Results 31,561-31,580 of 34,778 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Financial Resolution No. 5: Excise (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: It was not announced in the budget. A new tax accruing €31 million will be introduced whenever the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, returns from wherever he is.

Financial Resolution No. 5: Excise (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: We will have supplementary budgets to raise revenue during the course of the year, yet I believed that the purpose of tonight was to budget for the full year. When the Taoiseach next gets a chance to speak - he has not been given an opportunity to respond to this debate - he might explain how many supplementary budgets there will be to raise tax during the course of the coming year.

Financial Resolution No. 5: Excise (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: We are generally supportive of the changes to the categories of VRT and motor tax. Fianna Fáil could oppose everything, but we agreed to the €3.5 billion. We must be responsible, put our money where our mouths are and support some measures that we might not particularly like. When the push comes, Deputies cannot support everything in principle and oppose it in detail.

Financial Resolution No. 5: Excise (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: However, we will oppose the resolution in respect of VRT. It is unfortunate that due to the grouping, all three matters are being taken together, including that relating to farmers. We will vote "No" collectively, but we are generally supportive of Financial Resolution No. 5. There will not be an opportunity to vote to demonstrate our support separately.

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: As the Minister knows, this came into being this summer.

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: Yes. The Minister, Deputy Quinn, apologised for the delays but I think he was also apologising for the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform because this is a reform issue. Some 66,000 people applied for third-level grants but, as of today, half of them have not yet been approved. Most TDs are now coming across a new phenomenon in their constituencies. I have had numerous examples of...

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: In respect of the Department of Social Protection benefits, the Minister has cut the period in which people can avail of jobseeker's benefit, from 12 to nine months for people who were working for three, four or five years and who, through no fault of their own, have lost their jobs, and from nine months to six for those who have worked ten, 20 or 30 years and who never missed a day's work or...

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: In preparing for the Supplementary Estimates debate last week, the Library and Research Service gave me details of all the Supplementary Estimates. I asked how much there was in Supplementary Estimates in previous years and the staff gave me the figures for each year back to 2007. There have never been in recent memory Supplementary Estimates of the scale of those that have gone through the...

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: They amount to €1.118 billion. I will spell it out to the Minister in further detail. When the Taoiseach set up the new Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, I thought it was a good idea and I supported it. In the Government's first full year in office, we have seen this Department fail utterly. The Taoiseach should take out the scorecards he stated he had for the Ministers....

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: What use did that Department serve? I will explain it to the people. Since the Minister stood in this House exactly one year ago, all of the Departments that are under his direct control as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform-----

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: -----overspent by €3 million every day, €20 million a week or €100 million every month for the past 12 months, and there have been Supplementary Estimates recently in the order of €1.2 billion. The list is available and the Minister knows it well. I have never seen such a poor outcome for a new Department and I did not expect I would be going down this road. I did...

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: -----but those are the irrefutable facts.

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: We told the Minister this time last year that the health Estimate was flawed. The figures were wrong; they did not stand up. Everybody knew they were flawed. The Minister, Deputy Howlin, needs stronger legislative powers to be able to stand up to the Ministers, Deputy Reilly and Deputy Burton, and tell them they cannot overspend.

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: Deputy Howlin comes into the House at the end of the year and thinks he can slip through €1 billion in Supplementary Estimates that arise from flawed budgeting. There was no overspending in the Department of Health. The Minister, Deputy Howlin, had a flawed budget for that Department to start with. Everybody told him the figures passed by the House last year were not adequate for the...

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: If we continue to have overspending of the Estimates produced today-----

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: -----in the order of €3 million a day, €20 million a week, €100 million a month or more than €1 billion per annum, woe betide the Minister if he does not do his job and the troika must stay.

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: The troika are scheduled to go. They are on the road out of here.

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: They were here for a short period and the Minister, Deputy Howlin, should not mess it up.

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: The Minister should not mess it up.

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Seán Fleming: Last Thursday was an interesting day in this Chamber. The public is focused on us today and they all tune in once a year to see what is going on in the House, but I would take them back to Thursday last when the Labour Party voted to renew the bank guarantee in this Chamber. That seems to run counter to everything that party's members stated they would do before they took office. Also...