Results 1,661-1,680 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Social Inclusion. (14 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: What is the Taoiseach's view of the role of the sub-committee into the future? What new initiatives does it propose to take?

Social Inclusion. (14 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: It should be possible for the sub-committee to adopt an overarching approach to the issue of social exclusion whereas Ministers and Ministers of State are coming at it from sectional points of view. Does the sub-committee benchmark itself in regard to dealing with the serious social exclusion issues in many communities?

Constitutional Amendments. (14 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: Question 7: To ask the Taoiseach if there are constitutional referenda planned for 2007. [1612/07]

Constitutional Amendments. (14 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: Time is of the essence and the Government is like a patient facing the end and in a panic about several issues that it has not dealt with and must cram in. The Taoiseach mentioned seven issues, of which there are difficulties with two. That does not mean seven separate questions. There are two questions, one of which will encompass a range of those issues. There are seven weeks to Easter,...

Order of Business (15 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: I wish to contribute.

Order of Business (15 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: If the Ceann Comhairle could just allow me two sentences. After all, most people on the front benches are involved in the row today. What is good for the Government is good for the Opposition.

Order of Business (15 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: It is many years since it became clear that not just the Mahon tribunal but other tribunals were making far more new millionaires than there were old millionaires being investigated. What we had yesterday from the Tánaiste in particular and also from the Taoiseach is an exercise in the most monumental hypocrisy. We pointed out many years ago in the Dáil the incredible level of fees which...

Order of Business (15 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: That is a system they were silent about for decades and while ordinary working class people were pushed out and could not afford justice, the lawyers were rolling in it from those who could afford to pay them, such as the big corporations, etc. When they saw an opportunity where the taxpayer would foot the bill, it was nirvana. For years, the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach have refused to lift...

Order of Business (15 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: That is the solution, not opportunistic calls pretending to be the friend of the taxpayer. We should end an abuse that the Government has condoned for decades.

Departmental Bodies. (20 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: Question 7: To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the communications unit in his Department. [1610/07]

Departmental Bodies. (20 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: No. He said the opposite.

Departmental Bodies. (20 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: The Taoiseach needs to clarify the real role of the communications unit. He is at pains to say that it is totally apolitical, having us believe that it could not distinguish, for example, last autumn between Percy French's Paddy Reilly from Ballyjamesduff and Paddy Reilly from Ballybough, his own Paddy the Plasterer. How realistic is that and how does he distinguish between a function...

Departmental Bodies. (20 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: Do red lights start flashing in the Department when the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform goes out on the plinth? Is that true?

Departmental Bodies. (20 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: Surely the Taoiseach opened a bar beside that office once.

Leaders' Questions (20 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: Could we have a modicum of honesty from the Government regarding the legal costs of tribunals? Last week, the Taoiseach's deputy, the Tánaiste, gave a brazen display of hypocrisy regarding the costs of the planning tribunal, posturing as a defender of the taxpayer and taking a leaf out of the Taoiseach's book of pretending to be the Opposition while holding responsibility for what is happening.

Leaders' Questions (20 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: Thanks to letters acquired from the Department of Finance by the Irish Daily Mail via freedom of information requests, we know that eight years ago, the Tánaiste, who was then the Attorney General, demanded of the Department of Finance a doubling of the daily rate of lawyers' fees in the planning tribunal.

Leaders' Questions (20 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: The Department's officials stated the Taoiseach wanted the same and demanded full resources.

Leaders' Questions (20 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: What do we know of the Tánaiste? In his three years as Attorney General, five years as the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and, decades previously, time in the Four Courts representing his clients whenever he managed to take the silver spoon or silver foot out of his mouth, he commanded massive fees. We did not hear a peep about the ruinous cost of fees not only to tribunals,...

Leaders' Questions (20 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: ——and uncontrollable vocal emissions pour out.

Leaders' Questions (20 Feb 2007)

Joe Higgins: When the Tánaiste goes on rant-about, would it be too much to ask media editors that rather than behaving like apostles on whom tongues of fire have descended when he speaks, they would bring some critical analysis to bear on what he says and check the record?