Results 1,081-1,100 of 4,092 for speaker:Michael D Higgins
- Written Answers — Tax Code: Tax Code (22 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: Question 64: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will report on the work of the RCT monitoring group; the number of audits that have been carried out to date in 2006 on construction companies; the number of site visits conducted by the Revenue Commissioners Office in 2006; the yield from these audits; the percentage of tax due from these audits that is to be collected; the number of...
- Written Answers — Financial Services Regulation: Financial Services Regulation (22 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: Question 134: To ask the Minister for Finance if the Financial Regulator has conducted a study into the penalty charges charged to consumers here by credit card companies; if there are proposals to regulate and limit these charges as has been enforced by the Office of Fair Trading in the UK; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39242/06]
- Foreign Conflicts. (23 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: Question 2: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if Ireland proposes to take further initiatives at national or European level to address the tragic and deteriorating situation in Darfur which has led to loss of life, dispossession and violence against the person on a scale that constitutes genocide; if Ireland, as proposed to him at the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, will organise...
- Foreign Conflicts. (23 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: I very much thank the Minister for his reply. I welcome the fact we will have an opportunity to discuss a motion on Darfur early next week in plenary session. Is the Minister concerned that what is taking place in Darfur is a test of the United Nations commitment to the concept of humanitarian protection? Put more bluntly, is it not an abuse of sovereignty to prevent the United Nations from...
- Foreign Conflicts. (23 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: The first issue was about the concept of humanitarian protection, which the UN is seeking to advance.
- Foreign Conflicts. (23 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: Is the Minister concerned at the enormous gap in the estimates for those who have been killed in the last two years? Some international bodies have given a figure of 50,000 to 60,000, but the most authoritative recent report suggests it is as high as 400,000.
- Military Neutrality. (23 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: Not at all.
- Foreign Conflicts. (23 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: They made arrests.
- Overseas Development Aid. (23 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: The Minister of State used the term "good governance" in his reply. Is this a reference to the Wolfowitz definition through the World Bank, that is, an imposed accountability for micro-economic plans, or is he talking about good governance as it might relate to the social, economic and historical realities of the countries about which he has spoken? Is his Department open to holding a...
- Overseas Development Aid. (23 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: It is a limited perspective.
- Overseas Development Aid. (23 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: Does the Minister of State's definition of good governance include indigenous decision-making systems such as village systems? I am more interested in that than in accounting systems.
- Overseas Development Aid. (23 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: Is the Minister of State concerned that the five strongest economies in the European Union are camouflaging their figures and are not likely to reach their 2015 targets? They are doing this by including matters under the official development aid target that have nothing to do with development, such as education of refugees, providing information and so forth. This statement has been made by...
- Overseas Development Aid. (23 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: The Iraqi and Nigerian debt are included.
- Overseas Development Aid. (23 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: That is 40% of the United Kingdom figure.
- Overseas Development Aid. (23 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: Of course, that was implied in my suggestion.
- Overseas Development Aid. (23 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: Austria and the United Kingdom.
- Overseas Development Aid. (23 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: At the launch of the human development report I addressed the issue of the contradiction concerning what is regarded as the management of water as a scarce resource which is used as a vehicle for imposing privatisation of water supplies in different countries. This cannot be reconciled with the acceptance of water as a basic right. If one accepts water as a basic right, one arrives at a...
- Overseas Development Aid. (23 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: Two questions were taken together. I suggest to the Minister of State that he reconsider the position in regard to our role both in the World Bank and internationally. It is hard law rather than soft law because one could interpret the universal declaration in the sense that a right to water is included under the right to health. The reason I put General Covenant No. 15 into the question...
- Overseas Development Aid. (23 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: Exactly.
- Overseas Development Aid. (23 Nov 2006)
Michael D Higgins: That is a slippery slope.