Results 7,441-7,460 of 13,375 for speaker:Pat Rabbitte

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: Would the Minister consider public relations consultancies as professional services?

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: Deputy Burton is correct that this is about providing clarity. Taxpayers would welcome this measure if they believed it could be enforced and if the Minister could provide us with some examples in this regard. The Attorney General's office has reasonably frequent resort to senior counsel advice from the Law Library. I am presuming, Minister, that this provision is contemporaneous with the...

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: What figure are the Minister's advisers factoring in for sections 9 and 10? What contribution is that making to the national effort?

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: Did the Minister say €80 million for both?

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: The kind of person from whom one would stay away.

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: Ingrown toenails.

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: The Minister is trying to burst up the family.

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: On the same point, I presume section 8 was not inserted without the authors having something in mind. When I first read the section I concluded the Minister must have in mind providing an exemption for Deputies as a category.

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: I then decided I had better warn him that if he were to exercise this power, he could well guarantee that the citadel will be stormed. Whatever chance we have of keeping our heads above water, the Minister needs to be careful what category he chooses to exempt. What does the term "materially distinguished" mean in these circumstances? Those who authored this provision must have in mind some...

Banking System: Motion (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: The motion before us in the name of Deputy Richard Bruton is a fairly broad and comprehensive resolution. It could be said this motion relates to the restoration of confidence in the management of our economy. The first element of the motion is the need to take control of the direction of the public finances, a debate which to some extent we have already had. The second aspect is the...

Banking System: Motion (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: It is not over, Deputy Flynn.

Banking System: Motion (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: Deputy Fahey had a busy morning.

Banking System: Motion (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: The Deputy should take that back. I made no such comment.

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: For the month of March.

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: We should move on with our deliberations because it is clear the Minister has set his face against the concept of a sunset clause. There are other important matters to be discussed. However, this is also an important matter in the sense that pickets will be placed on Leinster House tomorrow morning. Gardaí demonstrated outside the gates to the complex earlier today and the civil and...

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: The Labour Party supports these amendments. People who are unfamiliar with the medical card system are always surprised to discover the low level at which the threshold is set. The proposition that medical card holders should be exempted is reasonable and we support it.

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: If the Minister were to agree to a sunset clause, he would go a long way in assuaging the feeling that currently exists among public servants that they have been unfairly singled out by a punitive measure. A sunset clause would at least allow people to understand that normality will return after this period of financial crisis. The Government probably underestimates the damage that has been...

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2009: Committee Stage (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: Given that so many of the amendments, which are designed to make this measure fairer, have been ruled out of order, I ask that the Minister rethink his position on this one. I cannot anticipate an argument for saying this is a permanent measure unless the Government has rethought the merits of the approach of the former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, when he designed a benchmarking process,...

Drug Seizures. (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: Question 39: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the quantity and value of seizures of heroin, cocaine, cannabis, and other drugs here during 2007, 2008 and to date in 2009; the proportion of the overall flow of drugs into Ireland which is believed to be represented by these seizures; the new initiatives he is planning to control the flow of illegal drugs into Ireland;...

Drug Seizures. (25 Feb 2009)

Pat Rabbitte: I hope the Leas-Cheann Comhairle can assure me the Minister will not walk out today. I refer to this measure of success or failure. Surely, the only measure of success or failure is the extent to which communities throughout the country are polluted by illicit drugs. Surely, the only measure of success or failure is the extent of criminality, killings and petty vandalism that is...