Results 3,761-3,780 of 15,491 for speaker:Eamon Gilmore

Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: He is also well aware that householders are being given various options with regard to method of payment. As he is further aware, over 70% of householders have paid the household charge. I thank them for doing so. When this Parliament decides that a tax should be levied, there is an obligation on everyone to be compliant and pay it. The Revenue Commissioners have developed expertise in...

Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: If we were to give responsibility for collecting the property tax to some other agency, Deputy Ross would be the first to make the argument about duplication of resources and the additional cost relating to tax collection.

Order of Business (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: It is proposed to take No. 16, Supplementary Estimate for Public Services, Votes 25 and 39 (back from committee); No. 5, Social Welfare Bill 2012 - Committee and Remaining Stages (resumed); No. a1, Credit Union Bill 2012 - Amendments from the Seanad; and No. 6, Equal Status (Amendment) Bill 2012 - Order for Second Stage and Second and Subsequent Stages. It is proposed, notwithstanding...

Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: The Government's economic plan is about restoring the country's economic sovereignty and getting us out of the economic mess in which we find ourselves. Everybody in the country understands this and that this is difficult and will not happen overnight. Sinn Féin has a fairy tale that we have to make a €3.5 billion budget adjustment, but it also claims that it can produce fairy...

Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: Of course, there is a reason for that. It is not just laziness; it is being clever. Sinn Féin knows very well that its proposals are an absolute fairy tale.

Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: Then its Deputies comes into the Chamber and give the impression that carers and people on disability and invalidity pensions have had their money cut. That is not the case.

Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: None of the basic rates of social welfare payments for carers, people on invalidity pension, pensioners, widows and widowers, those on jobseeker's benefit has been cut. All such payments have been protected by the Government, even in the most difficult of times.

Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: As for people on low incomes, this is the Government that has restored the minimum wage, introduced legislation to restore joint labour committees for those on low pay and removed more than 300,000 from the USC net. Most important, it is committed to ensuring we generate employment and economic recovery.

Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: The best way to tackle poverty and disadvantage is to maximise the number at work and have a successful economy.

Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: It is determined to do it. We will clear up the mess left by our predecessors who brought the IMF into the country.

Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: We are sending it home, with the troika, and restoring the country's economic sovereignty. We are getting people back to work and restoring the country's economic fortunes. Sinn Féin's only answer is the fairytale it calls its economic policy.

Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: The Government has made it very clear that we want to keep people in their own homes and avoid having homes repossessed. That is why at a very early stage in the life of the Government we put in place the Keane group which came forward with a list of recommendations to address the problem of repossessions as as result of mortgage arrears. That is the reason we introduced, for the first...

Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: -----and strengthen the hand of home owners in their dealings with banks. This legislation is long overdue.

Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: Deputy Martin is suffering from withdrawal. Why would he not be, after 14 years in government during which his party squandered the boom and put the country into hock?

Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: Will Members opposite listen to my answer? If Deputy Martin asks a question, he will get an answer. This is a difficult budget and was always going to be a difficult budget. Nobody has claimed otherwise.

Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: The choice we made was to protect those on low and middle incomes, even in difficult times.

Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: Even in difficult times this Government has protected the basic rates of social welfare, something Deputy Martin did not do when he was in government.

Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: I am quite happy to answer Deputy Martin's questions, but he and his colleagues keep interrupting me. In this budget we protected the basic rate of social welfare. That rate has not been touched. We have protected education, including by preserving class sizes.

Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: We have restored €150 million to the education budget. We have introduced something that will be unfamiliar to Deputy Martin and Fianna Fáil, namely, the largest ever package of taxes on wealth in this country, which will raise more than €500 million. Deputy Martin cannot take the fact that even in difficult times, the Government has introduced a budget that is fair,...

Leaders' Questions (13 Dec 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: It takes some brass neck for Sinn Féin to complain about basic rates of social welfare in this State. Can it be true that the basic rate of social welfare payment in the part of the island in which Sinn Féin is in government is €87 per week? Is that true? Sinn Féin Members are complaining because this Government has protected the basic rates of social welfare in this...