Results 3,921-3,940 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

Written Answers — Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Public Sector Reform Review (23 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he has estimated the deflationary impact if further reductions of €1 billion are imposed on the pay and conditions of public sector workers. [2909/13]

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Strategy Statements (22 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: Nurses on 20% lower wages.

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Strategy Statements (22 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: Does the Taoiseach agree that a so-called Border poll would only hold a choice of hell or high water for the people of Northern Ireland - a choice of decamping from one austerity-blighted state with mass unemployment and poverty to another austerity-blighted state, south of the Border, with mass unemployment and poverty, equally?

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Strategy Statements (22 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: Does he agree that a Border poll campaign would only serve to unleash a torrent of sectarian division, a platform for inflammatory sectarian politicians, who have nothing other than mayhem to contribute to the working class in Northern Ireland? Does he recognise that Nationalist and Unionist parties, as they have done on the union flag controversy, would simply use such a poll to divert...

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Strategy Statements (22 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: -----and that rather than a Border poll only a coming together of Protestant and Catholic working-class people seeing the disaster the crisis-ridden capitalism on this island means for them and the havoc it wreaks in their community and agreeing a common struggle for a new economy and society - a socialist society - that would be run in the interests of a majority with a future for all...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Pupil-Teacher Ratio (22 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: 148. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his view on the claims by the Teachers Union of Ireland that the decision made in Budget 2013 to increase the pupil teacher ratio in post leaving certificate colleges from 17:1 to 19:1 will facilitate the elimination of 400 teaching posts and the ending of specialised courses with a consequential negative impact on the futures of the young...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Tax Code (17 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: Why, then, do we not have a flood of migrants of the wealthy and very high earners from Germany, France and Denmark, into Ireland to avail of the significantly lower tax rates here? The Minister's argument begs that question. The evidence is that investment in all other economic indicators are much better even though still reflecting the crisis in European capitalism overall.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Tax Code (17 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: To ask the Minister for Finance his views on the assertion that further tax increases on high earners, corporation profits and employers would adversely affect investment rates when within the EU15 despite Ireland having the fourth lowest tax rates on high earners, the lowest corporation tax and the lowest employers PRSI, instead of being rewarded with high rates of investment Ireland instead...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Tax Code (17 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: The purpose of the question was to ask the Minister his views on the assertion, by Fine Gael Ministers particularly, that further tax increases on high earners and corporations would adversely affect investment rates when the evidence in the European Union is that countries which have much higher rates than Ireland have immeasurably higher investment and projected investment rates. Does the...

Topical Issue Debate: Job Losses (17 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: I utterly condemn the actions of HMV in regard to the treatment of staff and demand that their rights be upheld. The script supplied by the Minister of State contains the following statement which he did not have time to read:The retail and wholesale sector employs over 250,000 people in Ireland - that is almost 15% of our total workforce. The sector suffered heavy job losses throughout the...

Topical Issue Debate: Job Losses (17 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: HMV is a British-owned multinational and yesterday, its Irish section, HMV Ireland, closed its doors declaring it was in receivership. This has left over 300 staff in an intolerable position as regards their jobs and wages owed. It has also left an unknown number of ordinary people with gift vouchers which have been paid for but will not be honoured according to HMV. Staff are owed five...

Leaders' Questions (17 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: Where is the €4 billion coming from?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Matters Relating to the Economy: Discussion with Governor of Central Bank (16 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: I am not surprised that Professor Honohan will not entertain the radical alternatives we have outlined. His whole thinking is confined within the rules and laws of European capitalism. In its current workings, capitalism is an utter disaster. Trillions of uninvested profits are sitting in banks around Europe, which the multinationals and the big European companies refuse to invest because...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Matters Relating to the Economy: Discussion with Governor of Central Bank (16 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: Does Professor Honohan think it will happen?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Matters Relating to the Economy: Discussion with Governor of Central Bank (16 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: They will simply be stringing it out for our children's children - let alone our children - to carry the debt.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Matters Relating to the Economy: Discussion with Governor of Central Bank (16 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: Half a million people are unemployed. We have a disaster.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Matters Relating to the Economy: Discussion with Governor of Central Bank (16 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: It is not a matter of emotional gratification. It is a matter of hard economic reality. Taking this level of resources from the Irish economy and from the pockets of the Irish people is torpedoing the domestic economy yet the Governor, in his speech, lauds the austerity policy and the Government for continuing to implement it. All the statistics point to an ongoing contraction in the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Matters Relating to the Economy: Discussion with Governor of Central Bank (16 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: The Government, and the previous Government, should have said this was not the debt of the Irish people. The resources that are burning our people to pay off these gambling speculators should go into job creation in the domestic economy. That is a real pathway out of the situation. Interest payments on the national debt are about €9.2 billion this year, next year they will be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Matters Relating to the Economy: Discussion with Governor of Central Bank (16 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: Does Professor Honohan think the State will exit the bailout at the end of this year?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Matters Relating to the Economy: Discussion with Governor of Central Bank (16 Jan 2013)

Joe Higgins: I know it is the intention, but does Professor Honohan think it will happen?