Results 28,381-28,400 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Written Answers — Decentralisation Programme: Decentralisation Programme (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: Question 954: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the number of staff who have been moved to date to decentralised locations; the number who moved with their post; the number who have moved from other public service posts in Dublin; the number who have moved from other public service posts outside Dublin; and the number of new recruits. [28826/08]

Written Answers — Decentralisation Programme: Decentralisation Programme (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: Question 955: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the number of Civil Service staff to be decentralised in respect of staff employed in specialised technical posts and in respect of administration posts at executive officer or higher; the number who have moved to date; the number who have opted to move with their posts; and the position in this regard in each...

National Development Plan: Motion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: We can only be grateful that the Minister, Deputy O'Dea, is not in charge of the public finances. When the national development plan was introduced, the Government offered the following assurance: A prudent budgetary policy will be implemented over the period of the plan which does not add to inflationary pressures in the economy and which leaves flexibility for budgetary manoeuvre should an...

National Development Plan: Motion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: In this year's budget, however, the Taoiseach, as Minister for Finance, introduced the worst example of soft option politics we have ever seen in the history of the State.

National Development Plan: Motion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: Even though the property market was already collapsing and the economic storm clouds were gathering, he made provision for an additional €5 billion in current spending, more than three times what he predicted would be available from increases in tax revenues. That wildly optimistic tax forecast has proved entirely illusory. The Taoiseach budgeted that 70% of borrowing this year would be...

National Development Plan: Motion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: One need only look at the record of the Taoiseach in his former Ministry to see how this has come to pass. He emulated the Charlie McCreevy mantra of party time in the run-up to an election and hangover once it is over.

National Development Plan: Motion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: He did not even have the cuteness of Mr. McCreevy, failing even to introduce these new measures earlier this year when they might have been effective. Instead, we are left facing into the abyss on the economic front. Contrary to all advice, the Taoiseach introduced four inflationary budgets which pumped up the housing bubble and drove price inflation far higher than elsewhere in the...

National Development Plan: Motion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: We have been losing export market share for five years in a row because of the Taoiseach's stewardship of the public finances. He increased spending far in excess of the growth of the economy, ignoring the wise counsel set out in the national development plan.

National Development Plan: Motion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: Over the course of four budgets, he increased spending by 50%, or twice the rate of growth of the economy.

National Development Plan: Motion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: He funded those increases on the back of property taxes everybody knew were unsustainable. I pointed this out at each budget but he pushed ahead relentlessly. The Taoiseach indulged the lazy habit of his ministerial colleagues of setting up unaccountable agencies to tackle every problem that came their way. Those agencies are now a millstone around the necks of taxpayers. He corroded the...

National Development Plan: Motion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: Under the Taoiseach's stewardship of the Department Finance, not only were the public finances destroyed but the notion that Ministers would ever be responsible for any culpable mismanagement was destroyed. Individual Ministers introduced failed strategies in areas such as climate change, decentralisation, e-Government and health. What happened? Nothing because Ministers sat smugly in...

National Development Plan: Motion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: It is just not good enough and it will not deliver to people. It is causing unemployment, which is rising to levels that have not been seen in a generation. It is causing inflation that is hurting people. Irish shoppers now pay 30% more for basics here than in the North of Ireland. Much of that has occurred because of the way the Government mismanaged its public sector responsibilities....

National Development Plan: Motion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: For 48 hours they indulged themselves and would not show anyone what was going on. They kept it to themselves. This is the new approach by the Department of Finance, a three-page document with no details of any of the so-called cuts. Where is the day when responsible Ministers for Finance attended the House to spell out what would be done in each section, as well as how and why it was...

National Development Plan: Motion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: These Ministers have become too smug and they do not do that.

National Development Plan: Motion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: What have they done? The truth is that three quarters of the so-called 2008 savings are coming from deferring capital expenditure and commitments made to the elderly and those with disabilities.

National Development Plan: Motion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: Three quarters of the money has come not from any efficiency cuts or policy changes, but simply by denying frontline services to people who are dependent upon them.

National Development Plan: Motion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: Indeed it is.

National Development Plan: Motion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: I am struggling to be heard over the Minister but I will address my remarks through the Chair. If one looks at what purports to be a corrective economic measure, there is nothing in it that will deliver any serious change. This is not a medium-term strategy for the recovery of the economy. Three quarters of the money this year is either for capital or deferred programmes. Next year, one...

National Development Plan: Motion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: One eighth of 1% is the sum total of their ideas as to how the public sector can be run more efficiently. No wonder we are in a hole when that is the sum total of ministerial efforts.

National Development Plan: Motion (Resumed) (10 Jul 2008)

Richard Bruton: The problem is that they will let local managers decide where the 3% cuts will be made.