Results 1,321-1,340 of 1,730 for speaker:Colm Keaveney

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: Just over 20 months ago, the Government inherited a country that had been wrecked by irresponsible behaviour and fiscal mismanagement. The previous Government narrowed the tax base, which meant the economic downturn led to a fiscal nightmare for the country. The previous Government engaged in a reckless massive increase in spending of the one-off proceeds generated by the property boom....

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: How dare he sign tonight's motion when he tickled Bertie Ahern's belly for 15 years at the cost of a lost generation. Shame on him.

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: Deputy McGrath voted for increase upon increase to senior civil servants.

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: He tickled Bertie's belly for 15 years. He implemented Fianna Fáil policy, yet he has put his name to a motion calling for the reversal of cuts of which he was the architect. He implemented those cuts over the course of the past 15 years. Shame on him. I respect the good intentions of the United Left Alliance but I query the company they keep, including elements of right-wing...

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: Deputy Pringle should not flatter himself. I do not refer to him in that respect.

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: Deputy Ross refers in the motion only to pensions of public sector workers.

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: The motion makes no reference to the obscene pensions paid in the private sector, where salaries can be capped but multiples of that salary are paid into slush funds and pension funds availing of generous tax reliefs that Deputy McGrath designed.

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: I support the proposal that in the future there would be a situation where one-on-one ratio of bankers' pay to pensions would suffice with regard to remuneration. I would expect the United Left Alliance to support that proposal in the future. Many voices on the right of politics, particularly that of Deputy Ross, are comfortable using the United Left Alliance to attack public service pay...

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: I ask the United Left Alliance to think twice about supporting cuts in the public service. They are the pawns of those on the right wing. They are fools. I know Deputy McGrath's agenda. He tickled the belly of Bertie Ahern for 15 years. For 15 years he was his two-legged bidet and now he has the cheek to come into the House and sign this motion. The right way to address this issue is...

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: Deputy McGrath signed off on a pension of €500,000 for Mr. Richie Boucher. Some of the people who proposed this motion have good intentions, but the measures proposed will not solve anything. Deputy McGrath comes in her week upon week, with Ernie and Bert politics. This is "Sesame Street" for him, but he is the architect of the destruction of a society. He has tickled the belly of...

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: Deputy McGrath's footsteps have gone up and down the corridor, cutting deals at the cost of public service pensions and vulnerable people. He voted for a cut in the minimum wage. He has a cheek to talk about a threshold of decency.

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: Where was decency when he voted with Bertie Ahern and his ilk for cuts in minimum rates of pay? He has more cheek than the backside of a retired jockey. God bless this country. If we put our minds to it and if we were interested in resolving this problem we would refer this matter to an all-party committee, as we did for example when Sinn Féin tabled a motion on oil and gas. We...

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: Hear, hear.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: Constitutional Affairs Committee of the European Parliament: Exchange of Views (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: I agree with Deputy Durkan in the sense that it is as a consequence of a previous Government’s ineptitude, fiscal mismanagement and a weakness of democracy in this country that the debts of private banks were socialised into a sovereign debt with a significant amount of arm-twisting from the European institutions who forced this debt onto the shoulders of ordinary Irish people. It is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: Constitutional Affairs Committee of the European Parliament: Exchange of Views (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: I support the sentiment of this engagement in terms of what it sets out to achieve. It is alarming, however, to see the Greek right wing party Golden Dawn policing the streets of Athens, Greek women prostituting themselves in the cities of Italy to feed their children and German companies preventing the sale of cancer drugs to dying EU citizens in Greece. It is difficult to speak about...

Topical Issue Debate: Ambulance Service (25 Oct 2012)

Colm Keaveney: The issue of staffing arrangements in the new ambulance base in Tuam is of concern to me and to many people in north county Galway who, for many decades, have been aware that they live outside the optimum response time zone for ambulance bases in the county. This issue was thrown into sharp relief by the recent tragedy in Tuam. I take this opportunity to sympathise with the families...

Topical Issue Debate: Ambulance Service (25 Oct 2012)

Colm Keaveney: I thank the Minister of State for his response. I am cautious about using the desperate circumstances in which there was no ambulance available to bring two bodies from Tuam to Galway on Sunday last in order to highlight this matter. I am disappointed that the Minister for Health is not present to respond to my observations. I do not accept that progress is being made by management in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Public Expenditure Allocation 2013: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Oct 2012)

Colm Keaveney: I will get to several specifics, but first I welcome the Minister. I now understand the great effort that has been made to present the information in this format. If I am correct the Minister is scenario building vis-à-vis what are the possibilities in the budget in light of the executive function of Cabinet and the decision he will make as Minister when it comes to the budget. I have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Public Expenditure Allocation 2013: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Oct 2012)

Colm Keaveney: We have learned from the masters. Deputy Ó Cuív is here and welcome. I am not going to do year zero politics.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Public Expenditure Allocation 2013: Vote 30 - Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (25 Oct 2012)

Colm Keaveney: It was Frankfurt's way on the minimum rate of pay and on the universal social charge.