Results 2,161-2,180 of 2,967 for speaker:Séamus Healy

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (25 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: The Government will be gone, too.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (25 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: Austerity is the name of the game for both the Government and its predecessor. This is part of a suite of taxes, comprising the household tax, the water tax, the septic tank tax and the property tax, all of which have been imposed on ordinary, middle and low-income earners and poor people in general. Its purpose is to pay anonymous speculators and bondholders. The money raised is to be...

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (25 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: Buckets of money are being shovelled to bondholders and speculators. Incidentally, the particular bondholders the Government paid today have made a huge killing-----

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (25 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: -----as they bought the bonds for 54 cent in the euro but got the full face value today.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (25 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: The people concerned have made almost €600 million in profit from the payment made by the Government today.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (25 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: No; I will be brief. If the Minister was genuine, he could solve the problem by agreeing to defer the Bill until the consultation process has been completed and the draft regulations have been brought to the House for debate. There is no need for the Bill to be passed this week. It is clear that the information the Minister for Education and Skills gave to the House on 12 January is...

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (25 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: I have a little more than 30 seconds; perhaps I had taken only 30 seconds.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (25 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: I welcome the Minister's confirmation that the quality of groundwater in Ireland is very good. As I said earlier, the report of the Environmental Protection Agency as well as others indicate that the levels of pollutants from septic tanks are, to use their word, minor and that the cost of remedial works is approximately 5% of the overall cost in dealing with. I am disappointed, however,...

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (25 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: I will conclude on this point.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (Resumed) (25 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: I had only started. In respect of remedial works on septic tanks, rural dwellers have already paid towards the cost of municipal system upgrading and should not be asked to pay a second time. This work should be done by the State, which would help to create jobs and thus save money in making social welfare payments.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: I am disappointed with the Minister's response. It is obvious he is wedded to the current position and will not clarify the standards that are required. That is unacceptable. It is reasonable and common sense that before Members of this House vote on any legislation we should know exactly what it contains. It is reasonable and common sense that the members of the public who are affected...

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: It bears repeating what several Members have said, that everybody agrees pollution must be tackled to ensure clean drinking water for every household in the country. There is no dispute about that. However, there is a view out there, fuelled by this legislation, that our drinking water is, if not the worst in the world, then certainly the worst in Europe. In that context, it is important to...

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: The EPA stated they were only a minor source.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: On a point of order, Deputy Michelle Mulherin said Deputy Mattie McGrath was not in the Chamber. He was responding to let her know he was here. That could not be out of order-----

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: Yes.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: Deputy Mattie McGrath was simply correcting Deputy Michelle Mulherin.

Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 [Seanad]: Report Stage (25 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: It would be more in Deputy Tom Hayes's line to look after the barracks in Clonmel.

Private Members' Business. Promissory Notes: Motion (24 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: More and more people are coming to the view that austerity is not working. Even those who support the economic system we operate in are coming to that view and are expressing it forcefully. Before we came into the Chamber this evening the IMF - that bastion of the capitalist system - said there are very serious dangers in forcing countries to pay down debt too quickly. It also said there...

Industrial Relations (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2011: Second Stage (Resumed) (19 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. The Bill arises from the striking down of the joint labour committee, JLC, and employment regulation order, ERO, legislation by the courts. It had been hoped that the Bill would have been introduced earlier than this but it is before the House now and I intend to oppose it. The effect of the Bill is a decision by the Government to cut the...

Industrial Relations (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2011: Second Stage (Resumed) (19 Jan 2012)

Séamus Healy: They are in low paid employment.