Results 1,061-1,080 of 4,928 for speaker:Peter Mathews
- Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: The discussion that has taken place from the Opposition side, during the debate on the amendments and so on, has been of a quality that any six year school boy or girl listening in would say that the Government should disappear on the basis of the facts, the arguments and the logic it has produced. What the Government has put forward as a proposal is stupid, in capital letters, so stupid it...
- Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: The Government created it.
- Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: Some €10 billion.
- Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: On 28 November 2010 we had the arrival of the troika, indicating where it wanted us to make those fiscal adjustments. One of the items that came up was the proposal to introduce a comprehensive overarching water utility, incorporating water charges. We should have told it to get lost and that we were going to deal with priorities first and add up correctly the bill for what had taken place...
- Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: Section 3 is the undoing of what was done a year ago, bar one week, with no debate and with the Whip used. It is very timely and coincidental that the Government Chief Whip is in the Chamber. If this debate had taken place back then, there might have been the realisation that we were on the wrong path. The Government is trying to impose on the people this toxicity while sugar sweetening...
- Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: I encourage the Chief Whip to read the transcript of what she said. The logic is perfect. The evidence and the facts supporting it are absolutely spot on. The Government is trying to fit something that does not fit the situation and it is wrong. The Government is launching a Titanic and they are all on board politically. They will be gone. It is tragic. They should stop it. There is...
- Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: It is a week short of a year from when the primary legislation was forced through the House, effectively without any debate. Instead we have had this debate yesterday and today and perhaps we will have it tomorrow. This is a good debate but it should have happened a year ago. Various analyses and considerations are being discussed, as is the genesis of Irish Water and whether there should...
- Social Welfare Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (10 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: Hear, hear.
- Social Welfare Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (10 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: The State should make up the difference in the deficit.
- Social Welfare Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (10 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: I am wrapping these amendments up into the big picture.
- Social Welfare Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (10 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: I am showing where the connectivity is. I am offering to help coach the trustees of the scheme. There are a few thoughts. Let us get honest, let us get real and let us shine clear light on this. We are fighting this ship coming down the slipway and we cannot stop it. The Minister will stand in front of the microphones and say that we have achieved such a fiscal turnaround, the interest...
- Social Welfare Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (10 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: It is still all interconnected. Is it not?
- Social Welfare Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (10 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: It is still all interconnected.
- Social Welfare Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (10 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: I know that. I am seeking a thumbs up. Deputy Brendan Ryan made a very good contribution and Deputy Dessie Ellis made an excellent one. I am just trying to simplify it. Does anybody want me to stop? Those in favour say "Tá" and those against say "Níl".
- Social Welfare Bill 2014: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (10 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: I thank the Minister for attending. Everything is interrelated on the Government books. There are off-balance sheet items in the water debate that is expressing itself on the streets outside and now there are 15,000 former employees of a semi-State airline and related businesses who would not have had a problem if they had been full State employees because they would have had a State...
- Order of Business (10 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: Can we not be friends, a Thaoisigh?
- Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (9 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: I wish to make a couple of quick points. I echo what Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett has said. The European Union has taken us for fools, as has the Government in turn. This is an island and the shoreline has always been in the ownership of the State and will remain so. Water is an essential element for the life of the people living in the State. Therefore, it should absolutely be...
- Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (4 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: Hear, hear.
- Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (4 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: It is magic.
- Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (4 Dec 2014)
Peter Mathews: There are 17 hours for this debate. There are two hours for the debate that has been deferred to 23 January. That is 43 seconds each for 166 Deputies. It is pathetic.