Results 33,901-33,920 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

National Management Agency Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed) (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: It is a pity Deputy Gogarty had to leave.

Written Answers — Health Services: Health Services (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: Question 145: To ask the Minister for Health and Children when the waiting times for dermatology services in the south east and in the mid-west will be addressed by the appointment of extra dermatologists; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39278/09]

Written Answers — Health Research Board: Health Research Board (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: Question 150: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she will ensure that the Health Research Board is maintained as a separate entity in order to ensure continued funding of health research which is matched by private fund-raising by a number of medical research charities; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39277/09]

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed). (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: The Minister is playing with the House. He appears to offer a crumb here and there but, in effect, as the bankers would put it, it is business as usual. If we are sceptical about the regulator appearing before an Oireachtas committee and opening his heart to it and telling it as it is, it is because we have bitter experience. All during the spring and summer preceding the crash in Anglo...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed). (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: If there was no crash, Irish Nationwide is experiencing a little local difficulty, such as needing €8 billion of distressed loans to be written off. If that is not a crash, I do not know what is. I worked in banking and €8 billion in a small building society constitutes a crash.

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed). (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: If one went back to the spring and summer of 2007, was the Government doing its job? If the Minister for Finance was doing his job and if the Department of Finance had been awake and was paying attention to what was happening in the banking system, there would have been action that would have diminished the level of the crisis in Ireland by a considerable margin. If the Minister feels that...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed). (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: The Minister should wait until he is up all night with Senator Cassidy.

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed). (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: That will be much less impressive than being up all night with me.

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed). (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: I wish to speak on amendment No. 4, proposed by Labour Party, which has been taken with this amendment.

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed). (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: I want to-----

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed). (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: On a point of information, this is probably the most important debate that has taken place in the Oireachtas for a very long period. When it comes to putting amendment No. 4 before the House, will I have an opportunity to reply to the Minister at that point? I understand that amendment No. 2 is being taken first. We would not have agreed to the grouping if we understood it would diminish...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed). (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: We sought to be co-operative, not to be abused.

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed). (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: I request that the Acting Chairman ungroup them.

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed). (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: I seek a separate decision in regard to amendment No. 4.

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed). (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: The Labour Party will support the Fine Gael amendment. We have an amendment No. 17 relating to the special purpose vehicle which we consider to be very important because it cuts to its fundamental status. This very peculiar SPV was informed to the Dáil very late in the day. I do not believe it was the subject of any message from the Government to the Green Party that it would have such a...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed). (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: In terms of the long-term governance of the European Union, I do not think this is the correct way to go. Everybody recognises that the banking debts are special and specific, and we hope that they are one-off and pretty much limited to what is described in the Bill. I am sure that is what the Minister wants and that is what everybody else would like to see. However, EUROSTAT should not...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed). (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: I am sorry, I thought I saw the Minister shaking his head. Is the formal agency issuing the bonds? This is really important.

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed). (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: Does the Minister want to come in now?

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed). (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: It is very likely that in this scenario, the Minister will be going regularly to the EU looking for approval for this on a continuing basis in the context of State aid. I am not sure that this has been thought through. The Government will probably need regular EU approval for State aid. We saw a memo today to the EU that dealt with Anglo Irish Bank on the eve of the bank's nationalisation...

National Asset Management Agency Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed). (4 Nov 2009)

Joan Burton: What the Deputy just stated is meaningless.