Results 1,221-1,240 of 21,404 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald
- Order of Business (1 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: I also object to these arrangements. Two hours is completely inadequate to debate in any serious way the statement that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform will make to the House on Monday.
- Order of Business (1 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: It also begs the question as to whether, when the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, gets to his feet on Tuesday, there will be a similar arrangement. It strikes me that this is a manoeuvre to shut down debate on the budgetary proposals. Far from being-----
- Order of Business (1 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: The debate happens here, as the Minister, Deputy Howlin, well knows. It strikes me that far from being a Government committed to transparency and offering up the full facts, it is pulling a sly one to try to break up the budget and shut the debate down in this House. That is a disgraceful manoeuvre on the Government's part.
- Order of Business (1 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: The Government will hardly announce the budget outside the House.
- Written Answers — Prison Visiting Committees: Prison Visiting Committees (1 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: Question 33: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the date on which he will publish new legislation covering prison visiting committees; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37926/11]
- Written Answers — Prisoner Releases: Prisoner Releases (1 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: Question 41: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of prisoners who were rearrested within three months of release, six months of release and one year of release. [37925/11]
- Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: I am conscious that people watching this debate at home will have listened to the Minister's words and that many of them will be as disappointed as am I with what they have heard. At the outset, I note that although this budget is a dismal affair, in the past, the people passed their verdict on the last Government that pursued the same strategy as the current Administration. I remind the...
- Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: Is ionann straitéis eacnamaÃochta an Rialtais seo agus an straitéis a bhà ag Fianna Fáil agus na Glasaigh. Tá sibh go léir ag dul sa treo céanna â an bóther mÃcheart do mhuintir na hÃireann. Tar éis an olltoghcháin bhà an pobal ag súil le athrú, ach rinne sibh feall orthu. Tá gach gealltanas caite ar leataobh agaibh. Little wonder that people are cynical about politics...
- Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: The truth is that the Labour, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil parties are committed to the same failed policies that have increased unemployment, poverty and emigration.
- Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: The Government parties have taken the baton from the last Government and have continued its disastrous course and no amount of rhetoric can disguise that fact.
- Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: Today is a sad day for this State. It is a sad day for those families who waited anxiously to hear what the Minister had to say and who will be obliged to cope with the realities of it. It is a sad day for the economy. The Government has chosen to compound a crisis by following a policy set down by its predecessors in Fianna Fáil, a policy that has failed. It is also a sad day for the...
- Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: Today, the Labour Party is exposed. It is exposed as a party which will state and do anything to get into and stay in power.
- Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: Let me remind its members of some of its promises to the people before the last general election. On child benefit, it stated: "[We believe] children should not be made to pay for the current economic crisis. Labour will not cut child benefit." Bravo. On welfare cuts, it stated: "Fianna Fáil is making the poorest in our society pay for its disastrous mismanagement of the economy. It...
- Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: On education, it stated it "is committed to universal education from pre-school to third level because we believe that everyone - regardless of their background or their family's income - should have an equal chance ...".
- Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: I could go on. The Labour Party made these statements knowing full well the state of the public finances. There was no great revelation when its members walked into Government Buildings; the only revelation was for the public when it became clear that they were ripping up all of their pre-election promises and continuing the Fianna Fáil Party policies they had derided. It was out with "no...
- Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: The unemployment figures, the haemorrhage of emigration, the collapsed domestic economy and the misery facing struggling families all stand as testimony to a failed policy, a damning indictment of the "bailout for the banks and cuts for the people" policy the Labour Party now so warmly embraces. The burden of private bank debt must be lifted from the shoulders of citizens. It is not our...
- Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: The budget deficit must be reduced, which is a given. There is no easy way out of this crisis. There are no soft options available-----
- Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: -----but there are choices to be made. The Labour Party persists with the brazen lie that it has no option-----
- Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: -----but to target low and middle income families and cut back on vital public services. The truth is it does have choices but it has chosen to ruthlessly target men, women and children across the State who are already struggling following years of cuts.
- Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)
Mary Lou McDonald: It has betrayed every single one of them. The eagerness with which the party is pursuing its new cuts agenda is deeply shocking. So proud is the Minister, Deputy Howlin, of the pain and misery he is to impose on citizens that he has abandoned budget tradition and demanded a day all to himself in order that he can set out over â¬2 billion worth of cuts. What is he thinking? It beggars...