Results 13,821-13,840 of 21,498 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald
- Housing Provision: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (24 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: The crisis in housing, like the crisis in homelessness, is not new. Local communities have often had to cobble together responses to these crises. The members of a voluntary group that has come together in my constituency - Inner City Helping Homeless - speak to, care for and feed rough sleepers in the north inner city every night. That is an example of the non-statutory response that is...
- Housing Provision: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (24 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: I notice in the Government amendment to the motion that the Minister and Minister of State commend themselves for the high priority they have afforded the housing crisis. If it has been a matter of priority in their own heads that has not been evident to the rest of us. In the course of this debate people have set out, based on their constituencies and experiences, the grinding misery...
- Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: Is it neutral to demand a water charge from families who have contaminated water in their taps?
- Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: The ironic thing is that as the Minister lauds the sacrifices of families across the State, the Government comes back to those same people and seeks more. I asked the Minister to identify how it is neutral for a family that is under financial pressure to burden them with an additional bill. Moreover, it is not any kind of bill but one that relates to something as basic and fundamental as...
- Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: These same families can tell the Minister, as they have told me, that they will not be in a position to meet this bill. They do not regard it as progressive or fair. They do not feel it as a sign of recovery but will experience it as yet another imposition on them, that is, on they very population which at this stage has endured years of austerity and cuts.
- Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: How on earth is this a neutral position to take? Could it simply be-----
- Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: ----- that the neutral budget rhetoric is simply camouflage for more pain on low and middle-income families-----
- Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: -----the same families the Government has targeted throughout its entire time in government?
- Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: By charging people for water.
- Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: Yesterday the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan-----
- Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: -----was asked to justify the imposition of water charges on citizens and families at a time when the Government beats its collective chest about a recovery. Yesterday he failed to answer that question. Of course, he is not here today; perhaps he is off wooing some unsuspecting cailín to waltz with him.
- Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: Today I will return to the issue.
- Leaders' Questions (24 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: How can the Government talk about a neutral budget as it prepares to land this unjust tax on citizens and families? How is it neutral to land an additional bill on the doormat? How is it neutral to ask families who are just keeping their heads above water to pay yet another bill? Is it neutral to ask families, who are in financial distress and struggling to keep a roof over their heads, to...
- Order of Business (18 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: Could the Tánaiste shed some light on the issue of the interdepartmental report in respect of the mother and baby homes and the timeline around its completion if it is not yet complete? When can we expect its publication and when will we see the terms of reference for the commission of investigation into those matters? I raised the matter yesterday with the Taoiseach and appealed to...
- Order of Business (18 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: I do not dispute that.
- Leaders' Questions (18 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: That was a lengthy response in which the Tánaiste managed not to answer the question.
- Leaders' Questions (18 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: I do not know how anybody on either side of the House could welcome a report or data that reflect people living at this level of economic distress or in poverty. I am sure we are all agreed that we do not want any citizen to live in poverty, yet that is the reality for many families across the State. It is perverse for the Tánaiste to suggest the introduction of another tax on...
- Leaders' Questions (18 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: In Deputy Dessie Ellis's constituency in Finglas or my constituency in Cabra or every area across the State where families are struggling, it is not helpful to charge for domestic water, yet that is what the Government proposes to do. It is not that long ago when the Labour Party had a conscience and a stand on this issue.
- Leaders' Questions (18 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: The party believed once upon a time that is was wrong to charge families for water.
- Leaders' Questions (18 Sep 2014)
Mary Lou McDonald: The Tánaiste has come a very long way from that. I repeat the question. There is a considerable waiting list for MABS. On behalf of the Labour Party and the Government, will the Tánaiste advise on how they will pay this bill? How does somebody with such a low disposable income make this payment?