Results 21,141-21,160 of 28,255 for speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: When the Labour Party joins Fine Gael, it will do it.

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The Labour Party is in the auction politics game.

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: We would not have been able to get the money.

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Auction politics is all they are at - they have started early.

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I do not have much time to address all of the issues raised. On the general situation, since 2004 carer's allowance has increased by 46.1% for people under 66 years of age, jobseeker's payments increased by 39.5%, disability allowance increased by 39.5% and one-parent family payment increased by 39.5%. In the same period, the cost of living has increased by 11.8%. Even with these...

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: That is what I am talking about - the people who receive the half-rate payment and receive an underlying social welfare payment, those who get an extra payment for caring for more than one person and those on the respite allowance. There are very generous income disregards and the payment is considerably higher than the payment for disability, invalidity and so on. Therefore, what I sought...

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: With regard to the Labour Party's partners in Fine Gael-----

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Fine Gael has proposed over the next four years to cut a further €6 on the jobseeker's allowance and benefit, which is wrong. I clearly outlined-----

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I clearly outlined, as did the Government in the four year plan, that cutting rates further should be the last resort and that we were not going to accept there was an inevitability to cutting rates. Fine Gael is inconsistent on this point. Its members keep telling me there are many other ways of saving money, such as fraud control, but they then sign up for a €14 cut in jobseeker's...

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: We are trying to give as many people as possible on as many schemes as possible a chance to work, including one-parent families and widows.

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: On the issue of who has money and who does not, I read a recent newspaper report - one would not know whether to believe anything in newspapers these days - that suggested pensioners have €16 billion in savings in the banks. This is, of course, very important to them, and many people have a nest egg of life savings. While it is important we would recognise people have a right to put away...

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I am always consoled because I look north of the Border and I see Sinn Féin in Government, doing what we have to do here. It gets very responsible-----

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: It is in Government in a state where unemployment assistance is £60 and it seems happy enough with it because it is living with it. I did not hear it asking-----

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: -----for the devolution of the payment of social security payments to the North.

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Sinn Féin always consoles me. I know one point about it - when you give it responsibility, it gets awfully hard-headed and very responsible. Many issues were raised in regard to tax. I always believed we should address urgently the problem associated with those on very high incomes. It was not that they were paying at a rate of 52% or 55% because, in many cases, they were paying at a rate...

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: We are moving on tax shelters and on the thresholds for inheritance tax so that when money transfers, there will be a bigger take for the State. As Minister for Social Protection, I believed it was time to rationalise the PRSI contribution. This means adjustments. What we have done is ensured that everybody who is employed or self-employed, other than those on very low incomes, and public...

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: What I find strange about it is that the party's policy was to have much less revenue accruing from expenditure cuts and to tax much more.

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: That may be so. I would like to see how the Labour Party would raise another €2 billion at the top end without having rates of tax of 80% or 90%. However, we will be waiting for the Labour Party.

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: May I conclude?

Social Welfare Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages (9 Dec 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: What we are getting at present is auction politics of a very blatant form. What we are getting is two parties who know they will wind up-----