Results 1,281-1,300 of 3,588 for speaker:Martin Heydon
- Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (4 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: 127. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the progress of a school building project (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50661/19]
- Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (4 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: 128. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the progress of a school building project (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50662/19]
- Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects Status (4 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: 129. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the progress of school building projects (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50663/19]
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (4 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: I thank the officials for coming in and for their detailed presentation. I will kick off with the area of corporation tax. The council outlines a scenario in which corporation tax receipts return to 2014 levels. Receipts have overperformed since then, but is there any evidence that all of this increase is excess? Could some of it be a structural increase, meaning that 2014 is not an...
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (4 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: I accept Mr. Tutty's point but if that base is included, it becomes a starting point. If we include a figure of 2.5% as the most we think we can afford to spend, it would become a negotiation straight away. The unions would accept nothing less and push for more. I understand the problem outlined by Mr. Tutty but this is a crux. He must understand there is a problem on the other side as well.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (4 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: Is it not fair to say that some of those overruns could be specific to the health area, for example, in recent years? We must also compare this year's overrun to what happened in previous years. There is a sense that a handle has been got on that, perhaps helped by some of the recruitment practices in the health sector. The overrun would not be across the board and in every Department.
- Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (4 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: The overrun this year has been far less pronounced.
- Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (3 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: It was before the by-election.
- Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (3 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: Let us call this what it is - an election stunt by the Social Democrats, who announced this motion ahead of the by-elections last Friday. The Social Democrats purposely held a photo opportunity outside the Dáil gates so that a by-election candidate could be included in the picture. We all know that an unelected representative would not have been allowed into the photo opportunity had...
- Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (3 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: -----much more than the policy or its objectives.
- Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (3 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: No confidence motions,-----
- Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (3 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: -----personalised attacks and cheap shots are far more the order of the day from the Opposition-----
- Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (3 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: -----than any detailed discussion on policy.
- Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (3 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: We have heard addresses from many Deputies this evening, including Fianna Fáil's housing spokesperson, who said that people would get to see Fianna Fáil's housing plan early next year. It has been 600 days since Fianna Fáil promised an alternative housing policy.
- Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (3 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: Sure, what is another few months?
- Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (3 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: Deputy Cassells all but invoked the spirit of de Valera-----
- Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (3 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: -----by stating that Fianna Fáil was the only party to be able to deliver houses.
- Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (3 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: Just because Fianna Fáil keeps saying something over and over does not mean it is true.
- Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (3 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: Deputy Cassells identified deficiencies in our local authorities' ability to build enough homes. We face challenges in that area because Fianna Fáil, when in power, privatised the housing sector. We have been trying to re-equip our local authorities ever since.
- Confidence in the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government: Motion [Private Members] (3 Dec 2019)
Martin Heydon: Fianna Fáil stripped our councils of their expertise and sold it off to the private sector. The only thing that Fianna Fáil knows about the housing sector is how to destroy it and then blame us for not fixing its mess quickly enough.