Results 24,681-24,700 of 34,745 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: Yes, the €900 is proper. Surely somewhere in that range, it would have been consistent for the State to acknowledge that on the one hand, people are entitled to a medical card based on their income, while on the other hand, they-----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: If the Minister were to revisit that in next year's budget, would it require a further amendment to the financial emergency measures in the public interest legislation?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: Therefore, it cannot be done without coming back to the legislation. Is that correct?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: Will the Minister clarify when and where was the Lansdowne Road agreement registered? I know there is an obvious answer but I would like it to be on the record. There were various side agreements on a variety of issues done as part of the overall talks on this agreement. I read recently in the newspapers, for example, about an agreement on school secretaries and caretakers involving...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: I will remind the Minister so he does not trip himself up. He said when they had all these heads in the room from all these sides, there were a whole lot of niggly things that had been bubbling away for the past few years. He said they dealt with them all on a one-to-one basis and several agreements were struck but were not part of the Lansdowne Road agreement itself or the formal process....

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: My final question is in the interest of transparency and accountability. I went down this road before to try to get sight of some of these agreements but I was bluntly told that they were not available and were exempt from freedom of information, which I believe they are.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: I think the LRC is exempt from freedom of information.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: I do not think it is right, in the public interest, that there can be 30 side agreements, some of which might be quite small-----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: Yes, individual-----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: In the interest of accountability, it should be possible to track these down. Issues of public sector pay and conditions should not be negotiated without any possibility of public accountability.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2015: Committee Stage (10 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: That is even worse. I suggest the Minister changes that but I will leave it at that.

Social Welfare Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: -----Fine Gael will be happy. However, people expected better from the Labour Party and what is ironic about the homelessness situation is that two Ministers are directly responsible for it. One is the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection, who is the Minister responsible for the legislation under discussion and who is responsible for rent supplement but has not done anything on...

Social Welfare Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: All the Minister of State can say about what the Government inherited, along with the financial situation, is that my party in office built too many houses. It is a particular achievement of the Labour Party to turn a surplus of houses into a homelessness crisis. No other Government has turned a situation in which it inherited a surplus of houses into a homelessness crisis within a few...

Social Welfare Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: This homelessness crisis is a domestically-generated problem caused and taking place in the Irish economy.

Social Welfare Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: There was no homelessness crisis when the Government came to power but there is one as it is leaving power. This issue will be visited heavily, and rightly so, on the Labour Party. While Fine Gael Members might not like me saying it, the Fine Gael way is not to worry about such people. However, it should be the Labour Party's way - not Frankfurt's way but the Labour Party's way. The...

Social Welfare Bill 2015: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: My view, and that of many elderly people and many others in society, on the budget can be summarised in a few simple words, namely, €3, three miserable euro. That is what this Bill is about. It is the most miserable bit of legislation that has been brought before us. We are saying to elderly people that we will give them a miserable €3 and that they should be grateful....

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Decentralisation Programme Data (5 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: 116. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the departmental units and agencies that are decentralised to County Cork, in tabular form; their locations; the number of staff; if he has plans to transfer or change the existing staff numbers and locations for decentralised units; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38839/15]

Written Answers — Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Single Payment Scheme Eligibility (5 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: 125. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if a person (details supplied) in County Kildare is entitled to a single payment; if not, the reason; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38826/15]

Written Answers — Department of An Taoiseach: Freedom of Information Data (3 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: 149. To ask the Taoiseach the number of Freedom of Information requests received by his Department in 2015 to date, in tabular form; the number of such requests where the period of consideration, was completed within four weeks of the receipt of the request; was extended by up to four weeks because the necessary resources to complete the request within the original time frame were not...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (3 Nov 2015)

Seán Fleming: 227. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the position regarding a couple who are not married but living together and where one person of the couple is working, and when it comes to claiming social welfare they are looked on as a cohabiting couple and treated as one unit for Department of Social Protection purposes, but they cannot claim tax credits in respect of the...