played out between both parties, which got a lot of coverage in the national newspapers, is most interesting. In last Monday's Irish Independent, a Labour source - and Labour was part of the Government the last time I checked - said: "We feel Fine Gael are out of touch and decided to throw welfare cuts into the pot ... It reveals the priority of our...

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: In the same edition of the Irish Independent, a Labour Party Deputy - somebody who is keeping the Government in office and will probably vote for this budget also - said: "They [Fine Gael] don't care about the ordinary punter ... We're furious." Not furious enough obviously, although we will see next week. I notice that a lot of them are wrestling with their consciences. I have been here a...

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: It said that the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, wanted to have even more savage cuts. He said: "We were ... irked that she [Deputy Burton] put herself out as the protector of the oppressed when she had put forward this package." She actually had to be talked out of a couple of cuts, including to the bereavement grant and some other aspects of social welfare. It is...

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: In his budget speech last year, the Minister for Finance said "The core [mission] of this Government is to get Ireland working again". Therefore the core mission and unifying aim of the Government was to bring down unemployment. As the Minister has set the yardstick, Members should consider how he measures up to it. When the Government took office, the unemployment rate was 14.1% and it now...

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: It does not reveal that many people are leaving the workforce. As Dan O'Brien noted in an article in The Irish Times last Monday, one measures the participation rate, which is the true measure of unemployment. Moreover, it does not take into account the fact that people are hiding out in the education system and in all the training schemes and nor does it take into account that, if my...

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: In that case, I will not dwell on social welfare because I will have plenty of time to talk about it next week while debating the Social Welfare Bill, on which I will have much to say.

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: In conclusion, as a result of these savage social welfare cuts and as a result of another regressive budget on top of the one which preceded it-----

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: -----Ireland now is a tale of two countries. On the one hand, there are the rich and the exempted, whose privileges are protected and preserved intact, while on the other hand, 750,000 people are living below the internationally-recognised poverty line in a population of slightly more than 4 million. In other words, 750,000 people are living below what is regarded as the international...

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: Deputy Brian Hayes has an intellectual giant beside him.

Written Answers — Department of Defence: Departmental Correspondence (6 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: To ask the Minister for Defence if he will respond to the requests of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 7 [54954/12]

Social Welfare Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: I propose to share time with Deputy Barry Cowen if he appears in the Chamber. The central defence made by the Minister is that core social welfare rates will remain unchanged. Like many things, that is not completely true but it is partly true. I wish to draw the attention of the House to a phenomenon known as the poverty line. The poverty line is an internationally accepted standard....

Social Welfare Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: What about Sinn Féin's record in the North?

Social Welfare Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: It is one policy here and another in the North. Tell us about the Sinn Féin policy in the North.

Social Welfare Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: The Shinners are the only people who-----

Social Welfare Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: The Deputy promised me he would tell us about the North.

Social Welfare Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: He said he would tell us about the North.

Social Welfare Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: Here is the guy who has one policy in Newry and another in Dundalk. I welcome his conversion to democracy. We have ways of-----

Social Welfare Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: Two-faced? You could give lectures on being two-faced, you hypocrite.

Social Welfare Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: Your friends were caught in a van with items to commit crime. You come in here and talk. You hypocrite. One policy in Dundalk and one in Newry.

Social Welfare Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Dec 2012)

Willie O'Dea: Look in the mirror and you will see what it means.