Results 2,701-2,720 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: No. Section 26(1)(a) states that one of the functions of the NTMA is "to provide advice".

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: Section 26(1)(e) specifically singles out the Department of Education and Skills.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: That is fine, but that does not stop new and very necessary infrastructure. While I would agree that educational infrastructure such as schools is very necessary, I suggest that one of the biggest infrastructural needs is being neglected. Is there any reason we cannot provide for it specifically in this legislation, in the same way as we are providing for schools?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: The difference is that some of us want it to be specifically outlined. As I said earlier, the Bill is very forthcoming in certain senses but not at all in others. I am thinking particularly of the idea of social housing, against which it appears to be tending, in my view. By bringing in the EU rules and all the rest of it, this legislation will discourage the idea that this fund can be...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: I have to go, but I would like to have the last word. I have made the substantial points I wanted to make.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: I will do so. I want to mention before I go that when a particular Minister, Noël Browne, was given the full credit for conquering the scourge of tuberculosis, it should really have been given to the public sector in this country. The Government of the time - really, it was the public service - came up with really dramatic proposals and specific and focused actions. It is one of the...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: Approximately eight decent homes could be built for €1 million. A programme of social and affordable homes, even by the logic of the so-called commercial return, for workers on the average industrial wage or even below it would show a return on such an investment, if one wants to put it like that. There is no reason a major programme to build social and affordable homes could not be...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: Why are partners needed?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: The issue is still not clear to me. There is no reason NewERA could not develop a proposal for major social projects and utilise the ISIF for that purpose. Is that correct?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: I am not a member of the sub-committee and have no right to table amendments but I am here to raise several issues to be dealt with in a substantive way in order that I can table amendments on Report Stage. The Minister of State gave a long reply and dealt with the Government’s inadequate policy on social housing. Only in the last few sentences did he relate it to what might come...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: That is not the point.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: It is a simple point.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: Yes, but he is answering a question he was not asked.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: As I understand it, the question the Minister was asked was whether other designated bodies apart from Uisce Éireann could be privatised without a prior vote in Dáil Éireann. If the Minister says "Yes", we can move on.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: Sea, cinnte.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: Teastaíonn uaim é seo a rá. We have two languages in this country, English and Irish. Both are our languages, languages of the Irish people. A majority speaks English and a minority speaks and understands English and Irish. This is replicated in Dáil Éireann. It is not acceptable that there are just about half a dozen headphones in the Dáil at the moment...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Cabinet Committee Meetings (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: 8. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Irish and the Gaeltacht last met; and the date on which the next meeting is scheduled. [14918/14]

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Ministerial Meetings (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: It is impossible to understand the horrors that took place in the Irish Free State and the Irish Republic, such as those which have only recently come to light with the mother and baby home scandals, without understanding the unique relationship that developed between the Irish State and the Catholic Church. In essence, a very weak capitalist State dominated by gombeens, small business...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: Is there an informal pairing?

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (1 Jul 2014)

Joe Higgins: It is up to Deputy Pearse Doherty. I am agreeable.