Results 6,921-6,940 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: If we were to do the calculation in that way, our net debt level is heading below 80%. What is wrong with that? Can the Deputy not celebrate the fact that people are businesses are going back to work, that USC is coming down for people on incomes of between €25,000 and €70,000 and it is capped at that level? What is irresponsible about that?

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: I am not sure the Deputy really understands what the Government is doing.

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: The core reason-----

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: The executive summary of the report acknowledges the core reason, namely, that we had more than 15% of people unemployed in this country as a result of a property bubble which I warned against on numerous occasions - Deputy Donnelly is right in that respect - and which I would warn against if it were to happen again. It was a property bubble as opposed to the recovery here which is a jobs-led...

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: And we restored it.

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: We are doing it.

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: Will Deputy McDonald tell me why anybody would believe Sinn Féin when Gerry Adams does not even know whether he is the leader of the IRA but does know Slab Murphy is a good republican? Just tell me that, Deputy.

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: Let me tell you, Deputy, the moral integrity of people has a great deal to do with child care and the question of whose care our children should be put in. Gerry Adams is a man who cannot even fess up in regard to what happened with certain murders, but Deputy McDonald is asking us to trust her party. The answer is, "No, we do not." However, let us come back to the issue at hand. The...

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: This year, my party in government has employed an extra 1,400 teachers at primary, secondary and SNA level.

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: We have also extended SNA preschool support, as asked for by parents, to children with special needs. That is a real breakthrough in terms of preschool policy development in Ireland. Deputy McDonald should be gracious enough to acknowledge it.

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: The Sinn Féin Minister in the North, Mr. John O'Dowd, said recently that those wanting to enter the teaching profession should give "very, very careful consideration" to their choice. Prospective teachers should be aware, he said, that they "may not be able to achieve a post within teaching in this society". The society he refers to is Northern Ireland. This year, we are hiring 2,400...

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: I will answer that.

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: All our costings will be published with our manifesto whenever the election is announced.

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: They will be published in detail and will be available for any level of scrutiny. We will publish a full, costed manifesto, unlike the fantasy manifestos of some I could name and which we have seen in the past. Our proposals will be available for experts to examine as they wish.

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: We have the examples of PMPA and Quinn Insurance, and the more recent example of the company registered in Malta. In all of these cases, ultimately because of a lack of proper financial regulation, people effectively offered policyholders an apparently better deal, which then boomeranged when the particular institutions failed key financial tests. In the Deputy's appropriate and proper...

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: Do not suggest we go back to a situation-----

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: -----where in the run-up to an election-----

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: -----we suggest that there is a cheap quick-fix solution to this, which will result in everybody's premiums being lowered-----

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: -----with subsequent financial failure. Nobody who is a policyholder and who pays for insurance wants to see any insurance company failing, because in this country when that happens, and under the EU model, we, the policyholders and people who pay for insurance in Ireland generally, will end up paying for it. There is merit in what the Deputy has said. The Government has begun a very...

Leaders' Questions (14 Jan 2016)

Joan Burton: We must have proper prudential financial regulation of the sector. Remember in the cases of Quinn Insurance and PMPA, the general body of Irish insurance payers ended up paying very long-term levies for insurance policies. I am sure Fianna Fáil does not want to see a return to this. It happened three times on Fianna Fáil's watch.