Results 4,021-4,040 of 5,269 for speaker:Joan Collins

Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2014)

Joan Collins: The Government was supposed to change these things. The woman mentioned had her pension cut off while watching these things happen on television every day of the week. It is same old, same old. Does the Taoiseach think this is fair? Does he think it is fair that the people mentioned are still pocketing these pensions? Does he believe the actions of the Department of Social Protection...

Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2014)

Joan Collins: I resent that remark in referring to fraud and scams in respect of the woman in question. She is now part of what is called the scam book, about which the Taoiseach was talking, which gives the Minister for Social Protection her reason to have random checks. The facts of the matter are very straightforward. This is a 79 year old woman who spoke to them on the telephone. She was asked...

Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2014)

Joan Collins: Brian Cowen, Mary Harney and Mary Coughlan are still getting their pensions.

Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2014)

Joan Collins: Yesterday, I received a distressed call from a constituent, Annie from Ballyfermot, a 79 year old age pensioner, who is in receipt of a widow’s contributory pension. Her husband died in 1977. On Friday, she went to the post office to collect her pension to discover it had been cut off. The reason was that she was subject to a random controlled check by the Department of Social...

Leaders' Questions (22 Jan 2014)

Joan Collins: This sense of entitlement among the latter means their salaries have to be topped up by raiding funds donated by the public to provide services for people with disabilities and sick children, as well as raiding the shop at Crumlin children’s hospital. Of course, these same individuals also expect hugely inflated pensions when they leave their positions. This sense of entitlement we...

Written Answers — Department of Finance: Tax Credits (22 Jan 2014)

Joan Collins: 54. To ask the Minister for Finance the amount of money he expects will save with the reduction in tax credits for single parents; and the number of persons that will be affected by the reduction. [3112/14]

Irish Water: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (16 Jan 2014)

Joan Collins: I support the motion put down by Fianna Fáil on Irish Water but I wish to clarify that I do not support the cynical nature of Fianna Fáil tabling the motion. The party has fully supported the idea in the past. It maintains now that it supports charges for water but not at this time. It echoes the cynicism we have heard in the past.

Irish Water: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (16 Jan 2014)

Joan Collins: I wish to deal with two areas quickly, because I realise I have only a minute and a half remaining. I want to concentrate on the idea of conservation. I cannot use the word "lie" in the Dáil-----

Irish Water: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (16 Jan 2014)

Joan Collins: -----but certainly what has been said is not a truth in respect of conservation. If there was a real approach to conservation of water we would not have the energy regulator referring to how, if the revenue achieved through collection of water charges does not meet the cost, it will have to increase the cost of water charged to people. Water is a human right. A conservation programme...

Leaders' Questions (16 Jan 2014)

Joan Collins: I wish to raise the issue of the latest cut to affect people with disabilities. Without any prior warning, a circular issued on new year's eve from a Labour Party Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government announced cuts in the housing adaptation and mobility aid grants with immediate effect for all new applicants. These changes in the income...

Leaders' Questions (16 Jan 2014)

Joan Collins: That was a classic case of talking down the clock.

Leaders' Questions (16 Jan 2014)

Joan Collins: Since 2010, the €100 million in grant allocations for people with disabilities was reduced to €35 million last year. There are big waiting lists. This is a cut. The criteria being tightened represents a further cut. No one applies for a disability grant if he or she does not need it. Everything is assessed through the HSE. Amnesty International has stated that any cut in...

Leaders' Questions (16 Jan 2014)

Joan Collins: Some €10,000 to €8,000.

Leaders' Questions (16 Jan 2014)

Joan Collins: It was €100 million in 2010.

Leaders' Questions (16 Jan 2014)

Joan Collins: That is a disgraceful response.

Planning and Development (Transparency and Consumer Confidence) Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed) [Private Members] (18 Dec 2013)

Joan Collins: It is natural, and should be the case, that many Deputies look back over the experience they gained, and what they saw and what happened, over the past number of years when they were members of local authorities. I was elected in 2004. It was the end of the development process for the 2005-11 development plan for Dublin City Council, a process with which I was not familiar. It was alien...

Planning and Development (Transparency and Consumer Confidence) Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed) [Private Members] (18 Dec 2013)

Joan Collins: It was not even that I was anti-development but that the developers and property had rights. They had the rights; we did not. The people had no rights. That is where we must look at how we put in place such plans, into which developers must link-in along with all the compliances and checks, some of which have been raised here. There are simple matters. For instance, if a planning...

Leaders' Questions (18 Dec 2013)

Joan Collins: The Taoiseach started off by saying the document was a major signpost to economic recovery over six years. Two sentences refer to the recapitalisation of the banks. It is said it “may” be decided on a case by case basis. The issue is not high on the agenda, but it should have been at the forefront of the document that we demanded a write-down of the debt, on which everything...

Leaders' Questions (18 Dec 2013)

Joan Collins: The Taoiseach has thrown in the towel. He has played footsie with the European Union; he should play hard ball.

Leaders' Questions (18 Dec 2013)

Joan Collins: We bailed them out.