Results 39,341-39,360 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: Clearly, Fianna Fáil is preoccupied with envelopes, but is not doing much in terms of delivering infrastructure. In the Estimates, many Ministers, including the Tánaiste, were not spending up to 20% of their capital budgets. The hand-back and roll-over with regard to capital budgets in the Book of Estimates is €285 million. That is astonishing when one thinks of the roads and public...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: Today, we have another strategy, the child care strategy. Most of the earlier strategies are in ruins because they could not go beyond the promise and rhetoric to the point of delivery. The Exchequer returns for any month for the past two years tell the same story. In general, there is an underspend in regard to capital funds. How can the Government credibly claim to have a €35 billion...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: It is absolutely unbelievable. On 10 December, the Government will announce, for the sixth time, three extra half-trains on the Maynooth line. A normal train has eight carriages but these trains will be only four carriages in length. CIE had the option of one and a half trains but decided to opt for three half-trains. Furthermore, they will make a half-journey. Instead of going from Maynooth...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: For those who like baked Alaska, this budget is a bit like a bad one. It looks lovely on the outside, is full of hot air, is cold in the middle and it is very tough when one tries to eat it. People stuck on the West Link as they go home might feel this House could do with a coat of paint. Perhaps the Minister of State, Deputy Callely, might get in the contractors. The Minister is increasing...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: In reality, this year again, 32% of taxpayers will pay tax at the top rate of 42%. The Minister promised that only 20% of taxpayers would pay it. He is miles off his target and he has barely made any progress in today's budget.

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: Page C.7 and the following pages give examples of changes affecting taxpayers. I notice that Nuala, Seán, Aoife and Paul, all the people who used to live at the back of the budget, have been ditched. I suppose the Minister was fed up disappointing them. They have lost their names but they live on in tabular form. The gain for a single person earning €30,000 is €6 per week or 1.2%. Who...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: ——because of the distortion of individualisation. This is important for people at or close to the minimum wage. In recent weeks I was delighted to hear both the Minister and the Taoiseach singing my song about the super rich who pay no taxes. At one stage I thought it sounded like the game was up. Last year, the Taoiseach promised this budget would set things right on the tax shelter...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: This is Robbie: So I sing a song . . . . . .It's a song I sung before, And a song I'm gonna sing again, I mean every word, I don't mean a single one of them, Oh Lord, make me pure, But not yet. That is just about it on the tax shelters. Some of the more obvious tax shelters are to be closed down. They have outlived their usefulness and were causing serious harm and distortion. The notorious...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: We have seen programmes about rip-off Ireland, central to which is the kind of indirect tax rates and VAT rates and charges this Government has introduced year after year. Charges are higher again this year for accident and emergency visits. Over the life of the Government, there have been increases in charges for drugs, registration fees for college students and costs on a range of services...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: It is disappointing that he has not addressed that issue. I am very disappointed with the fuel allowance. Since the rise in fuel prices, the Government has made a windfall gain, which the Minister acknowledged, of about €100 million from VAT and excise increases caused by the rise in petrol, gas and electricity prices. The basic fuel allowance for senior citizens has remained at just €9...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: The Government is condemning these families and in particular the children to a limbo of lost opportunity and permanent social welfare dependency. They are our people. They are the people dropping out of school early, and lone parents with children. Most of them are desperate to get out of the poverty trap in which the Minister is leaving them. Just as the Vatican has abolished limbo, our...

Budget Statement 2005. (7 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: Given that many young men drop out of school early, they and young lone parents are the people most at risk from this poverty and unemployment trap. The other people affected are families including a disabled person, or families headed by a person with a disability. Disability was the big story in the budget last year, another five-year rolling annual programme. Unless I missed some of the...

Written Answers — Hospitals Building Programme: Hospitals Building Programme (6 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: Question 197: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the provisions which exist to advise her Department and the Health Service Executive of private hospital development proposals; the cost benefit analysis which is carried out by her Department; if the Health Service Executive has input to this analysis; if the approval of the Health Service Executive is necessary for such...

Written Answers — Hospitals Building Programme: Hospitals Building Programme (6 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: Question 198: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the number of applications or proposals which have been advised to her Department in respect of private hospital developments; the location of such proposals; the estimated number of beds in each project; the estimated capital cost of each proposal; the estimated tax relief in respect of each proposal; the timescale for...

Written Answers — Decentralisation Programme: Decentralisation Programme (6 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: Question 241: To ask the Minister for Finance if a Dublin applications facility has been put in place for civil servants who wish to stay in Dublin; if his attention has been drawn to the large number of civil and public servants who do not wish to leave Dublin; his estimate of the number refusing to leave Dublin for each Department and State body; and if he will make a statement on the...

Written Answers — Tax Code. : Tax Code. (6 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: Question 242: To ask the Minister for Finance the number of applications which have been received by his Department in respect of tax breaks for the development of private hospitals; the estimated capital cost of the numerous private hospitals initiatives currently being announced; the criteria for a successful application; the estimate of the cost of such tax breaks; and if he will make a...

Written Answers — Tax Code. : Tax Code. (6 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: Question 243: To ask the Minister for Finance when he proposes to publish the consultants' reports into the cost of tax breaks; and the final estimated cost of each consultancy. [37837/05]

Written Answers — Tax Code. : Tax Code. (6 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: Question 244: To ask the Minister for Finance the estimate of the annual and cumulative amount of tax foregone in respect of each of the reliefs, schemes and special exemptions which are the subject of the consultancy studies commissioned by him in his review of tax reliefs; the amount of same; the number of such schemes for each year of their operation and the cumulative to date in 2005....

Written Answers — Amenity and Recreational Areas: Amenity and Recreational Areas (6 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: Question 247: To ask the Minister for Finance the position in respect of the Liffey valley between Islandbridge and Straffan in view of recent statements (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38039/05]

Written Answers — Garda Deployment: Garda Deployment (6 Dec 2005)

Joan Burton: Question 381: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of community gardaí allocated to and working in Dublin 15; the number of gardaí allocated to Dublin 15; the average number of gardaí per shift in Dublin 15 including community gardaí; the number of vehicles allocated to gardaí in Dublin 15; the number of vehicles allocated for active duty at weekends; and...