Results 2,781-2,800 of 3,895 for speaker:John Halligan

Housing Provision: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (1 May 2014)

John Halligan: It is disgraceful.

Housing Provision: Motion [Private Members] (30 Apr 2014)

John Halligan: There are community employment and Tús schemes. That is not getting unemployment down.

Housing Provision: Motion [Private Members] (30 Apr 2014)

John Halligan: You do not care. Look at the state of the country. Look at the unemployment.

Housing Provision: Motion [Private Members] (30 Apr 2014)

John Halligan: I did not mean the Minister of State personally; I meant "you" as a government. It was not personal.

Housing Provision: Motion [Private Members] (30 Apr 2014)

John Halligan: I came with a prepared script with statistics, but I do not see the point in reading it because I have been looking at the Minister of State since we introduced the motion and all she has done is read something else. She is not paying any attention.

Housing Provision: Motion [Private Members] (30 Apr 2014)

John Halligan: I spent the last two weeks canvassing in my constituency for certain people who I hope will be elected, and people's feelings about the Government's arrogance are coming across on the doorsteps. The Government does not care and is not listening or paying attention.

Housing Provision: Motion [Private Members] (30 Apr 2014)

John Halligan: As we discuss the important issue of housing, there is one Government Member sitting across from us, and nobody from the Labour Party. I hope the media takes that into account. When everybody here is out canvassing tomorrow, they should tell the 90,000 people and their families and friends that the response they got to a motion on a subject as important as housing was that one Government...

Housing Provision: Motion [Private Members] (30 Apr 2014)

John Halligan: It is arrogance beyond belief. It is contemptuous. It is arrogance personified. It is appalling. When I was mayor of Waterford three years ago, a young couple whom I have known since they were 15 years old came in to me and said they had lost their house. The week before that they had sold their television and a few weeks before that they had sold their car to try to keep their house....

Housing Provision: Motion [Private Members] (30 Apr 2014)

John Halligan: It is a disgrace. I should not have bothered to come here and speak. The way the Minister of State treated people here was a disgrace. She was not paying any attention.

Housing Provision: Motion [Private Members] (30 Apr 2014)

John Halligan: It was able to get money for bankers and bondholders.

White Paper on Universal Health Insurance: Statements (Resumed) (17 Apr 2014)

John Halligan: The Government will get no argument from me that the existing health service is undoubtedly unfair and penalises those on low incomes. However, jumping into a new system of short waiting lists where everyone is treated the same at no extra cost is a utopian proposal at a time of cruel blanket cuts. I have a feeling that there are huge doubts on both sides of the House about whether this...

Leaders' Questions (16 Apr 2014)

John Halligan: We will have a debate after it is decided.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Rent Supplement Scheme Administration (16 Apr 2014)

John Halligan: It has been stated repeatedly that the varying rent levels nationwide are intended to fall in with the cost of rent in the private sector. However, if, for example, one takes a one-parent family or a couple in Waterford with one child, they must comply with a rent limit of €475 per month. The average for all dwellings let in Waterford in the final quarter of last year was...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Rent Supplement Scheme Administration (16 Apr 2014)

John Halligan: Based on the money available at present, for the aforementioned €475, a young family in Waterford would be lucky to get a one-bedroomed apartment. These are facts confirmed by the PRTB's average rent database.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Rent Supplement Scheme Administration (16 Apr 2014)

John Halligan: First, applicants receive rent supplement on the basis that they have no other source of accommodation available to them. Otherwise, they would not be able to afford rental accommodation. The point is that in some areas throughout the country, rents have increased dramatically. It is incorrect to state it may only have increased in Dublin, Cork, Wicklow or wherever. Rents have increased...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Rent Supplement Scheme Administration (16 Apr 2014)

John Halligan: I do not believe so.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Rent Supplement Scheme Administration (16 Apr 2014)

John Halligan: 5. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the way rent allowance limits can differ so drastically by county and in local areas throughout the country particularly in Waterford where the rent allowance limits are so much lower than in the neighbouring county of Kilkenny (details supplied); her views on whether the current rent limits brought in to run from June 2013 to December 2014...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Rent Supplement Scheme Administration (16 Apr 2014)

John Halligan: Could the Minister clarify to the House how the rent allowance scheme appears to differ so drastically from county to county? Does she agree that the rent limits set to run from June 2013 to December 2014 do not accurately reflect the recent rent rises charged by landlords?

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation (16 Apr 2014)

John Halligan: The Minister missed the essential point. I am not attacking the Tús schemes. I have contacted the Department of Social Protection on the issue and it has acknowledged that one can be taxed and PRSI can be taken from the €20. Essentially, a person on a Tús scheme is on a social welfare payment. The Minister is asking such a person to work 19.5 hours for €20.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Job Creation (16 Apr 2014)

John Halligan: Surely, common sense would make it clear that if we ask people to work on a Tús scheme - the Minister is correct that many people want to take up such schemes - we should leave them alone, irrespective of their social welfare income and allowances for dependent adults and children. The additional €20 paid on top of their social welfare income should be excluded from tax and PRSI....