Results 13,241-13,260 of 13,270 for speaker:Pat Gallagher

Seanad: Motor Vehicle (Duties and Licences) Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (2 Apr 2003)

Pat Gallagher: It was less than €500,000 in comparison to a contribution in my county of €3 million and a contribution in Galway of €5 million.

Seanad: Motor Vehicle (Duties and Licences) Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (2 Apr 2003)

Pat Gallagher: I hope the Senator's council will be able to respond when we raise this matter with it. The 2003 Estimate for this area is €432,000 compared with €410,700 last year. We must be realistic about this. I am making an obvious point. If there are problems in this area, local authorities have a duty and a responsibility to contribute some of their resources to address them. A number of local...

Seanad: Motor Vehicle (Duties and Licences) Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (2 Apr 2003)

Pat Gallagher: This is a matter for each local authority and we will look at it on an authority by authority basis. Senator Tuffy mentioned Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, which under the 2003 allocation receives €9 million, though there is nothing for tertiary roads. However, if one goes back a few years it received €127,000 for that sector. This is a matter of priorities but if her local...

Seanad: Motor Vehicle (Duties and Licences) Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (2 Apr 2003)

Pat Gallagher: The effect of this amendment would be to eliminate altogether the existing relatively low surcharge that applies to taxing one's car on a quarterly rather than annual basis. Fractions of a euro are rounded downwards for motor tax purposes and the proposed amendment would make it cheaper to tax a car on a quarterly rather than an annual basis. There would also be additional administration...

Seanad: Motor Vehicle (Duties and Licences) Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (2 Apr 2003)

Pat Gallagher: I appreciate the points the Senator makes. Everyone can face financial pressure and I readily accept that motor taxation is expensive for young people. More importantly, however, their insurance costs are much too high, a problem I hope will be rectified by the steps being taken by the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The annual rate of motor taxation for cars in...

Seanad: Motor Vehicle (Duties and Licences) Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (2 Apr 2003)

Pat Gallagher: As the House is aware, the purpose of the increases in motor tax is to fund local authorities' general purpose and road funds in 2003. The level of increase in motor tax rates provided for in the Financial Resolution passed by the Dáil on 12 December last, and provided for in this Bill, is set at 12%. The Senator's amendment would see the increases reduced to 5%. A decision to increase taxes...

Seanad: Motor Vehicle (Duties and Licences) Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (2 Apr 2003)

Pat Gallagher: There is no question of the Minister conning anyone. It was suggested in the other House that this would be additional funding over and above last year's figure but when the Minister introduced the Financial Resolution in the House on 12 December, he made it clear that the reason he increased motor taxation was to retain the same level investment in non-national roads. When I addressed the...

Seanad: Motor Vehicle (Duties and Licences) Bill 2003: Committee and Remaining Stages. (2 Apr 2003)

Pat Gallagher: I thank all the Senators who have contributed to the debate. I thank the Leader of the House and the Seanad staff for their co-operation in ensuring this Bill will be passed by both Houses before the statutory date. This Bill is important as it provides for the local government fund for various local authorities and ensures the increase of the general purpose fund by some 6%. It will also...

Seanad: Motor Vehicle (Duties and Licences) Bill 2003: Second Stage. (1 Apr 2003)

Pat Gallagher: The origins of this Bill were established with the passing in the Dáil on 12 December last of a financial resolution which essentially amended the Finance (Excise Duties) (Vehicles) Act 1952 and the Finance (No. 2) Act 1992 in respect of rates of motor taxation and trade plate licences. However, the resolution has only a limited life and to continue its effect, it needs to be replaced by a...

Seanad: Motor Vehicle (Duties and Licences) Bill 2003: Second Stage (Resumed). (1 Apr 2003)

Pat Gallagher: I may not be watching the Senator directly and perhaps I am out of order but it does not mean that I am not being attentive.

Seanad: Motor Vehicle (Duties and Licences) Bill 2003: Second Stage (Resumed). (1 Apr 2003)

Pat Gallagher: I have listened to every word and could perhaps repeat it verbatim.

Seanad: Motor Vehicle (Duties and Licences) Bill 2003: Second Stage (Resumed). (1 Apr 2003)

Pat Gallagher: I thank the Members who contributed to this important debate. As in the Dáil, the contributions were lively and wide-ranging. While many of them were outside my remit in this regard, I will try to deal with them as best I can. The contributions are a fair reflection of the Bill. Some Members who are opposed to the legislation strayed quite a bit away from it. I am not infringing on the...

Seanad: Adjournment Matters. - School Closures. (11 Mar 2003)

Pat Gallagher: I welcome this opportunity to outline to the House the position on St. Joseph's secondary school, Newtownforbes, County Longford. The school is one of four post-primary schools in the area and was established in the early 1950s. Formerly an all girls boarding school, co-education was introduced during the 1970s. In 1989 the boarding element was closed. Enrolments at the school peaked in the...

Seanad: Adjournment Matters. - Company Closures. (11 Mar 2003)

Pat Gallagher: I thank Senator Mansergh for raising this matter on the Adjournment. The Tánaiste learned with grave disappointment of the recent decision by Pall to close its medical filter manufacturing operation in Tipperary with the loss of 155 jobs. The Tánaiste understands that the parent company has made a decision to transfer this line to Puerto Rico. The company currently employs a total of 230...

Seanad: Adjournment Matters. - Tourism Industry. (11 Mar 2003)

Pat Gallagher: I thank the Senator for raising this matter on the Adjournment. It gives me little pleasure to speak about the challenges facing the tourism sector when, for the third year in a row, the industry is facing economic and financial pressures caused by events completely outside its control. The Senator's motion calls for encouragement of the airline and hotel industry to adopt flexible practices...

Seanad: Adjournment Matter. - Schools Building Projects. (5 Mar 2003)

Pat Gallagher: I thank Senator Terry for raising this matter on the Adjournment. The Department's current position regarding the allocation of funding for school projects was outlined by the Minister some time ago and is available on the Department's website. In addition, the capital programme has been published. Full details regarding individual projects, including schools being provided with temporary...

Seanad: Adjournment Matter. - Schools Building Projects. (5 Mar 2003)

Pat Gallagher: I thank Senators Kitt and Ulick Burke for giving me the opportunity to outline to the House on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science the Department's current position regarding the allocation of funding for schools building projects. The capital programme has been published and full details are available on the Department's website at www.education.ie. The programme is designed to...

Seanad: Unclaimed Life Assurance Policies Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (12 Feb 2003)

Pat Gallagher: The Minister for Finance has informed the Dáil that most low value policies are not yet computerised, so that if insurance companies had to personally notify these customers, it would entail a lengthy and substantive trawl of paper records. Considering the value of such policies, this does not seem worthwhile at this time. A balance must be reached between the aim of reuniting people with...

Seanad: Unclaimed Life Assurance Policies Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (12 Feb 2003)

Pat Gallagher: What the Senators have said seems very reasonable. To give an example, one company has approximately 500,000 policies below €500 in value which have not yet been computerised.

Seanad: Unclaimed Life Assurance Policies Bill 2002: Committee Stage. (12 Feb 2003)

Pat Gallagher: I am only giving an example. To personally notify the account holders would involve a manual trawl of paper records. This would be a huge undertaking and we might never see the money from the accounts and the people concerned might never be notified. One would have thought that all accounts would have been computerised but that is not the case. It might be possible to look at this in the...