Results 1,781-1,800 of 2,118 for speaker:Michael Mullins

Seanad: Finance Bill 2012 (Certified Money Bill): Committee and Remaining Stages (22 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: Recommendations Nos. 14 to 16, inclusive, are out of order. Recommendations Nos. 14 to 16, inclusive, not moved.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2012 (Certified Money Bill): Committee and Remaining Stages (22 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: Recommendation No. 17 is out of order.

Seanad: Programme for Government: Motion (21 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: I welcome the Minister who gave a frank and honest assessment of the Government's performance and the start we have made. I do not believe people feel let down. The recent opinion polls published indicated that the support for both Fine Gael and Labour is holding strong because people voted for change and for a Government to come in and resolve the awful mess it inherited. I will not be a...

Seanad: Programme for Government: Motion (21 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: I am getting worried that Senator White's memory is not as good as it should be because she is being very selective in what she remembers. We all remember that this Government inherited a country on the brink of bankruptcy. The IMF had arrived in the country a few short weeks earlier. Senior Ministers in the previous Government were saying that the IMF was not coming here when its...

Seanad: Programme for Government: Motion (21 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: I was not in the tent.

Seanad: Programme for Government: Motion (21 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: We all heard about the boom getting boomier. We had no cohesion whatsoever in government and had divided factions. The best talent in government was left on the backbenches. Some former Deputies are now in the Seanad. One can contrast that with what has happened in the past 12 months. The Taoiseach and Tánaiste put in place a strong team of Ministers and Ministers of State. We have...

Seanad: Programme for Government: Motion (21 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: They have set about, in a very businesslike manner, repairing the image of the country. We can see and have heard in recent times about the huge interest in investing in Ireland. We need every bob we can get.

Seanad: Programme for Government: Motion (21 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: When did the building bust happen? There are 435,000 people unemployed. We need investment and every Department in government functioning and working towards the jobs initiative that was recently rolled out by the Minister, Deputy Bruton. All 15 Government Departments need to work in a coherent fashion. The Government has set about renegotiating the bailout programme and has succeeded in...

Seanad: Programme for Government: Motion (21 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: The Government was rudderless, a situation I hope we will not see again. We now have an extremely strong Government which, as somebody said, is almost a national Government. I hope, collectively, all Members of the Oireachtas will work towards the betterment of the country. We have a long way to go but we have made a good start. Tús maith, leath na hoibre. I commend the start the...

Seanad: Programme for Government: Motion (21 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: The Senator should be careful what he wishes for.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2012: Second Stage (21 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, to the House. I am happy to support this Finance Bill on the basis that it delivers on a number of commitments made by the Government on taking up office, one of which was to increase mortgage interest relief to 30% for first time buyers who purchased during the period 2004-08. Some 270,000 people have benefitted from this change. I also...

Seanad: Finance Bill 2012: Second Stage (21 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: I welcome all of our visitors to the House. They are very welcome.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2012: Second Stage (21 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: I join the Senator in welcoming the Minister. I have no doubt he did a good job for the country in recent days. I invite him to reply to the debate.

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: I support Senator Whelan in his remarks about the outrageous remuneration package of the chief executive officer of the Bank of Ireland. It is incumbent on all of us to investigate and examine the packages being paid to all higher-paid civil servants, heads of the semi-State bodies and heads of the banking organisations.

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: The special advisers and any of the top earners who are being paid from the public purse. We must ask where are the salary caps about which we hear so much. Why is a person heading up an organisation that has cost this country so dearly being paid four times as much as the Taoiseach? Many people in this country would think that gentleman is not doing as good a job as the Taoiseach is even...

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: These are all legitimate questions and might provide the basis for a good, useful and constructive debate in the House. I ask the Leader to take that on board.

Seanad: Finance Bill 2012: Second Stage (21 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: I call Senator Zappone and she has eight minutes.

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: I remind Senator White that the Leader gave us an undertaking recently that the Taoiseach will come to the Seanad in the near future to address Members and deal with some of the issues that have been mentioned.

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: I join my colleagues in extending good wishes for St. Patrick's Day to all our people at home and, particularly, to the Irish diaspora throughout the world. I hope our Ministers will enjoy a successful few days abroad as they promote business and tourism in this country. A significant launch by the Taoiseach is linked to that. Yesterday, a significant initiative which is linked to that was...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) (Political Funding) Bill 2011: Report and Final Stages (15 Mar 2012)

Michael Mullins: I like the idea of 40% of candidates being women, but Senator Ivana Bacik has come up with a very good compromise by suggesting we reduce the timescale within which we arrive at the 40% figure. The real challenge for women, as Senator Cáit Keane pointed out, is to have the female candidates who stand for election in the coming years elected. We know how most of the party organisations are...