Results 5,081-5,100 of 20,701 for speaker:Mattie McGrath

Finance Bill 2020: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: I will only take a minute or half a one. The lecture here from the Minister about being a party from the centre tells me that he is reading too many cartoons. He does not know what the centre is. His party is so far right it cannot see its left. With any proposal we have put forward here we have been treated with disdain and lecture and sometimes with pretty hostile and demonising...

Finance Bill 2020: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: Yes, but I will allow time to my colleagues.

Finance Bill 2020: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: I move amendment No. 72: In page 47, to delete lines 32 to 40, to delete pages 48 to 50, and in page 51, to delete lines 1 to 30. We are moving this amendment because, in the period of the ten-year strategy, we will not have an opportunity to discuss these again. These are not our figures, but international figures. Somewhere between €3,000 and €9,000 will be paid by each...

Finance Bill 2020: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: This amendment is accepted with acclaim. I asked about farm inspections. I am not anti-inspections, but we cannot have inspectors upsetting people.

Finance Bill 2020: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: I am not talking about the Plains of Kildare, which the Ceann Comhairle and other Deputies are familiar with, but about the slopes of the Knockmealdown Mountains, the Comeragh Mountains, Slievenamon and other places where mountain and hill sheep can be found.

Finance Bill 2020: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: I too want to support this amendment wholeheartedly. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, and compliment him on his appointment and on this initiative, which he understands because he is a farmer. I am glad the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, embraced it and made efforts in terms of faster tax rebates and relief because the number of incidents and accidents on farms that result in loss...

Finance Bill 2020: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: On a point of order, in fairness to the Deputies in Leinster House at committee meetings we are not calling a vote but that is the only reason we are not doing so and we want to register our strongest possible objections to this.

Finance Bill 2020: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: I move amendment No. 62: In page 33, to delete lines 29 to 38, to delete page 34, and in page 35, to delete lines 1 to 17. This amendment addresses a huge issue and is consistent with our policy on the matter within the Rural Independent Group. We are not blindly saying that there is no climate change issue, but we are saying that the carbon tax proposal in the Bill is unacceptable. It...

Finance Bill 2020: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: On a point of clarification, we are not going to get to the later amendments. This amendment is on a related matter and we are entitled to speak on the carbon tax provision. The Ceann Comhairle knows we are not going to get to all the amendments.

Finance Bill 2020: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: I too will be as brief as I can. The cohort Deputy Boyd Barrett referred to, musicians, are such a vital part of our being and our entertainment and they have been excluded. I refer to the funding administered by the Departments of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. Some groups got funding under two or three schemes, but 87% of single acts, double acts and small groups got...

Finance Bill 2020: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: It is the same point. I support that point of order. It is extremely unfair on the colleagues who attending committees in Leinster House. It is the same every day - over and back to committees. It is very difficult. I would like to call a vote - I discussed this with Deputy Boyd Barrett - because it is such an issue and there is such a large cohort of people who are not getting a penny....

Finance Bill 2020: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (3 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: I support amendment No. 59 from Deputy Boyd Barrett and his group. It is very important and relates to having a report to evaluate how the CRSS is working. We all know that these schemes were introduced in a hurry. There was not much time to devise them and the schemes are broadly based. However, there are certain cohorts that have not been embraced at all from the point of view of the...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (3 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: I have approached the Tánaiste many times about Tipperary town. The Government set up a task force under Ms Alison Harvey. I am asking that it be expanded to include hard-working groups in the town's hinterland. The Great National Hotels group is selling off the golf course in Ballykisteen at Limerick Junction. The Tánaiste has often been in its hotel there. If the course goes,...

Finance Bill 2020: Report Stage (2 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: I too am disappointed with the tone of what the Minister has said. To listen to Deputy O'Dowd, one would think we were all criticising. We have welcomed this approach. We have worked to help our constituents and businesses. We have helped and encouraged them to draw down from the scheme. We appreciate what is being given but there are businesses marginally outside the limit. I am...

Finance Bill 2020: Report Stage (2 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: I too make what is a badly needed appeal. I do not know how the Minister does not get this. As Deputy Boyd Barrett has said, surely he knows about this from the taxi drivers, musicians and artists. He might not know from the countryside the plight of self-employed Readymix truck owners, the self-employed drivers of flatbed and tipper trucks. He might not know about the minibus driven by...

Finance Bill 2020: Report Stage (2 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: I too am disappointed with the Minister's response. This is a no-brainer. Things are different at the moment because of Covid, but before the pandemic one could not travel or get accommodation in the cities. We see the homelessness crisis and the other pressures. This is the case in many of our big cities but the capital is completely bogged down. We need supports to allow people to live...

Finance Bill 2020: Report Stage (2 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: -----and Tipperary. I did not mean to say that. We want to stay in Tipperary.

Finance Bill 2020: Report Stage (2 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: Maybe you will and maybe you will not. We will give as good as we get. Tá súil agam go mbeidh an bua againn. We want to be able to live and the countryside is a better place for that. We are losing businesses, families and people. What do we have? Afforestation. Now we will not even be allowed to cut down forests. It is a case of hell or to Connacht and Famine times again.

Finance Bill 2020: Report Stage (2 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: I support Deputy Naughten's amendment and must declare that I am a self-employed person myself. Remote working has come into its own since lockdown but there are difficulties with it for many reasons, including the lack of broadband and other facilities. Workers should be encouraged to work remotely and employers should get some concessions or supports to put in infrastructure for their...

Finance Bill 2020: Report Stage (2 Dec 2020)

Mattie McGrath: I support the previous speakers. I think the scheme should be reviewed. An independent assessment should be carried out. I too have been here for a number of finance Bills. We keep pleading for this year in and year out. There was a group outside the Dáil today with 56 black balloons representing the number of homeless people who have lost their lives in this city this year. It is...