Results 1,601-1,620 of 19,445 for speaker:Brian Cowen

Adjournment Debate Matters (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: The fundamental parameters of the budget for 2010, as set out by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, in December 2009, are being broadly respected. Expenditures are in line and are underneath projected targets. Total taxation, while slightly down, is only down by 2% overall on the income tax side. We are seeing a deficit, for which we budgeted, of approximately 11.5% last year...

Adjournment Debate Matters (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: We should just deal with the facts. The decisions we took resulted in €4 billion being taken out of the economy last year - they were opposed by the Opposition - and have brought us from a position of contraction in the economy of more than 10% of GNP in 2009 to stabilisation this year of 0% and very little growth, if any. The whole purpose of further consolidation is to bring the public...

Adjournment Debate Matters (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: This has brought about a situation of stabilisation. We also have to contend with the increased costs in the banks. The Deputy asked about the figures. The establishment of the National Asset Management Agency enabled every loan to be valued and examined, loan by loan-----

Adjournment Debate Matters (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: I remind the Deputy it was opposed by some in the House. NAMA was the mechanism by which one could obtain a credible outcome to the valuation of those distressed assets in the property and construction portfolios of the banks. The establishment of NAMA and the credibility established by the Financial Regulator and by the Central Bank-----

Adjournment Debate Matters (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: -----in addition to the reforms we have introduced and which have been implemented here in the House by way of statutory changes, etc., have provided the ability to deal with that issue in that way. This represents about 10% of the debt repayment that will be involved next year. However, that is not the only source of our problem. The real source of our problem, with which we have been...

Adjournment Debate Matters (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: The answer is twofold. Deputy Gilmore omitted the other issue over the course of the year. It was not simply about whether the growth rate was 0%, 0.5% or -0.5% or whether the current budget deficit was 11.9%, 11.5% or 11%. There was also the banking issue, which provided a spike in our current budget deficit for this year. Given what we had to provide for in that regard, the increase in...

Adjournment Debate Matters (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: We are proposing closing off that gap over time in a way that will convince. The main Opposition parties have also indicated that we will stand over our commitment as members of the eurozone to get the deficit down to 3% by 2014.

Adjournment Debate Matters (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: I do not want to say anything that is negative in respect of a discussion where we try to build consensus. I understand that during Leaders' Questions, people have the opportunity to get into a rhetorical flow but I will answer the points raised by Deputy Gilmore. We faced a crisis in this country in 2008 and the banking guarantee was the means by which we maintained a semblance of a...

Adjournment Debate Matters (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: Leaving that behind and moving to the budgetary issue, as late as last week there was a suggestion from Deputy Gilmore that he felt it was possible to meet the requirements of the situation while protecting major areas of expenditure in all and every circumstance. I am sure he sincerely believed this. All of us are having to contemplate areas of policy change which we would not wish to do...

Adjournment Debate Matters (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: That is a fact.

Adjournment Debate Matters (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: It is a fact. It might be a surprising fact, but it is a fact.

Adjournment Debate Matters (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: The real issue for Deputy Gilmore and for us all is that despite comments to the contrary the policies we have been pursuing in the face of this crisis have been necessary to stabilise the economy. Of course it does not meet with popular acclaim, since it involves reductions in expenditure, some increases in taxation but also promoting as much growth as we can in the economy and stopping the...

Adjournment Debate Matters (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: -----but because they are necessary. Sovereign debt and all such issues have come into play in terms of how deficits are to be funded. The cost of funding those deficits has changed in recent years, even in the past six months compared to the previous situation.

Adjournment Debate Matters (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: The projections are precisely that, projections set out based on knowledge of the time.

Adjournment Debate Matters (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: Of the time. Those decisions are not assumptions drawn up off the top of people's heads. They are assumptions which are drawn up based on whatever the commentary is at the time in respect of economic forecasting. The reality is that we are in a situation that has been moving and changing consistently and considerably. That is true. We have been able to maintain a position where the...

Adjournment Debate Matters (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: -----is by making sure that we can confirm to those who are funding our deficits that we are prepared to pare back the gap between spending and taxation over a reasonable period in a way in which our debt dynamics do not continue to rise, which would be the case were one to prolong the situation beyond 2014. I understand and respect the arguments people put in that regard, but having...

Adjournment Debate Matters (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: Those are the current realities. What we must do is calmly, intelligently and to the greatest extent we can ascertain what measure of agreement there is among the parties.

Adjournment Debate Matters (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: I am not asking the Opposition not to oppose. I am not asking the Government not to govern. We all have respective duties to discharge in this House. We will bring forward our proposals on the basis of what we think is in the best interests of this country-----

Adjournment Debate Matters (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: -----in the circumstances in which we find ourselves for the purposes of making sure that this country can make progress again.

Order of Business (19 Oct 2010)

Brian Cowen: It is proposed to take No. 9, motion re proposed approval by Dáil Éireann for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the right to information in criminal proceedings, back from committee; and No. 3, the Chemicals (Amendment) Bill 2010 - Order for Second Stage and Second Stage. It is proposed, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, that No. 9 shall be decided...