Results 5,741-5,760 of 7,975 for speaker:Joe Higgins

EU Summits (15 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: -----that it is a crisis of the same diseased financial system in Europe and that the Greek working class are the victims of it, like Ireland, that they are on the verge of revolt and revolution and that we should support them.

EU Summits (15 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: I do not believe the Irish people should change anything at the diktat of President Sarkozy or anybody else.

EU Summits (15 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: The Taoiseach raised this matter. Leaving aside the pressures of the European establishment, why is the Taoiseach prepared to die on the trenches to ensure big business does not pay a cent more but he has no compunction in hitting the working class and the disabled? When the Taoiseach meets President Van Rompuy, will he insist the issues of the bondholders and the interest rates to this...

Death of Member: Expressions of Sympathy (15 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: In the Dublin West by-election of April 1996 the late Brian Lenihan, on the final count, secured 11,754 votes. I happened to be the nearest rival candidate, just 370 votes behind. In the context of that by-election and since we clashed sharply on political issues, and it has to be said that our differences would have grown wide as a chasm, especially on issues relating to the EU-IMF-ECB...

EU Summits (15 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: Question 7: To ask the Taoiseach the issues he intends to prioritise for the meeting of EU heads of Government in the coming weeks. [15348/11]

EU Summits (15 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: Question 8: To ask the Taoiseach if he will receive any heads of Governments or official representatives of foreign Governments between now and the end of July 2011. [15369/11]

Leaders' Questions (15 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: Beginning in January 2014, approximately 11,000 workers will reach 65 years of age and should be going on to the State contributory pension. Today, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, intends to ram a Bill through the Dáil which will mean these workers will not get a cent at 65 but will have to work another full year. The Minister also intends to ram through an increase...

Leaders' Questions (15 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: How would the Taoiseach like an aunt or another female relative to be forced to work in industrial cleaning until they were almost 70 years? This is nothing more than a further attack on working people in the Taoiseach's mission, along with the EU-ECB-IMF, to salvage the speculators in Europe from their disastrous debts in Irish property.

Leaders' Questions (15 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: Is the Taoiseach aware that France, Spain and other countries had major national debates on raising the state pension age? In Ireland, however, the media seems to have gone to sleep.

Leaders' Questions (15 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: No worker knows what is coming. In view of the democratic right of people to have a major debate on this crucial change in social policy, will he withdraw these rotten measures in the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2011 to allow for a national debate on them?

Leaders' Questions (15 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: Answer the question and stop giving red herrings.

Leaders' Questions (15 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: I find it interesting that the Taoiseach, the Government and its backbenchers treat this issue with contempt. It is an issue of primary importance for the tens of thousands who will be affected by it and forced to work in the most difficult circumstances until they are 68 years. More importantly, only in two and a half years time these measures will affect 11,000 workers. This is of the...

Leaders' Questions (15 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: The very point, Deputy Buttimer, is that there have been no headlines about these measures. The people are not aware of them.

Leaders' Questions (15 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: Will the Taoiseach indicate how he dares to call the Ministry in question the Ministry for Social Protection, particularly in view of the fact that a measure which amounts to social aggression will be put through the House today? What is proposed represents an attack on the elderly or those who are growing old.

Order of Business (Resumed) (9 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: I wish to ask about legislation, but I will preface my remarks by saying we should pay tribute to those vulnerable workers who brought the scandal of Rostrevor and what was happening to our elderly to the public's attention. Let us reflect on the question of why care of the elderly should be a profit-making enterprise in the first instance. Regarding promised legislation, as the Minister...

Order of Business (Resumed) (9 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: What about an apology?

Order of Business (9 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: This is the second guillotine in as many days imposed by the Government. In the first week or two of this Dáil and in the programme for Government it made a virtue of the fact that guillotines would not be used in this manner and that there would be adequate time afforded for discussion on serious issues. It seems as if the reputation of the Government of being continuity Fianna Fáil is...

Order of Business (9 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: Putting vital issues such as this at the tail-end of work on a Thursday is not acceptable. I will not reiterate the arguments that have just been made but I agree with them. The Government should make sufficient time available and, if necessary, extend it into next week when perhaps there will be more information. This is all the more critical in view of the tragic situation of yet another...

Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2011: Second Stage (Resumed) (8 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: What about the increase in the pension age?

Official Engagements (8 Jun 2011)

Joe Higgins: I put it to the Taoiseach that the admission he has made that he did not raise the need for a reduction in interest on the British loan with the British Prime Minister will leave taxpayers and the citizens of this country open-mouthed and raise a serious question about the Taoiseach's competence-----