Results 11,681-11,700 of 27,945 for speaker:Michael McGrath

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Finance (Tax Appeals) Bill 2015: Committee Stage (7 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: I am not supporting that because it means the subsequent amendments relating to the Circuit Court cannot be moved. It is therefore not agreed to.

Written Answers — Department of Finance: NAMA Staff Data (8 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: 65. To ask the Minister for Finance the payroll savings to the National Asset Management Agency in 2016 from the voluntary redundancy of the 51 staff accepted to date; the redundancy pay-out to the 51 staff; the salary bracket of those departing under €100,000; from €100,001 to €200,000; €200,001 to €300,000; €300,000 plus; and if he will make a...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Energy Prices (8 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: 221. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he is concerned that retail gas prices for consumers have not come down in line with wholesale gas prices internationally; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34976/15]

Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: This budget is the final roll of the dice from a Government that has run out of ideas and is about to run out of road. This budget presented a golden opportunity to the Government to make a statement about our values as a country and to set out a vision for our Republic as we approach a series of centenary commemorations. It was an opportunity to make the right choices. The decision the...

Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: -----who defied the odds and not only survived but are now driving the recovery. The Government is delusional if it believes that decisions made on Merrion Street during its tenure have brought about this recovery. Having broken promise after promise over the past four and a half years, this budget is an attempt by the Government to take a short cut to popularity, but the people will not be...

Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: With every budget this Government has passed, it has made Ireland a more unequal place. Fine Gael and the Labour Party seem intent on creating deeper and deeper divisions in society. The way the Government targeted lone parents, women and the elderly will live long in the memory. This Government does not like independent analysis very much, but the analysis of the Government's approach to...

Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: It is little wonder the Government wants another few months in office before facing the people, but it will make no difference. Back in 2011 the Government was swept to power with a record mandate and the overwhelming goodwill of the Irish people to be bold and reforming, but it has utterly failed to deliver in so many areas. Political reform, which was demanded by voters in 2011 has been...

Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: Universal health insurance was to be the landmark reform of the Government. It was to provide equal access to the health service for all citizens, irrespective of their means. It too has been abandoned; it must lie on a waiting list somewhere. The proceeds from a local property tax were to be used to improve local communities. Instead-----

Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: -----the Government cut funding to councils and used the local property tax proceeds to set up a bloated super-quango in Irish Water and that is the truth. In opposition, Fine Gael and the Labour Party cynically opposed every measure introduced by Brian Lenihan to put the economy back on track-----

Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: -----and then went on to implement his national recovery plan and better still, to claim credit for it. They told us they would burn the bondholders but all the Government did was to burn their election promises. The Government told Members it had secured a game-changer of a deal on bank debt but it turned out to be little more than hype. The deal on bank debt never materialised. Fine...

Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: The Government stated it would breathe new life into rural Ireland but instead, it attacked every pillar on which it is built.

Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: The centrepiece of this budget is the package put forward by the Minister, Deputy Noonan, on the universal social charge, USC. I acknowledge the USC is a very heavy burden on Irish taxpayers introduced at the worst of times.

Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: Fianna Fáil agrees the burden of USC should be lessened.

Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: However, when one considers the impact of this tax package today on different families, one simply must put it alongside the Government's introduction of a series of taxes and charges that take no account of ability to pay. From the local property tax to water charges, from increased public transport fares to the fivefold increase in prescription charges, the Government consistently has had...

Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: Yet again, where one parent stays at home to mind children, the gain will be far less. The Minister has thrown a sop to them with an increase in the home carers tax credit, which incidentally is only claimed by 83,000 people. Many people are not even aware of the existence of this credit and that is a job the Minister must do. A two-income couple earning €70,000 per year or more...

Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: The Minister will make the point, as he often has, that people who pay more tax will benefit more from tax cuts and while such people do pay more tax, if the Minister really seeks to make work pay, then people who earn €20,000, €30,000 or €40,000 really need his help. He must use all the tools at the disposal of the Government collectively to deal with that issue because...

Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: This is €1.5 billion of Supplementary Estimates between now and the end of the year.

Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: Members do not know how much of that money already has been spent, how much of that €1.5 billion has yet to be spent between now and Christmas or precisely how it will be spent. In the interests of transparency and accountability, all these facts should be in the public domain and should have been put up front and centre in the budget today.

Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: On the spending side, one of the Minister's main points today was the increase of €3 in the old age pension and the partial restoration of the Christmas bonus. I do not believe the Minister is naive enough to think pensioners will be fooled by what he has announced here today because they remember well what the Government has done to them in recent years.

Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)

Michael McGrath: The Government cut the fuel allowance by six weeks.