Results 16,221-16,240 of 27,945 for speaker:Michael McGrath
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: -----he is sending out a very negative signal. It is a statement by Government of a distinct lack of confidence in the credit union movement. At a time when we need a counterpoint to the power of the banks-----
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: -----he is diminishing and undermining the role of credit unions in local communities throughout this country. He is not allowing them to hold savings in excess of €100,000, to lend the money or to deal with the additional burden off regulation they face. The Minister should talk to them. He is shaking his head. I am sure the credit unions in Limerick are no different from the...
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: That is why they turned out in their droves when we dedicated Private Members' time to that issue.
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: The Government wants people to take this budget in isolation. It wants people to forget what has happened in the last four and half years, to forget the way the vulnerable have been targeted, to forget all the broken promises-----
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: -----and to forget the divisions in society that this Government has created but it will not work. People know the recovery has been hard won.
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: They know we still face great sacrifices-----
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: -----and that uncertainties remain. They want the Government's priorities to reflect their priorities. They want fairness and decency at the heart of everything their Government does. The people will soon have their opportunity to pass their judgment.
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: Universal health insurance was to be the landmark reform of the Government. It was to provide equal access to the health service for all citizens, irrespective of their means. It too has been abandoned; it must lie on a waiting list somewhere. The proceeds from a local property tax were to be used to improve local communities. Instead-----
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: -----the Government cut funding to councils and used the local property tax proceeds to set up a bloated super-quango in Irish Water and that is the truth. In opposition, Fine Gael and the Labour Party cynically opposed every measure introduced by Brian Lenihan to put the economy back on track-----
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: -----and then went on to implement his national recovery plan and better still, to claim credit for it. They told us they would burn the bondholders but all the Government did was to burn their election promises. The Government told Members it had secured a game-changer of a deal on bank debt but it turned out to be little more than hype. The deal on bank debt never materialised. Fine...
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: The Government stated it would breathe new life into rural Ireland but instead, it attacked every pillar on which it is built.
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: The centrepiece of this budget is the package put forward by the Minister, Deputy Noonan, on the universal social charge, USC. I acknowledge the USC is a very heavy burden on Irish taxpayers introduced at the worst of times.
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: Fianna Fáil agrees the burden of USC should be lessened.
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: However, when one considers the impact of this tax package today on different families, one simply must put it alongside the Government's introduction of a series of taxes and charges that take no account of ability to pay. From the local property tax to water charges, from increased public transport fares to the fivefold increase in prescription charges, the Government consistently has had...
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: Yet again, where one parent stays at home to mind children, the gain will be far less. The Minister has thrown a sop to them with an increase in the home carers tax credit, which incidentally is only claimed by 83,000 people. Many people are not even aware of the existence of this credit and that is a job the Minister must do. A two-income couple earning €70,000 per year or more...
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: The Minister will make the point, as he often has, that people who pay more tax will benefit more from tax cuts and while such people do pay more tax, if the Minister really seeks to make work pay, then people who earn €20,000, €30,000 or €40,000 really need his help. He must use all the tools at the disposal of the Government collectively to deal with that issue because...
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: This is €1.5 billion of Supplementary Estimates between now and the end of the year.
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: Members do not know how much of that money already has been spent, how much of that €1.5 billion has yet to be spent between now and Christmas or precisely how it will be spent. In the interests of transparency and accountability, all these facts should be in the public domain and should have been put up front and centre in the budget today.
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: On the spending side, one of the Minister's main points today was the increase of €3 in the old age pension and the partial restoration of the Christmas bonus. I do not believe the Minister is naive enough to think pensioners will be fooled by what he has announced here today because they remember well what the Government has done to them in recent years.
- Financial Resolutions 2016 - Budget Statement 2016 (13 Oct 2015)
Michael McGrath: The Government cut the fuel allowance by six weeks.