Results 3,161-3,180 of 13,375 for speaker:Pat Rabbitte

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: That is the real respite Deputy McGrath is concerned about.

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: With regard to women, families and social welfare, the budget has protected core social welfare rates. It has maintained in existence the qualified child allowance and family income supplement. It has maintained child benefit as a universal payment.

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: It has protected lower and middle income families from tax increases. Contributions from the better off in our society have contributed more than half a billion euro.

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: The difference between the task confronting the Government and that confronting Sinn Féin is that we have to bring in a budget that is workable, and 40% of current spending goes towards the social welfare budget. It is not possible to make the savings we are mandatorily required to make and not impact on social welfare. The question was how to do it best. The decisions that have been...

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: Compare the rates to those that apply up the road in Newry-----

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: -----and that have been approved by Deputy Ellis's party.

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: Compare the fact that property tax is between £800 and £1,100 in Newry.

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: Sinn Féin seems to have no difficulty with that, but it has a partitionist mentality when it comes to dealing with the budget down here. We have gone out of our way to ensure those who can pay most have done so in this budget-----

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: -----and that those who need to be protected are protected.

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: A very serious objective of the Government was to ensure the caring profession was protected. Confronted with the situation that faced us, we had a choice of protecting the carer's allowance or the half carer's allowance and dealing with a modest cut in the respite allowance.

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: The people who do the caring will get exactly the same allowance as before the budget. The people who are entitled to claim the half carer's allowance will get it, just like the day before the budget. We have gone to great care to ensure those people's payments are ring-fenced. In terms of throwing in rhetorical flourishes about the back-to-school allowance and various other things-----

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: -----the Ministers for Social Protection and Education and Skills will bring forward proposals later showing, for example, additional investment in the provision of hot meals for children in certain socioeconomc areas where that has been especially successful up to now. We have protected the core rates of social welfare and maintained the benefits for the people who are doing the caring....

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: -----or do we cut the provision for caring? It was not possible to bring in a budget, which is the sixth in a row of budgets that have made cut upon cut because of the crisis in which the country finds itself, unless savings were made across the board.

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: Everyone had to contribute something. Otherwise it would not have been possible to comply with the targets imposed on us.

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: I agree with Deputy Pringle that no one in their right mind would want to find themselves where we are. We have to deal with the world as we find it, however, and not as we would like it. The countries we are trading with are in recession. The eurozone is back in recession. Growth expectations have not been realised. Savings have to be made. We have only one lender and we will not be...

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: If my name was Cowen, I would stay quiet in this debate.

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: Some 40% of total current spending goes on the social welfare budget and that budget contributed 10% to the adjustments here.

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: If anyone can tell me how to address the budget, in circumstances where 40% of spending goes on social welfare, without making some savings on social welfare, it cannot be done.

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: As John Maynard Keynes said: When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?

Leaders' Questions (6 Dec 2012)

Pat Rabbitte: We are confronted with the mess Fianna Fáil left. That is what we must deal with. I am happy to say that, thanks to the efforts of the Irish people, 85% of the heavy lifting is behind us-----