Results 20,021-20,040 of 21,280 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: Has the Minister told them the State is insolvent, or has this fact slipped their attention?

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Minister has failed to address runaway pay levels at the top of the public and Civil Service. The Taoiseach is on a salary of €200,000; the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, who has left the Chamber, is on a salary of €185,000, while the Minister and his ministerial colleagues are on a salary of €169,000.

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: The truth is that none of these salaries can be defended.

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: Last week, the Government set out in law bumper salaries for members of the Judiciary and the political class; this week it takes the knife to low incomes-----

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----young people in receipt of disability allowances and the entitlement of part-time workers to jobseeker's allowance. That is what it chooses to do, but it could do things differently. It could protect the living standards and spending power of families already struggling with their bills. It could ask high earners, at this time of crisis, to shoulder the burden. It could cap public...

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----but it chooses not to do this because it is not really up to making the tough choices.

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: There is no economic or moral argument for making €475 million worth of cuts to the social welfare budget, cuts of the most dishonest kind. The Minister has said he has not cut social welfare payments. The payments to one parent families are to be cut by €122 million. The disability allowance is to be discontinued for 16 and 17 year olds and cut to €100 for young people between the...

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: It may seem to the Minister that the cuts are marginal, but if one is already at the pin of one's collar, losing any amount from one's weekly payment can make the difference between being warm and cold and light and darkness, but he knows all of this already. He knows that the Society of St. Vincent de Paul has been inundated with requests for help since last year. What is more, the...

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----because every cent paid in social welfare gets consumed in the real economy. There are no savings. This withdrawal of cash from the economy will mean more job losses, more contraction and the vicious cycle will continue. This applies to all the cuts implemented today. The way to reduce the social welfare bill is to get people back to work.

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Minister has chosen to sign up to the cutback and austerity agenda and in so doing he ensures economic contraction and job losses, and this will mean an increase in social welfare demand. It is hard to fathom that he cannot join these dots and recognise the consequences of the policy he is pursuing. He had no difficulty understanding them from the Opposition benches. For all his talk...

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: The cuts in capital expenditure will cost jobs. If the Minister was serious about getting people back to work he would ramp up investment in infrastructure.

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: The National Pensions Reserve Fund should be used for a stimulus programme. The €5.3 billion remaining in the fund should be invested in job creation and not pumped yet again into the banks. Additional money should be drawn down from the European Investment Bank. All of this can be done. Sinn Féin has set out the real benefits of a €7 billion stimulus plan over three years. Such an...

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: They were right then and they are right now. So what happened? Why did the Minister decide to punish families with larger numbers of children? Anyone who knows anything about raising a family knows real costs increase with three, four or five children. Child benefit has been cut not as comprehensively as the Government wished to. I have no doubt the pressure from these benches and the...

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Minister set out to cut education by €132 million. There was a time when the Labour Party claimed to believe in free universal education. Today, the Minister levied a range of cuts that will ensure the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairi Quinn, will end up attacking education as a right. Where will I start? There will be a hike in the cost to families of school...

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: Where is the Minister, Deputy Ruairí Quinn? Is he in the Chamber? Shame on him. Not so long ago, the students were outside in fine voice looking for the Government Deputies.

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: They wanted to speak to them. Do they know their message? It was that Fine Gael and the Labour Party should keep their promise. It seems their call has fallen on deaf ears. Not only are cuts in education unacceptable, they fly in the face of any prospect for the knowledge economy we need to build to help us recover. In other jurisdictions faced with recession a conscious decision is taken...

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----such as in respect of the use of generic drugs-----

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----and in respect of ending the subsidisation of private medicine in public hospitals.

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: What the Minister has chosen to do instead of bringing these savings fully home he chose to cut €50 million in disability, mental health and children's services. Shame on you.

Statements on Expenditure (5 Dec 2011)

Mary Lou McDonald: This boils down to a political choice. The Minister promised one thing in opposition but is delivering another in government.