Results 1,021-1,040 of 4,092 for speaker:Michael D Higgins
- Order of Business (15 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: I want to finish my point. I challenge the status of this document. In its first lines it states the Government will "not be in a position to verify the integrity of the data until it carries out its own due diligence on each of the loans". Is this a reference or draft document for the information and assistance of all Deputies and to be placed in the Library? It is not a finished...
- Order of Business (15 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: I would also like to have seen a declaration on conflicts of interest, particularly for the people who have put together the tentative valuations in this document. All of this is not something that can be raised------
- Order of Business (15 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: -----when we have waved the document on to the finance committee.
- Order of Business (15 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: We should not be waving the document on to the finance committee. It is just a speculative piece in which the people have put it together have not declared their interests such as firms of solicitors, auditors, auctioneers, valuers and so on.
- Order of Business (15 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: I would not accept this document from a first-year university student.
- Order of Business (15 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: No, it is not on the Order Paper.
- Order of Business (15 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: The committee will have to allow room for all the solicitors' firms and accountancy firms and the banks who will want to squeeze in.
- Written Answers — Farm Inspections: Farm Inspections (15 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: Question 63: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when unannounced inspections commenced in 2009; when they will be concluded. [36209/09]
- Written Answers — Farm Inspections: Farm Inspections (15 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: Question 89: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the number of inspections to be carried out under the single payment scheme in 2009; the number carried out to date in 2009; and the number of penalties imposed. [36208/09]
- Order of Business (14 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: In the first instance, I join with others in wishing the Ceann Comhairle well in his office. I hope I do not test his patience on his first day. I am not anxious to delay the business of the House but I want to make one remark about something the Taoiseach said earlier. He mentioned the Government's heavy legislative workload. By way of being positive, I ask if the Taoiseach would...
- Order of Business (14 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: Not so. I can assure the Ceann Comhairle that people may not even agree with what I have to say. If the Government wanted to eliminate the legislative backlog the Taoiseach could announce that he was willing to give up the Government monopoly on the initiation of legislation and allow legislation to be initiated by the Opposition and in committees. I am not going to develop this point...
- Order of Business (14 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: -----as to when is it appropriate to ask a question. I will finish with an explicit question about promised legislation. Ireland has not ratified the Hague Convention on the protection of the child. We have not done so because we have not passed the adoption Bill which is on the list of promised legislation. Our failure to ratify the adoption Bill is accompanied by the failure of Vietnam...
- Order of Business (14 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: I am finishing now. My question is when will we have the adoption Bill and related legislation before the House? When I have listened to all the huff and puff about electoral reform from people who do not want to change the legislative process I will find another way of stating those other more general views. However, it is a pity that we would not be committed to wanting to improve the...
- Order of Business (14 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: I have offered all these views to the Joint Committee on the Constitution as one does one's best.
- Order of Business (14 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: That is another British convention.
- Order of Business (14 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: It did not take in Mayo.
- Order of Business (14 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: It was nerve-racking.
- Order of Business (14 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: A lot of cycling is involved.
- Order of Business (14 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: That is it.
- Proposed Legislation. (14 Oct 2009)
Michael D Higgins: Question 156: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he will bring legislation before the Houses of the Oireachtas in autumn 2009 to provide for directly elected mayors; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35822/09]