Results 401-420 of 1,249 for speaker:Ned O'Keeffe

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: I refer to Iceland.

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: Iceland went down the road of——

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: Iceland neglected its fishing industry and went down the path of financial services. Where is it today? The same thing has happened. We neglected our agriculture in a manner that was promoted by everyone. I spoke at meetings throughout the country and was laughed out of school in many places at public meetings——-

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: ——because I was told that agriculture was yesterday's business. I raised this issue with Dan McLaughlin of Bank of Ireland. I had known, and can quote several paper cuttings from the past four or five years to this effect, where we were going in the world economy in respect of construction but no one took it seriously. That is the reason we have finished up on the rocks today. The...

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: They will not be embarrassing for me. I grew up in a house in which finance was discussed and this economy used to have high interest rates to discipline the economy. During the past ten or 12 years, although Japan has set both low and zero interest rates, it still has not emerged from its difficulties. The only way in which one can discipline an economy is to have higher levels of...

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: I will answer the Deputy's question.

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: No, I am not. I am in favour of the euro and I supported the Lisbon treaty openly. I wish to refer to that issue in this debate. I remind Deputy Stanton that when he attends meetings and invites me to support his party, as he did the other night, I also would welcome him to this side of the House to support Fianna Fáil in the good decisions we take. He would be more than welcome on this...

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: I had a lost opportunity the other night because Deputy Stanton spoke after me but I would have welcomed him warmly on this side because our decisions are always much better than those of Fine Gael.

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: I came into the House this evening to develop a point I made previously. I made a statement in the House in respect of the state of auditing. To back up my statement, I can cite two major companies, namely, Enron in America, which was a huge company, and Parmalat in Italy. They went to the wall during the good times but had they been properly audited in either country, they would not have...

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: I have it said now anyway. It is on the record. Country of origin labelling would do a lot for this country. There is resistance in Europe to it. What is happening is that all the foodstuff that I give out about are coming in through Rotterdam where some adjustment is made and it is sold across Europe. What is happening is that chicken and beef come into Ireland with breadcrumbs or some...

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: I did it out of courtesy for my friend Deputy Stanton, who shares my constituency and who is inclined to come across to my side.

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: I might not take the 30 minutes. I am delighted to speak on the budget, which was very realistic, well thought-out and planned for the crisis in this country——

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: ——inherited from the western world and, one could say, the events of Wall Street. We could have had a Wall Street crash of 1930s proportion coming along the line. I was shocked listening to the comments of Deputy Kehoe as we have served this country well for the past ten years and I have no doubt we will serve it for another ten or 15 years with the way it is going.

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: We have done well in the education sector. I cannot understand teachers going to meetings now who were around and did well from the Celtic tiger. The debate surrounding the education cuts in the budget is an exaggeration. The Fine Gael spokesperson was not overly enthusiastic about the wages or salaries of teachers. The party's finance spokesperson talked about adjusting to a €4 billion...

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: There is no point in the Opposition making those kinds of charges.

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: If it wants to be realistic and productive——

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: The Opposition was asleep on the medical card issue. It was announced in the budget and the Opposition did not know about it.

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: Fianna Fáil had to educate the Opposition on it, and we put the matter right. One had to admit there was no increase in the medical card scale from 2006 until after the budget.

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: At that stage, the medical card scale was under the €223, which was the maximum pension being paid. We put the matter right. I could consider the whole well-structured budget. I know much about agriculture.

Financial Resolution No. 15: General (Resumed) (5 Nov 2008)

Ned O'Keeffe: I made comments in Cork the other night. I do not run away; I will not do that for anyone.