Results 1,561-1,580 of 34,778 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Sale of State Assets (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: Are the people in NewERA and the NTMA factoring in the issue of pension fund deficits in these organisations and whether there will be an employee share option scheme, as happened in some previous privatisations?

State Assets: Motion (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: May I share time with Deputy Niall Collins?

State Assets: Motion (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: I welcome the opportunity to discuss the sale of State assets. We discussed it briefly during Question Time, but this debate gives us more time to discuss it further. I disagree completely with the Government's proposal on using two thirds of the proceeds of the sale of any State asset to pay down our national debt. I reject it entirely.

State Assets: Motion (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: No, we did not. I will address the factual situation later. Some 100% of the sale of any State asset should be used for job creation, growth, economic development and investment. It is only through economic growth and investment that we can work our way out of our financial difficulties. I have read the wording of the memorandum again. The Minister seems to believe some of the scripts...

State Assets: Motion (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: I will go through the facts and the exact sequence of events. Under the memorandum of understanding that the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government signed in December 2010, we agreed to undertake an independent assessment of the electricity and gas sectors with a view towards enhancing their difficulties-----

State Assets: Motion (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: -----and "setting appropriate targets for the possible privatisation" of State assets. I am quoting the memorandum. This section of the memorandum dealt with raising Ireland's growth potential. It was not the section on safeguarding public finances, namely, paying our debt. Changes occurred. Following the new Government entering into office 12 months ago, the memorandum read: "It is...

State Assets: Motion (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: We accept responsibility for signing up to the original memorandum of understanding, but we will not accept the Minister's claims that the memorandum contained provisions on-----

State Assets: Motion (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: To review possible privatisation, not to reduce the national debt.

State Assets: Motion (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: The Minister stated: "In negotiating a programme for Government, the two Government parties accepted a new approach to the management and use of State assets in the interests of the economy, the people and job creation was required as part of the mechanism to address the fiscal crisis." The new approach was introduced in the programme for Government.

State Assets: Motion (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: State assets were to be sold to manage the financial crisis.

State Assets: Motion (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: This has not been publicly acknowledged until now, although Fine Gael had wanted to do it for years. The sale of State assets is part of Fine Gael's agenda but part of the price was that the Labour Party would sacrifice its soul. In its rush to get into Government, the Labour Party signed up to anything Fine Gael wanted.

State Assets: Motion (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: We will deal with that. I am opposing the sale of State assets unless the proceeds are specifically used for job creation and investment.

State Assets: Motion (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: All of them.

State Assets: Motion (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: We are very clear in that regard. If the Minister had announced that the proceeds from the sale were being invested in job creation, business development and enhancing growth, we would have supported him.

State Assets: Motion (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: The best way to clear a debt is by earning more money to pay it back. Everyone knows that we have to grow our way out of a recession. We cannot get out of it by selling off State assets in the absence of growth. That is where the process goes wrong. This policy is entirely the Government's because we never made a commitment to use the sale of State assets to write down debt.

State Assets: Motion (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: In July the Minister stated that he was committed to selling State assets and, more importantly, the agreement signed in the past few weeks commits the Government to an ambitious programme of State asset disposal designed to enhance the efficiency and competitiveness of the economy, reduce sovereign financing needs and provide additional resources for investment. Instead of claiming credit...

State Assets: Motion (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: It was not. The Minister says it was in the ether.

State Assets: Motion (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: He keeps saying the troika was battering down the door to demand billions of euro when his party entered Government.

State Assets: Motion (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: It was not in the agreement.

State Assets: Motion (28 Feb 2012)

Seán Fleming: I will accept responsibility for what was in the agreement but I will not accept responsibility for this. The Minister keeps claiming it had been agreed and discussed. We never signed up to it and we are not responsible for the measures his Government agreed to if they were not in the original agreement. I also believe the timing is wrong. The Government is jumping the gun because it would...