Results 9,001-9,020 of 36,764 for speaker:Enda Kenny

Order of Business (16 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: I repeat that no piece of legislation that has gone through this House since the foundation of the State has ever cost in the region of what this is likely to cost, whether €40 billion, €50 billion or €60 billion. The Bill presented to us today will eventually be debated by force of vote in the House. As I understand it, the Bill does not have the total support of the Government, nor...

Order of Business (16 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: I wish to put a question to the Taoiseach.

Leaders' Questions (16 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: As I go around the country on the Lisbon referendum campaign seeking an endorsement for a strong "Yes" vote, the number of people who express genuine concern about the NAMA legislation is quite astonishing. No Bill that ever went through the House cost anything remotely in the region of what we are talking about here. This Bill does not have the support of the people. It amounts to an act...

Leaders' Questions (16 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: Does he accept that proposition?

Leaders' Questions (16 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: I am disappointed that, on an issue as fundamentally important as this, the Taoiseach has rejected an offer to sit down and work out an alternative, which can be achieved, and not proceed down this road of economic madness.

Leaders' Questions (16 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: As the Taoiseach is set on this road, perhaps he might answer a few questions. We are proceeding to commence with a debate on the Government's NAMA Bill, which will not be the legislation that will emerge at the end of this process, principally because the Taoiseach's partners in Government and members of his own party have yet to decide what further changes they will demand. Will the...

Written Answers — Judicial Appointments: Judicial Appointments (16 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: Question 610: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of representations he has received in relation to judicial appointments to the District, Circuit, High and Supreme Court each year since 1995 to date in 2009; the number of persons about whom a representation was made or received who was subsequently appointed to the judiciary; the court to which they were...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed). (17 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: This is a defining moment for our country. The decisions taken over the next few weeks will impact not just on this generation but on those to come. The stakes could not be higher. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, may well feel like a liberated man, but the taxpayer is now going to be trapped by the actions of the Government.

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed). (17 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: In a few weeks the people will vote on the Lisbon treaty. This party believes passionately in the interests of our country and for that reason we have set aside any narrow political considerations in campaigning actively for a "Yes" vote. Let me be clear. With the same passion and sense of conviction we believe that the NAMA proposal is not in the national interest and that is why we are...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed). (17 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: If we have learnt anything in the past 12 years, it is that the Fianna Fáil Party cannot be trusted to make the right decisions because its members listen to the wrong people. Fianna Fáil is no longer the party of the ordinary people; it is the party of the establishment. It is easy to be brave when taking away €10 million for cervical cancer vaccination or medical cards from...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed). (17 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: The truth is that the changes that have been made to the draft legislation are cosmetic. Why else would Fianna Fáil have let the Green Party take any credit? They were designed to get the Green Party through a shaky weekend in Athlone. I remind the Minister, Deputy Gormley, that NAMA is not about 140 Green Party members who turn up at a conference; it is about the 4.2 million people who...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed). (17 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: NAMA is not just a defining moment for our nation, it is also a defining moment for the Green Party. If its members decide to vote for this legislation they are sending out a message that they too are part of the elite, the establishment and the powerful. Are the interests of bank investors and developers really more important than the interests of ordinary people from whom Green Party...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed). (17 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: I would like the Government to go away and consider our suggestions. The Minister for Finance appointed one single person to draft a report on this - a stockbroker turned property developer. On the basis of that 11-page report, which I have not seen and in respect of which I have no knowledge what other input from the Department of Finance, the Central Bank, the regulator or other economic...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed). (17 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: On the basis of this report the people were informed we were proceeding with NAMA. If it was not all so tragic it would be farcical. I would like the Minister to produce the evidence of how that 11-page report was treated, the consultations that were held on it, the discussions and the interpretation that has resulted in proposing the introduction of NAMA. In order to understand the basic...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed). (17 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: Are we supposed to trust bankers? John Kenneth Galbraith said that these were the guardians of the nation's financial pessimism. Boards of banks do not know what is going on because when they meet for their two-hour meeting once a month or every two months, most of them do not have the information to ask the relevant questions. We are now faced with a small group from the National Treasury...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed). (17 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: -----with our national recovery bank. We would not set up a quango. If the Taoiseach says people who are opposed to NAMA are either unwilling or unable to understand what is going on, I refer him to the likes of Dermot Desmond or Professor Morgan Kelly or anybody else who has put forward an objective view on how this might be achieved. Fine Gael is opposed to NAMA on principle because it is...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed). (17 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: The national recovery bank proposed by Fine Gael could be set up in a matter of weeks, as has happened with the French Financing Corporation, SFEF, which was announced in October 2008 and was up and running by November 2008. To finance itself, the SFEF issued €5 billion of bonds on 1 November. One month later, it issued a further €6 billion of bonds, and according to SFEF, the second...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed). (17 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: It is there in front of the Minister if he wishes to look at it.

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed). (17 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: The Minister has been led by the nose by the banks and developers. He has gone down one road and he does not want to discuss alternatives. He says he is open for business. The evidence is there in front of him.

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed). (17 Sep 2009)

Enda Kenny: The second part of our proposal is to give the banks some time to strengthen their own balance sheets. Although the details are not the same, our proposal is broadly parallel to that put forward by Dermot Desmond in the newspapers yesterday. If individual banks make progress we could, under the Fine Gael proposal, inject capital into them to aid a return to financial health. If they have...