Results 32,881-32,900 of 36,066 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: Assumptions can be very dangerous. We are enshrining these provisions in domestic legislation and they will apply not just between 2019 and 2021 but indefinitely. We do not know what will happen to the economy or what type of exceptional circumstances will arise. I question the Minister’s judgment in regard to whether we will get more flexibility because it is not written into the...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: I understand the difficulties that are inherent to long-term forecasts but the IMF has produced long-term forecasts on the structural deficit for the years after 2015. I do not have the figures to hand but it has suggested that the structural deficit in 2016 and 2017 will be considerable. Could the Minister comment on that? I know it is contrary to other advice and the Minister mentioned...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: The structural deficit is central to this section.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: That is fair enough.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: Will the Minister answer the question? How will we calculate the structural deficit? Section 2 refers to compliance with "the requirement imposed by section 4 (the debt rule)," and the budgetary rule. How will the Government calculate them? If the Minister does not know how he will calculate the structural deficit, he need only tell us. I do not want to replay the referendum but this is...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: Section 4 requires us, in line with the treaty, to reduce that portion of debt above 60% of GDP by one-twentieth each year. My understanding is that this rule would come into force in 2018. Has the Department calculated projections of the growth rates and inflation that would be required for Ireland not to impose additional austerity budgets on the people? What level of growth is required...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: I am disappointed that the amendments have been ruled out of order. This goes to the crux of the Bill, regarding the requirements contained therein to enshrine in domestic law the austere rules contained within the austerity treaty. I had tabled a proposal that instead of committing the Government to imposing such budgetary rules, in the future it would have an option to impose them. This...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: I query the reason amendment No. 2 has been ruled out of order and seek an explanation.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: The legislation goes further than implementation of the rules of the austerity treaty. As members are aware, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council is part of it, as the reporting mechanism and what the Government would be obliged to do in responding to the advice of the council also are included. I am not questioning the ruling but simply seeking clarification of the rules. However, the...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: My question was directed to the Minister.

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: By not including the text that we would implement the rules only if it was conducive to the social and economic development of the State, it is an admission that we will implement them regardless of whether it is conducive to the social and economic development of the State. This is a big problem concerning the path the Government has been following. We have been focused very much on...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: My final point-----

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: I accept that, but I am speaking to section 2, not the proposed amendments. The Minister has said the purpose of section 2 is to bind this and future Governments to rules in order that we do not go crazy in the future. There is no doubt that there was an element of craziness to what happened during the boom time. The Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government inflated the property bubble....

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: This goes to the core of the section which, as the Minister said, will stop the craziness. Up to 2008, before the economic collapse, the State was in compliance with the rules enshrined in domestic legislation. The Minister has a valid point in questioning whether there was an actual structural surplus at the time, given the volume of transactional taxes. The figures were accepted by the...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Finance: Fiscal Responsibility Bill 2012: Committee Stage (18 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: My question was how would we define the model to be used in calculating the structural deficit. Will it be defined by the Department of Finance or will the European model be used? Will the Minister publicise how the structural deficit will be defined? The Minister has suggested that the structural deficit, in how it was calculated in 2007 and previous years, was probably inaccurate. He is...

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Rail Network (18 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport his plans to complete the Western Arc project before the end of this Government’s term [45132/12]

Home Help and Home Care Services: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (17 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: I am very conscious that we are talking about figures - 450,000 here, a 4% cut there and savings of €8 million. However, behind every one of those figures is an individual with a particular need for care. Many of these individuals have been in receipt of home help support for many years. As the HSE on the Government's instruction has decided to cut more hours, they have been assessed...

Home Help and Home Care Services: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (17 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: I do not know who the Minister is trying to kid with his last statement. It is a bit rich for him as Minister for Health to come to this House and state this is his guiding policy while at the same time overseeing the removal of 1 million hours of home care support from these very vulnerable people. It is an appalling decision by the Government and the parties which will support the...

Topical Issue Debate: Garda Strength (17 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: I have a couple of points to make to the Minister. His last comments show that he fails to understand rural areas. It is not about the size of the station but about the presence and service it provides. Culdaff, Dunkineely and Doochary are wee villages and do not need a massive Garda station, but they need the service. The service was taken away from them by the Government. The Minister...

Topical Issue Debate: Garda Strength (17 Oct 2012)

Pearse Doherty: Last Saturday evening in the town of Kincasslagh in County Donegal, which is probably best known throughout the country for being the home town of Daniel O'Donnell, over 200 local residents turned up for a public meeting. It was a meeting to voice their concerns about the ongoing and escalating anti-social behaviour and criminal activity occurring in the area. This activity culminated in a...