Results 25,361-25,380 of 26,825 for speaker:John McGuinness
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: The Opposition refuses to listen to the truth or acknowledge what is going on. It does not understand that the people who are at the coalface, doing all this businessââ
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: ââare the ones who come in here and tell us how foolish the Opposition looks, given what has been achieved.
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: The sooner the Opposition starts to acknowledge all that, the sooner we will have better debate in this House. As regards value for money, what kind of example is Fine Gael setting when its Deputies seek electronic voting and then proceed to push everyone through the lobby?
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: What example is Fine Gael giving concerning value for money when its Deputies bring ridiculous motions before the House and refuse to acknowledge the truth.
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: Fine Gael displays poor value for money, poor leadership and no vision whatsoever. The party's Deputies attempt to jump on every single bandwagon that is running.
- Financial Resolution No. 5: General (Resumed) (6 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: The Deputy is the man who has most to say about everything, yet nothing to say about anything. I commend the budget to the House and I ask for a more constructive Opposition.
- Competitiveness of the Economy: Motion (Resumed) (5 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: So should the Deputy because he has given misinformation in this House for the past two nights. He has misquoted statistics. He is a disgrace.
- Competitiveness of the Economy: Motion (Resumed) (5 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: Not one proposal came from that side.
- Competitiveness of the Economy: Motion (Resumed) (5 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: The Deputy misquoted statistics.
- Competitiveness of the Economy: Motion (Resumed) (5 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: I wish to share time with the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Ahern, and Deputies Power, Nolan, Thomas Byrne and White.
- Competitiveness of the Economy: Motion (Resumed) (5 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: "The old order changeth, yielding place to new," said Tennyson, in a poem which begins, "So all day long the noise of battle roll'd", capturing the turbulence and soul searching which great changes often bring. The trouble with Ireland, unlike Camelot, is that the old order is taking too long to change, despite the noise of economic battles, and introspection is not providing radical...
- Competitiveness of the Economy: Motion (Resumed) (5 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: I will first deal with public sector reform, the elephant in the room, the old order that must change. We and the trade unions are requiring public service personnel to provide services to a modern economy within a system and a culture that are outdated and inefficient. Companies and individuals in the private sector, who contribute enormous sums to the public purse, are demanding change as...
- Competitiveness of the Economy: Motion (Resumed) (5 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: Deputy Harney cannot change the direction or the culture of that Titanic in three years. It will take longer, cost more and will be a hard slog for a Minister whose courage and ability no one has any reason to doubt, but whose hands are tied, as everybody here knows, by faction fights, vested interests and inertia.
- Competitiveness of the Economy: Motion (Resumed) (5 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: Labour and Fine Gael came into this House knowing this.
- Competitiveness of the Economy: Motion (Resumed) (5 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: However they couldn't resist the call of the headline and the lure of cheap publicity, which they put before the respect they should have for someone who is doing a great job in difficult circumstances on behalf of this country. I have no difficulty admitting that we have made mistakes.
- Competitiveness of the Economy: Motion (Resumed) (5 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: Neither have I any difficulty in understanding how and why those mistakes were made and accepting them as the natural consequences of a steep learning curve. Change, ideally should be the child of foresight and planning, but is frequently an orphan who arrives on the doorsteps of governments, commercial enterprises and individuals bearing gifts or problems, or both, all needing immediate...
- Competitiveness of the Economy: Motion (Resumed) (5 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: How dare they twist statistics and exploit understandable mistakes to make petty political points? How dare they use exterior events over which we have no control as examples of mismanagement?
- Competitiveness of the Economy: Motion (Resumed) (5 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: It is true that we made mistakes, but it is untrue that we could have prepared in any real way for the fact that we were going to do so well. Infrastructure development of all types everywhere follows success as, initially, do mistakes. Nobody can prepare for something that may happen, the extent of which is unknown, by spending money yet to be earned. It is disingenuous to suggest...
- Competitiveness of the Economy: Motion (Resumed) (5 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: Can the Opposition Members tell me, with their pockets full of flawed statistics, the answer to one question? How is it, amid all the doom and gloom they laid before us yesterday, that the Central Statistics Office announced this morning that Ireland is creating a net extra 1,300 jobs a week? Please explain. As an economy we are where we should be: fighting for our share of the high-end...
- Competitiveness of the Economy: Motion (Resumed) (5 Dec 2007)
John McGuinness: They were voted on by some of the Deputy's colleagues.