Results 9,421-9,440 of 21,499 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Other Questions: Ministerial Expenditure (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: My question refers to the thorny issue of ministerial expenses. When I drafted the question, it was to refer to each Minister, but it appears that it is now focused entirely on the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

Other Questions: Ministerial Expenditure (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: That was not my intention, but, nonetheless, that is how the question is phrased. It asks the Minister if he will provide, in tabular form, the expenses incurred by him between 2011 and to date in 2015. It is not directed at him personally or in particular. I raise it because there has been for the umpteenth time public unease and concern about ministerial expenses. I, therefore, thought...

Other Questions: Ministerial Expenditure (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Perhaps that is what happened.

Other Questions: Ministerial Expenditure (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am sure we will all agree that the Minister is nothing if not modest.

Other Questions: Ministerial Expenditure (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: I thank the Minister. This is turning out to be a positive day, but we will see how long that lasts. Why does the Minister not have access to, or sight of, the expenses of other Ministers? This has happened in other contexts where the Minister's Department has an overarching umbrella, yet when questions are asked - this being a particular instance - the Minister says it is a matter for...

Other Questions: Ministerial Expenditure (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Minister knows what the figures are.

Other Questions: Ministerial Expenditure (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is not a question of the Minister sanctioning them but of having information on them.

Other Questions: Ministerial Expenditure (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: What is the aggregate figure?

Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: This week, the Tánaiste will take up to €87 a week from more than 10,000 single parent families. This is the eighth successive cut she has inflicted on lone-parent families. The vast majority of these parents, as she knows, are women. Many are in low-paid and insecure jobs, many more are living in or at risk of poverty, and all struggle to raise their children in challenging...

Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Precisely.

Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Here it comes.

Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: I thank the Tánaiste for that. She might consider raising her concerns on issues around the North of Ireland the next time she has an opportunity to speak to David Cameron. She has conspicuously not availed of the opportunities to raise those issues before.

Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: Here is the issue.

Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Tánaiste is trying to argue that-----

Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Tánaiste is trying to argue that black is white. She is trying to convince a group of families, who we all recognise are at risk of poverty and who we all recognise work very hard to raise their children-----

Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: She is trying to convince 10,000 of them that, by reducing their weekly income by €87, she is assisting them out of poverty.

Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: No, that is right. Furthermore, the Tánaiste is attempting to assert that all the parents who have been at their wit's end-----

Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----some of whom will be almost in despair at this moment because of this cut, have somehow got their figures wrong. Let me tell the Tánaiste that, in my experience, people raising children, especially on their own, when it comes to their household budgets, do not get the figures wrong because they simply cannot afford to.

Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Tánaiste conspicuously avoided answering the central question. She concedes that we do not have an adequate child care provision or system. She made the promise.

Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Tánaiste promised the very thing she is doing would not proceed until we had adequate, accessible, affordable child care. She went so far as to pin her ambition to the Scandinavian model. We have nothing of the sort, yet she proceeds with this, despite all her supposed concern for poverty and lone parents. We all know that child care is one of the major factors in regard to...