Results 29,761-29,780 of 36,764 for speaker:Enda Kenny

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: However, there is no timescale for that.

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: The odd voting machine as well.

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: The Taoiseach should be talking about the future.

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: They are back in the tax net since yesterday.

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: There is an air of unreality about the Taoiseach's contribution.

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: Yes, I wish to share time with Deputy Hayes. I recall the first time I had to go abroad as a Minister of State representing the country. I found it strange to have all this paraphernalia surrounding Ministers, where they had people carrying bags and doing all sorts of things as if some super personalities had arrived on the scene.

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: After ten years of that, the crowd over there have become so stale, so immune, so comfortable to the trappings of office that they have lost all reality with what they have done in this budget.

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law and Reform is the only Minister that I know of who gave a clean bill of health to a public representative who was deemed guilty of taking corrupt payments. He is the last person to make a comment in this House on such issues.

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: Nobody has answered the fundamental question here. Two years ago, this country was €6 billion in surplus. It is now €15 billion in debt. I accept that there have been improvements in infrastructure and so on, but the people on that side of the House did not take into account the warning signs that were there for many years of what could happen if provision was not made for a crash that...

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: Yesterday's budget has come against the background of a move from a €6 billion surplus to a €15 billion deficit in the space of two years. That is unprecedented anywhere in Europe. It was done because the Government allowed the competitiveness of the country to slip seriously over the last few years. We lost export share as we put all our hopes in the creation of wealth through the...

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: It is good to see that the Government is at least consistent. In good times and bad it keeps things constant; it may disappoint the nation, but it never disappoints the construction industry. I also put forward the view that there should not be any cut in the capital programme and workers, tradespeople and craftsmen could be transferred from the collapsed residential housing sector into...

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: A total of 50,000 people joined the dole queues this year, the first year of the Taoiseach's leadership and 100,000 more will join those dismal queues next year. The social welfare bill will rise by approximately €10,000 a month. Businesses the length and breadth of this country are fighting for survival and as the foreclosure figures this week proved many of them are not succeeding....

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: The Minister slapped a 1% levy on their shrinking incomes. He raised VAT rates and these will apply in every household. He increased the price of petrol so that last night lines of cars were drawn up outside every garage as hard-pressed workers tried to fill the tanks of their cars before that extra cost came in. The Minister raised their motor tax, cut what they could reclaim on their...

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: That is what the Minister did yesterday to middle income families. Everywhere they turn there is a tax or levy. They are faced with increased taxation by Fianna Fáil in government. This is a declaration of war on the middle classes. It is also a war on the future. The Minister has driven a stake through the heart of education. The Government went around the country last year holding...

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: The result of yesterday's efforts is that taxpayers are punch drunk. Everywhere they go they will have to pay. The Government is making every person pay for what has happened. This should have been stopped before now. The recent Comptroller and Auditor General's report highlighted the ludicrous extent of waste in the HSE, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and a range of...

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: That is what happens when one has an unplanned decentralised system. If Departments were decentralised all over the country when the banking crisis erupted, there would have been chaos. A number of years ago we pointed out how decentralisation should have been implemented. Where decentralisation was planned in Donegal, Tullamore and other places around the country it has worked very well....

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: The Government has distanced itself from its own responsibilities. The Government set up the National Competitiveness Council and then ignored all of its reports and recommendations. It has mired businesses in red tape and regulation. I urge the Government to talk to shop owners and small business people. They are spending half a day a week filling in forms for the Government and now...

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: The banking sector which in many ways was responsible for so much angst is now in a bizarre relationship with the Government. We do not yet know the extent of the bad debt or rolled up interest in that sector. I hope that when the Government publishes its scheme tomorrow, all of that detail will be made available so that we will know to what we are signing up. This Government continues to...

Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: Yesterday, on behalf of the Government, the Minister for Finance introduced the most swingeing and savage budget in years against the background of the Government's decision that every citizen must now pay for its mistakes. Yesterday, I said the country had a surplus of €6 billion two years ago but now is in deficit of almost €15 billion. There are no answers as to where all that money...

Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2008)

Enda Kenny: I asked the Taoiseach about page B.6 of Budget 2009, which states, "Health Expenses relief will be granted at the standard rate only from 1 January 2009, with the exception of nursing home expenses which will be standard rated from 1 January 2010". The fair deal legislation will not take effect until some time next year. Is what I quoted a mistake? Alternatively, is the commitment made by...