Results 5,401-5,420 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins
- Constitutional Amendments (11 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: Thank you. That elitist institution which is undemocratically elected should obviously be gone. Has the Taoiseach any proposal during his term of office to deal with the proposals in the Constitution regarding the election of President? It is highly undemocratic that citizens may only stand for election as President if they have been vetted by the political establishment or a bunch of...
- Constitutional Amendments (11 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: Should the Taoiseach also have a proposal to abolish that institution-----
- Constitutional Amendments (11 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: -----especially in view of the farce that passes for a presidential campaign, with half a million people unemployed and our hospitals in shreds and the media filled with a personality fest known as a presidential campaign? What are the Taoiseach's proposals regarding either abolition or at least democratising the office? Does the Taoiseach accept that in outlining fairly precise figures for...
- Order of Business (11 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: What proposals has the Taoiseach for a discussion next week on the inter-departmental report on distressed mortgages, chaired by Mr. Declan Keane? Does the Taoiseach have a precise timetable for the publication of the local government (charges) Bill? Does he have a precise timetable for the water services (amendment) Bill? Will it include the setting up of Irish Water?
- Order of Business (11 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: Is there a date?
- Order of Business (11 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: Will it be after the by-election in Dublin West?
- Order of Business (11 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: It will have to be extended until 27 October.
- Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: The extensive leaks from the report of the Keane group on distressed mortgages will be greeted with bitter disappointment by the 95,000 homeowners in mortgage difficulties, of whom 40,000 or more are in arrears of more than six months. While there may be a few speculators among these, the vast majority are victims of the greed of developers and Irish bankers, facilitated by European bankers...
- Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: People are being forced out of their homes. There were almost 1,000 repossessions in one form or another in the past two years. A United Left Alliance colleague of mine is dealing with a family who were ordered to be on the streets at 12 p.m. tomorrow, a husband, wife and three children, on the orders of a subprime mortgage lender. That is the reality of the distress and suffering that...
- Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: What is the Taoiseach's thinking on the matter?
- Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: I just gave the Taoiseach some.
- Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: I have just given the Taoiseach ideas.
- Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: We know that. The Government will leave people to the mercy of the banks.
- Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: Then take the albatross from around their necks.
- Leaders' Questions (11 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: More lifestyle choices. It is now a lifestyle choice not to pay one's mortgage, I suppose.
- Social Partnership (11 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: Question 1: To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on recent contacts with trade union and employers bodies. [24430/11]
- Social Partnership (11 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: I put it to the Taoiseach that it is a sham to pretend there is such a thing as ongoing partnership between the Government and the trade union movement in current circumstances, when the Government accedes to the diktats of the EU, IMF and ECB with regard to a range of issues which have detrimental effects on the lives and living standards of working people, including those represented by...
- Social Partnership (11 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: The Taoiseach stated that trade union leaders are available for consultation. Is it not the case that they are available to be dictated to?
- Social Partnership (11 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: Unfortunately, they are allowing themselves to be dictated to at great cost to their members who suffer the consequences of the austerity being imposed by Government. How can the Taoiseach say the Government is open to real dialogue with the trade union movement when, for example, members of the INMO and SIPTU were forced to take strike action against grotesque overcrowding and danger to...
- Leaders' Questions (6 Oct 2011)
Joe Higgins: Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown is a vital acute facility for 333,000 people from Meath to west Dublin and Kildare to north-west Dublin. Recently the HSE demanded a costing on what it would save the hospital to go from a 24-hour accident and emergency service to a 12-hour service. The Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, stated at the hospital on Monday there was no such plan. We accept...