Results 801-820 of 4,717 for speaker:Martin Mansergh

Hospital Services. (15 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: I am replying on behalf of the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney. The HSE has accepted the key recommendations of the Horwath-Teamwork review of acute services in Cork and Kerry, which proposed a single health care system for the region. A key principle is that, while no hospital in the region will close, all hospitals will fundamentally change the services delivered to...

Medical Cards. (15 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: I will take the adjournment on behalf of my colleague, Deputy Mary Harney, Minister for Health and Children. Under the Health Act 2008, the income thresholds for entitlement to a medical card for persons aged 70 or over is €700 gross per week for a single person and €1,400 gross per week for a couple, effective from 1 January 2009. All existing medical card holders aged 70 or over are...

Private Rented Accommodation. (15 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: I also recognise the problems described by Deputy Noonan. I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of the Minister for Social and Family Affairs. The community welfare service, CWS, administers the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, SWA, which includes rent supplement on behalf of the Department of Social and Family Affairs. In February 2006, the Government decided, inter alia,...

Private Rented Accommodation. (15 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: I understand the point the Deputy is making and I realise that my reply only partially addresses the issue he has raised.

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed) (15 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: Have some respect and listen to the Minister of State.

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed) (15 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: The Opposition's heckling is pathetic.

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed) (15 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: An interesting detail of this Bill is that it defines Oireachtas Members as public servants. Therefore, we are discussing something that affects us as well as tens of thousands of others. This legislation is not based on any hostility to public servants. In my own case, rather like the Minister of State, Deputy Dick Roche, I first entered the public service 35 years ago, on a good starting...

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed) (15 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: Ministers' salaries increased from the equivalent of €116,000 to €231,000.

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed) (15 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: Therefore, there were significant real increases at the bottom of the scale and something of a pay bonanza in the upper reaches, and the scale of adjustments in this Bill at the higher end reflect that. Benchmarking and higher remuneration were part of the process. The perception ten years ago was that the private sector was powering away but those who worked in the public sector, although...

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed) (15 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: -----and awarded salaries that we are not now in a position to sustain. I agree with Deputy Tom Hayes that there has been hurtful and unfair criticism, mostly from people outside this House, against civil servants but the salaries we were awarding ourselves in some instances would correspond to the second highest nominal GDP per capita, which is what we boasted of having, but not to the real...

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed) (15 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: Social partnership was conducted in good faith over 22 years. It is regrettable but understandable that we have not been able to reach agreement, and I understand how difficult it is for trade union leaders to concede things they have painfully negotiated over a period of time, but the logic of eurozone membership is that if we lose competitiveness we have to adjust downward cost and...

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed) (15 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: -----that are tough on ourselves. Most of the messages I am getting are from people earning well above that €30,000 income level. I am hearing most of the protests not from people starting out on their careers but people mid-career who have accumulated a lot of commitments. Consensual public service reform is the preferable way forward-----

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed) (15 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: -----and there is a need for everyone to put their shoulder to the wheel. I do not believe there is any real appetite for militancy which would worsen the situation and delay recovery.

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed) (15 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: Social partnership is not dead but an incoming Government will not be able to offer public servants a better deal.

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed) (15 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: Public servants will never have a better deal than-----

Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed) (15 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: -----than the one they have had since the late 1990s but as a wise person once said, if we want to keep things as they are we have to be prepared to change.

Order of Business (15 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: Sinn Féin is never neutral.

Written Answers — Flood Relief: Flood Relief (10 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: Given the unprecedented magnitude of the rainfall in recent weeks, it is the expert opinion of the Office of Public Works that cleaning of the river bank and bed downstream of Ballingeary would not have prevented the flooding that occurred in the town. The OPW now provides funding to Local Authorities for localised minor flood mitigation works, subject to specific economic and environmental...

Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed) (10 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: I find the pathos and indignation of the last speaker entirely unconvincing.

Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2009: Second Stage (Resumed) (10 Dec 2009)

Martin Mansergh: I agree that the statement that the most callous thing the Government could do would be to find itself in a situation where it is unable to pay because of indebtedness and not being able to borrow.