Results 11,821-11,840 of 15,491 for speaker:Eamon Gilmore

Order of Business (16 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: The scheme of medical cards for the over 70s was introduced by legislation.

Order of Business (16 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: It was contained in the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2001 and it can only be removed by legislation. Will the Tánaiste say if the Government has approved the legislation to remove the medical card for the over 70s? When will this legislation be brought to the House? Will the Government do the decent thing, which is to withdraw this measure from the budget and provide some relief...

Written Answers — Nursing Homes Repayment Scheme: Nursing Homes Repayment Scheme (15 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: Question 11: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the reason for the delay in an appeal being determined in the case of a person (details supplied) in County Dublin; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35088/08]

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: This budget is a vicious assault on working people and middle income families. The people who work hard, play by the rules and pay for everything have been hit very hard to pay for a decade of greed by high rollers and a decade of incompetence and profligacy by Fianna Fáil.

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: The budget is full of taxes, charges and levies targeted at middle Ireland, while nothing has been done to ask the high rollers to pay their fair share. This is a budget airline budget. The speech was full of high-minded waffle about patriotic action, but when one looks at the small print, one sees the taxes and charges. My colleague, Deputy Róisín Shortall, has begun to count them and...

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: Will this apply to those who have temporary use of facilities and drive to work some days but not on others? Will they have to pay the full amount? This is an example of finding every possible means to inflict additional taxes on working people. These same families will pay more in so-called voluntary contributions in schools because school funding has been frozen while school expenses have...

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: Cut medical cards and child benefit, he said. If the economy were the Titanic, it would be women and children last while the bankers got the first and most comfortable lifeboat.

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: In Mr. Fitzpatrick's world, which is also the world of Fianna Fáil, the Progressive Democrats and the Green Party, children and old people come last in the budget. Class sizes are getting larger. Cuts are being implemented for language support teachers, the early school leavers programme, the school books scheme, grants for youth services, while in-service development and school transport...

Financial Resolution No. 15: (General) Resumed (15 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: The then Minister for Finance said: The new levy will be at a rate of 1%, but with an income exemption in order to protect the lower paid. In the case of the self-employed, the exemption will apply where income for the year is not greater than £9,000. In the case of employees, the levy will not be payable in any week where the income is not greater than £173. In setting the income...

Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: Which of the treacherous 30 cuts and charges that were introduced in yesterday's budget is the Taoiseach most embarrassed by? Is it the 1% tax on the widow who takes a part-time cleaning job to supplement her pension? Is it the taking away of the medical card from old age pensioners? Is it the €100 charge that the parent of a sick child will now have to pay to attend accident and...

Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: Specifically, in respect of the withdrawal of the medical card from pensioners, I received a call this morning from a pensioner who was on VHI but qualified for the medical card when he turned 70 and stopped paying VHI. Can that pensioner get back into VHI now and, if so, what will it cost? What type of cover will the VHI provide to such a pensioner if he does manage to get back into it?

Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: I asked the Taoiseach two questions, neither of which he has answered. The first was whether there was anything at all in the budget yesterday that caused him any embarrassment.

Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: He clearly is not, which means we have a hard-necked Taoiseach leading a shameless Government.

Leaders' Questions (15 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: The very least he could do this morning for people who are suffering pain as a result of the budget is to express some degree of remorse, regret and apology to them. Second, I asked a specific question about elderly people who had health insurance, but who understandably gave it up when they got medical cards in the expectation that they would continue to have them. The Government is now...

Financial Resolution No. 3: Income Tax (14 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: I think I understand why the Government has done this. The Government has capsized the economy and found itself in a position where it must increase tax. Having sold itself to the Irish people as a tax-cutting party and a tax-cutting Government, however, it cannot use the "T" word. Therefore, it is bringing in a new tax and calling it a levy. This is a new tax. It is a dishonest and a...

Budget Statement 2009 (14 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: Once every five years.

Order of Business (14 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: On the bank bailout scheme, I understand from the Taoiseach the scheme was approved by the Cabinet this morning. First, can he tell us when the scheme will be circulated to the Opposition parties? It is two weeks since the legislation was introduced and we would like to know that. This is not something we can simply walk into on Friday without having had ample opportunity to consider it....

Order of Business (14 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: The Taoiseach made several very interesting statements when replying earlier. He may have clarified it in his last reply, but I wish to be absolutely sure of it. Do I understand correctly that the Minister for Finance will respond to questions from Members of the House during the course of the debate on Friday? That is my first question. Second, this is a legislative Assembly in which...

Order of Business (14 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: It is a matter for this legislative Assembly. I do not understand the constitutional basis for the Taoiseach's comment that as the Government has, in effect, concluded an agreement with the EU Commission on the guarantee scheme, it is not open to this sovereign Parliament to amend the scheme when it comes before this House on Friday. I would like the Taoiseach to respond to that point.

Leader's Questions (14 Oct 2008)

Eamon Gilmore: What all this amounts to is that the Taoiseach wants to take credit for the good times and no responsibility for the recession. The Taoiseach's and the Government's problem over the past several years is not, as they claim, that they did not see the recession coming, but they would not listen. As recently as July 2007, the Taoiseach's predecessor told a conference in Bundoran that he did...