Results 5,281-5,300 of 21,404 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: The living wage technical group published its assessment of the living wage for 2019 this morning and its report makes for a sobering read. They have found that the living wage - the rate of pay that a full-time worker requires in order to enjoy a socially acceptable standard of living, in other words, an income floor of such a level as to allow him or her not to live the high life but,...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: We are well behind the curve. Often one hears tributes to and, on occasion, one sees people shed crocodile tears for low-paid workers.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: These workers do not need not soft words, honey-coated words or tributes, they need to earn at least the living wage.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (3 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Low Pay Commission should be looking at a living wage, not the minimum wage. The Taoiseach is wrong to state that those on the minimum wage are simply people who are working for pin money or to earn supplementary incomes. Almost half of those on the minimum wage are full-time workers. The minimum wage stands at €9.80 per hour. Everyone here, including the Taoiseach, earns...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (2 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: At the risk of annoying you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I think the better use of the hour would be to have questions and answers rather than statements in the time allotted to us on Wednesday. I think it is important that the Minister comes in and is initially held to account and subjected to questions.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (2 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: Statements is one thing, but questioning the Minister------

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (2 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: I wish to raise the Public Service Pay Commission report on pay and recruitment issues for the Defence Forces. It is unfortunate that consideration of the matter has been postponed due to the absence of the Taoiseach. I do not propose to rehearse the issues at play but I note that the last time these matters were debated last month the leaking of proposals to the media in advance of...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (2 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: It is not sufficient simply for the Minister to skate over this matter with a statement at the beginning and a statement from the Government at the end. This is a very serious issue. We need the Minister to answer questions as well as providing additional time for the discussion.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (2 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes, but with greater brevity. In addition to more time, it would be better if the Minister presented himself to answer questions.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Minister is right to acknowledge that we have opposed this deal and negotiation from the get-go, from as far back as 1999 when Fianna Fáil agreed the mandate-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----and, as I said, in the course of the last five years. We have urged Government to stand by farming families and rural Ireland and, also, to stand by that which is sustainable and sensible and things that protect our planet rather than underscoring wholesale vandalism in the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. It is laughable to hear the Minister try to explain away the destruction of...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is a matter of common sense. I again call on the Minister-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: He has hidden behind legal interpretations of the trade deal in terms of whether it is mixed or not. I have to insist that, as the elected representatives of the Irish people, we have our say on this matter.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: I have to insist that a Government-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----that has failed Irish farming families and rural Ireland, at a minimum, allows us, the people's elected representatives in this House, the opportunity to defend their interests where it will not to do so.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is rubbish.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----that the Government would be prepared to sign up to a deal with Brazil, whose president has committed to destroying the Amazon and the indigenous communities who live there, in order to increase the profits of a few millionaire beef exporters, and that the Government would move to make it easier for Brazilian and Argentinian beef to come into the European Union, and for German car...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Minister is making a very lame attempt to defend the indefensible, which is the Mercosur agreement. It should be remembered that Fianna Fáil agreed the mandate for negotiations for this deal back in 1999.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Minister will be aware that Sinn Féin has spent the past five years calling on the Minister and Fine Gael to withdraw support for this mandate. Now we have this deal-----

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Jul 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am sorry to offend by putting the facts of this matter on the record. Yet, here we find ourselves faced with this deal. The Taoiseach's position is that if it is good for Ireland, we will support it. That is the stated position of the Government. All of the main farming organisations and stakeholders across the island oppose the deal. They do not need any long-winded analysis or any fig...