Results 31,281-31,300 of 32,583 for speaker:Richard Bruton

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: That is not acceptable and people will no longer accept the style of Government to which we have grown used. In its courtship of the voter, the Government has used a time-worn ploy, based on the belief that some suitors go for a person with a past, some for a person with a future, but every suitor goes for a person with a present. That is what we have today — presents that are carefully...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: What the Government is trying to do is to get us to forget the past, a past full of waste and disappointment. It wants us to overlook the future that it is seeking to build, full of pious aspirations and fantasy maps. Instead, it wants us to concentrate on today. Those who are tuning in today to listen to this budget are right to take whatever the Minister is offering but they should not be...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: A sum of €1 billion a week is a large amount to get one's head around. A billion seconds ago it was 1973 and we were just about to join the EU. A billion minutes ago Jesus Christ was still a living memory on this earth. A billion hours ago our ancestors were in the Stone Age, but €1 billion ago was only this day last week in the way the Government spends money. The Government has become...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: Now we are to have a five-year plan for child care, a five-year plan for elderly care and a ten-year plan for transport. We have travelled this road before. What about the two-year health plan to eliminate waiting lists? The only sense in which waiting lists have been eliminated is the Minister no longer publishes them. We were to have a three-year decentralisation programme. Now even the...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: We were to have a road safety plan over five years but every target has been missed and the chairman of the group has resigned in despair.

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: We were to have a plan to reduce public service numbers by 5,000 but the latest figures published by the Minister show we have increased numbers by 15,000. We were to have a five-year Government programme with significant commitments such as 2,000 extra gardaí on the streets.

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: We were to see class sizes reduced so that no infant would be in a class of more than 20. We were to see the proportion of people paying tax at the top rate reduced to 20% but the figures today show none of these commitments will be honoured. They have become purely pious aspirations. We have been down the road of five-year plans before and if the hot air at these launches could be harnessed,...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: The Minister for Finance announced he will reduce the amount people will pay in tax by €20 per week. That is the sum total of his boast. Let us not forget where this came from. Compared with this time last year, the Minister will collect €3,750 more from every household in the country.

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: He has raised an extra €9,000 since the general election in 2002 from every household in the country. I am sure the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, would be interested in the pledge that only 20% of people would be on the top rate of tax. A year from the end of the term, what figure is it? According to the Minister's announcement it is 32.6%.

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: There will now be 250,000 taxpayers.

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: The Government has reneged on its commitment. Far from reducing the number of people paying tax at the top rate the number is increasing every year and the Minister knows that because it is in his own tables today. The Minister has taken a number of people on the minimum wage out of the tax net by raising the threshold to €15,600, approximately €300 over the minimum wage for the year. By...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Noel Dempsey, told us the billions in waste the Government has committed to was just as nought. The Minister should concentrate on his own area of responsibility. The billions in waste were just small change as far as he is concerned.

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: This approach to Government spending has meant that the Government has not been able to index allowances and bands over the years since the general election and this has hurt ordinary families. An ordinary married couple with one earner has lost, through the failure to index tax bands and credits, €1,300 since 2002. How much of that is restored today? It is €20 per week, less than...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: How can the Minister for Finance present this budget as meeting the needs of families when he does that to people trying to cope on one income? The Government deserves no credit for very belatedly closing down various tax reliefs and capping others.

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: Indeed, it is a phased, delayed approach. In truth I have been trying for the past three years to persuade the Minister and his predecessor to accept the need to cap these allowances and bring an end to a system where some people pay no tax. Some 80 people earning more than €250,000 paid no tax this year. Where is the justice in that?

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: Where is the justice in the fact that 116 people derive €1 million a year each from these credits and will continue to do so because most of them will continue for 13 or 14 years to come? They are not closed because all those people with the big rent books will just move on to private hospitals or private nursing homes. The Minister has closed one door but opened another and that is not...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: The truth is——

Written Answers — Departmental Investigations: Departmental Investigations (6 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: Question 88: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the action his Department has taken following reports of mistreatment of periwinkle pickers off the north Dublin coast; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37863/05]

Written Answers — Hospitals Building Programme: Hospitals Building Programme (6 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: Question 195: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the status of the plans to move Temple Street children's hospital to a new location; the reason for the delay in proceeding with these plans; the overall cost of the project, and the additional capacity which will be provided and the resultant additional staffing requirements; and the date when the project will commence...

Written Answers — Homeless Persons: Homeless Persons (6 Dec 2005)

Richard Bruton: Question 207: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children if she is satisfied that the strategy to tackle homelessness effectively deals with the problem in Dublin; if there is a group which is not accessing any service; and if there are initiatives to reach them. [38014/05]