Results 10,481-10,500 of 20,735 for speaker:Mattie McGrath

Leaders' Questions (9 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: They were exposed by Deputy Michael Collins.

Leaders' Questions (9 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: Thousands of them.

Leaders' Questions (9 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: The Tánaiste knows it is an utter failure.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: I have also put my name to this amendment. Deputy Fitzmaurice tried on budget night to have the measure postponed until the end of the year, and I supported him. Many people have been caught by this for various reasons. Some blame auctioneers or solicitors, or in some cases the banks where they could not secure the finance in time, and those people should be given a window to conclude the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: I do not know whether the Chairman would say I am an experienced politician but I do not think I am a fool, thanks be to God. The Minister of State, however, must think that some of us are. He said amendment No. 64 would cost €162 million, and amendment No. 65 would cost €105 million. That comes to €267 million, I think. I agree with Deputy Burton and others. We saw...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: The Chairman is upsetting me in my stride.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: I apologise for my late return. I was almost finished when we broke. I thank the Chairman for clarifying what happens on an hourly, daily, nightly and weekly basis. I have received telephone calls throughout the night about such matters. If the Minister does not know that this is true, I do not know where he is living and it is a case of hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil....

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: I move amendment No. 65: In page 53, to delete line 10 and substitute the following: “(i) in paragraph (4), by substituting “2 per cent of stamp duty for the first €300,000 on non-residential holdings and 6 per cent thereafter” for “2 per cent”, and”. We will not press this to a vote, but we are disappointed. We tabled these amendments...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: Is the Chairman in control of the meeting?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: Good man. I will finish. We are deeply disappointed, but we will not put this amendment to a vote because we will move it on Report Stage. These amendments were tabled in an effort to give some semblance of recognition of people's hardships. We also want to stimulate growth in small family farms and small businesses.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: We will not press it to a vote.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: I joined Deputy Fitzmaurice in tabling the amendment. The reason is obvious. Deputy Fitzmaurice mentioned that it happened in the west, but it happens in most counties where there are smaller, fragmented land holdings. The RSA had to withdraw its most recent diktat on the distance that certain tractors may travel because farms are fragmented. Land holdings can be 20 or 30 miles away from...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: We thank the Minister but we need to know what his intention is and the kind of amendment he will bring forward before Report Stage. We will not press the amendments but we would appreciate clarification.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Finance Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: I referred to it earlier but I am very disappointed that amendment No. 68 was ruled out of order. It was an honest attempt to deal with some of the issues which the Chairman addressed not long ago. We are not dealing with it. The banks have run amok and they are engaged in daylight robbery. The Taoiseach makes strong expressions to convey his angst. Yesterday I asked him if the Minister...

Heritage Bill 2016 [Seanad]: Second Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: I am delighted to be able to speak about this Bill. Its principal purpose is to amend the Heritage Act 1995 on foot of the report of the critical review of the Heritage Council and to provide for the regulation of the cutting or burning of vegetation. I will confine my remarks mainly to Part 3 amendments to the Wildlife Acts. In section 7, which concerns the current provisions in the...

Heritage Bill 2016 [Seanad]: Second Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: I am speaking to the Bill. Common sense has gone out the window. We need to be able to cut roadside hedges in the interests of road safety. We have plenty of legislation, including a piece last week concerning fast tractors and another today which suggests that we will be locked up if any of our children go out driving at the age of 17 or 18 without a licensed driver accompanying them....

Heritage Bill 2016 [Seanad]: Second Stage (Resumed) (8 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: Good woman, but this Bill needs to support them and allow them to do that. They are volunteers. They are taxpayers who have paid their taxes and are doing the work that they want to do and that they love doing, to help and foster nature and wildlife. We are not all mad with machines, cutting the heads off people along with everything else. We are constantly being talked at by the head of...

Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Second Stage [Private Members] (8 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: We have 20 minutes between us.

Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Second Stage [Private Members] (8 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: Is it seven minutes?

Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2017: Second Stage [Private Members] (8 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: Go raibh maith agat. The Employment Equality Acts and the Equal Status Acts prohibit discrimination on nine specified grounds. As the explanatory memorandum for this Bill makes clear, statutory intervention to expand the protection of both Acts to prohibit discrimination on the basis of disadvantaged socioeconomic or social background would involve an amendment to the Employment Equality...