Results 2,061-2,080 of 4,717 for speaker:Martin Mansergh

Cancer Services Reports: Motion (Resumed) (12 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: I wish to deal with the substance of the issue first and the politics afterwards. Nowhere is the delay in receiving the correct diagnosis and treatment more critical than in the field of cancer, one of the main killers. Overall, the survival rate over five years, according to the National Cancer Forum in 2006, has been 50% or somewhat less, although female breast cancer patient survivors...

Cancer Services Reports: Motion (Resumed) (12 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: Governments submit themselves to the people every five years, when they can be dismissed, but this Government has been returned for a third time in a new and enlarged configuration and while it retains the confidence of a majority in Dáil Éireann it will remain in office. It will not allow individual Government members to be targeted and taken out by an aggressive Opposition or elements of...

Written Answers — Employment Rights: Employment Rights (11 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: Question 302: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the implications for Ireland of the outcome of the Laval case in the European Court of Justice and of the Viking line case now settled; and if Ireland intervened in either case, both of which raised issues of labour and employer rights. [10252/08]

World Trade Organisation: Statements (6 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: I welcome the frank assessment by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of the WTO negotiating situation and also the presentation of the development dimensions by the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Kitt. As practically the most globalised country in the world and also one with a strong agricultural interest, we are interested in a genuinely balanced outcome. By and large, so...

World Trade Organisation: Statements (6 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: Based on an analysis of British politics, I have some doubts that Mr. Mandelson will be reappointed by the current prime minister, to whom he is not close. The question, however, is where the negotiations will be at that time. This issue was discussed recently at a meeting between members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and their Northern Ireland...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stages (6 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: I warmly welcome this amendment. Like Deputy O'Donnell, my experience is principally of the Milford Hospice, which is an excellent one. I do not know its bed capacity but it is certainly greater than 20. Hospices are different from private nursing homes. They have a particular focus. I have enormous admiration for the work of the hospice movement. I was interested to see in...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stages (6 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: ——so that units can come together in smaller counties. Similarly, the 80:20 ratio of private to public patients could be taken in the context of existing provision because the balance in the health service as a whole is not far from 50:50. We have, for better or worse, a hybrid health system which encourages people who can provide for themselves to do so. One might argue against that...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: In fairness to the Department of Finance and the tax strategy group, I was speaking about discussions held ten years ago when €6,000 would have been a much more realistic figure than it sounds today. As my record in the Seanad shows, I certainly would have been against the continuation of many of the multimillion euro reliefs. I am not sure the seaside home scheme was ever a good one. It...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: I agree with Deputy Burton that the right to buy council houses is a good policy. There was also a scheme in the late 1980s for buying them out and many of the older council houses, from the 1920s to the 1950s in particular, were very solidly built. Some of them look absolutely terrific in private ownership, having been refurbished. It could be said that, particularly in another...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: I do not believe we will have any difficulty in debating with Deputy Morgan the social conscience of this party, as exemplified in social policy back to its foundation. I recall this measure being discussed in quite an animated fashion in the tax strategy group in the late 1990s. At that stage the figure of £6,000, if I recall correctly, was the sum being debated and the issue as regards...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: I did not say it did. I expressed approval this morning of the German authorities' actions but residence rules, which we set in the Oireachtas, are a separate matter from residents hiding away earnings in some offshore bank. I really want to take up one or two points relating to section 1(a) of Deputy Burton's amendment which is to do with married persons and child care. Rightly or wrongly,...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: I repeat that the child tax credits were abolished by the parties opposite in 1984. Over the past dozen years or so, there has been a significant increase in support for child rearing not primarily through the tax system, but through direct payments. That was seen as fairer and more equitable, particularly vis-À-vis those who were not in the tax system. When assessing the consequences of...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: The type of social picture implicit in many of the Opposition contributions is at some remove from reality, certainly as far as younger people are concerned. In my experience, young people make careful calculations before moving out of the workforce as to whether they will be better or worse off. I do not buy the notion that they leave the workforce believing they will be better off only to...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: Deputy Bruton is trying to ride two horses at the one time.

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (5 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: The one point on which I strongly agree with Deputy Burton is the value of the hospice movement. That is without prejudice to any measures to encourage the construction of hospice buildings. I found the discussion about the privatisation of the health service somewhat ironic. I am unclear as to the status of this policy at this stage. However, the Labour Party policy was to make the health...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (Resumed) (5 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: For Deputy Burton's information, the crown prince's brother is a vice-president of the Liechtenstein bank in question.

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (5 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: It is somewhat ironic that, in the same breath with which Deputies are criticising the growth in public expenditure, they are supporting an amendment to establish yet another public office, the manning of which would require a considerable number of civil servants.

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (5 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: The focus of the discussion wandered towards the financial outlook. The fact of the matter is that the public finances are characterised by their unprecedented, underlying strength, with a nominal general Government debt ratio of 25%. However, if there were a net general Government debt that took account of national pension fund contributions, it would result in a percentage of...

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (5 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: I came in of my own accord.

Finance Bill 2008: Report Stage (5 Mar 2008)

Martin Mansergh: I thank the Deputy for her respect for my arguments.