Results 921-940 of 35,536 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: The Government did make announcements, but riddle me this, why did it single out carers? Why are carers the only category of people who will have to wait until July to get the benefit of what has been announced? What have carers done? Why are they not able to benefit like anybody else on 1 January 2025?

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: Would the Taoiseach like the floor to answer the question?

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: Why is the carer's allowance means test change not available to them in January and why did the Government single them out as the only category of people who must wait a further six months? It is disrespectful to carers and the work they do. As I said, what needed to be done here was an announcement of the abolition of the means test. This would really make a meaningful difference in the...

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: -----and workers and families cannot afford another five years of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Every day this Government is in office, it squanders valuable time.

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: It also, however, squanders taxpayers' money. Even though he is in charge of the OPW, it was interesting that the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, did not mention during his 45-minute speech any of the projects the Government is wasting millions on, including the bike shed, the national children's hospital, the security hut and houses for Ukrainians that have seen a 120% increase. Yet the...

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: -----but, when we look at delivery, the Government again falls short. Key to supporting families is the availability of affordable childcare. Sinn Féin has shown how childcare could be delivered at €10 a day. That would have been a game-changer for families but the Government would not go there. This could be delivered next year for all parents in centre-based childcare and...

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: The public will have their opportunity to decide if they want a party-----

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: -----with real vision, ideas, plans and commitment or the soundbites we hear from Government benches. Sinn Féin knows that the cost of raising a family does not stop when your child reaches the age of 18. We would stand up for students and parents by abolishing third level fees, starting with a reduction of €1,500 next year. Again, the Government refuses to go there. It...

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: -----with the cost of living in so many ways. We called on the Government to tackle this, to deliver a fair tax package for all workers and to give workers and families a break. We said they needed their money put back into their pockets. What the Government has instead brought forward again in this budget is a two-tier tax package. It picked winners and it picked losers. Someone on...

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: The Taoiseach also knows it. That is half of all workers in the State. The tax package for half of all workers in the State will be €369. There was a fairer way to do this. In our budget proposals, Sinn Féin showed how the Government could have cut tax fairly in a way that benefits all workers, including those on low and middle incomes. That is what it should have done. We...

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: Ireland has one of the highest rates of low pay in the European Union. That did not happen by accident. It happened as a result of Government policy. We would support businesses' transition from lower wage employment with a PRSI rebate of €250 million targeted at the employers most impacted by increases to the minimum wage. The Minister did not say anything about gold-plated...

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: The cost has overrun by hundreds of millions. Are you trying to deny you had any involvement in that, Simon? Is that what you are trying to say?

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: Is that what you are trying to say, that you had no involvement in that?

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: All the while, on the Taoiseach's watch, the Bill goes up. When BAM said it would withdraw-----

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: -----Deputy Harris said "No way, keep going" and he kept writing the cheques.

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: Almost a million people-----

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: Are you finished, Taoiseach? Almost a million people are on waiting lists. We have all been waiting. We have been waiting for this Government to get its act together but it has not happened and is not going to happen. It is becoming harder and harder for ordinary workers to see a GP. Dental treatment for people with medical cards has collapsed. Mental health services in this State are...

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: We called on the Government to deliver 21,000 social and affordable homes in the budget and 100% redress for those living with defective blocks in Celtic tiger apartments. Not one penny more has been provided for those schemes, despite them being expanded. For regeneration of inner-city flat complexes and those communities that have been waiting for decades, there is nothing from this...

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: Sinn Féin would make sure that they were central. We need to tackle the issue of dereliction in our cities, towns and villages. That is the scale of the ambition needed. The Minister can shake his head all he wants. Every year he has sat at the Cabinet table, the housing crisis has become worse. House prices,rents and levels of homelessness have gone through the roof. Homeownership...

Financial Resolutions 2024 - Budget Statement 2025 (1 Oct 2024)

Pearse Doherty: The Government needs the scale of ambition to match what has been put forward by Sinn Féin. The truth hurts, as we hear from the heckling here. It is a sore point that not a single extra social or affordable home above the existing targets have been provided. We have long campaigned for the renter's tax credit. Do you remember that one, Paschal? You fought me tooth and nail on...