Results 19,401-19,420 of 21,260 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald
- Order of Business (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: While I understand a recess is necessary, not least for family reasons, a long recess will coincide with this issue and, if I might say, with any prospective deal we are told the Government has on the promissory note. I do not know about the Minister, but I do not believe this should be announced at a Fine Gael Ard-Fheis. It would be more appropriate for such an announcement to be made in...
- Order of Business (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: Not to you perhaps.
- Order of Business (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: Yesterday, the State, under emergency legislation to recapitalise Permanent TSB, purchased Irish Life for â¬1.3 billion, which is approximately eight times the amount it expects to raise from the household charge and almost half the amount it expects to gain through the sale of State assets.
- Order of Business (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: At what point does the Minister for Finance propose to debate this matter in the Dáil? Such decisions should in future be debated in this House prior to billions of euros of taxpayers' money being ploughed into the banks.
- Order of Business (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: The acquisition of Irish Life was not.
- Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund): Motion (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: The Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, may find it interesting that when the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, released the Revised Estimates for 2012 he made several points that were positive. For example, he stated: Today my Department is publishing an unprecedented amount of information about what exactly Departments have achieved, and what they are aiming to...
- Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund): Motion (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: We need an answer as to why that was the case. It is clear to all of us sitting in this large Chamber that this is not the appropriate forum to have this discussion with set piece interventions and so on.
- Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund): Motion (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: A multi-annual budgeting framework is entirely sensible and is exactly how we should do our business. It is also entirely reasonable that from year to year there would be a level of capital carryover. The last thing we want to do is to encourage what can be a damaging culture in any Department or organisation of spend it or lose it by year end. We know this gave rise to some bad practices...
- Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund): Motion (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: It is coincidental then. I wanted more information than was given in the Minister of State's script. It would be helpful, for example, if for the â¬26.9 million under the heading for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine it was shown what percentage this figure represented of the original capital budget. Agriculture, agrifood and the rural economy are critical to our economic...
- Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund): Motion (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: I understand. We need to know the purpose to which the â¬27 million will be put. Defence is to take a further â¬500,000 in respect of buildings. The Government has closed barracks across the State. How did this underspend occur? What, in the name of all that is rational, is this about at a time when, instead of ensuring the upkeep of buildings, they are being vacated by Army personnel?...
- Finance Act 2004 (Section 91) (Deferred Surrender to the Central Fund): Motion (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: I will conclude my sentence. The Chief Whip is present. Given the fact that 31 March is like the charge's D-Day, perhaps the Government could accept Sinn Féin's Bill to repeal the charge. Unless the Government can tell the House exactly where the â¬114 million will be spent and why it was not spent originally, let us carry it over to write off the household charge. How is that for...
- Leaders' Questions (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: The Minister's colleague, Deputy Joan Burton, has called on the Government to review contact with Mr. Denis O'Brien. The Minister of State, Deputy Lucinda Creighton, shares those concerns. She was critical of his attendance at the global Irish economic forum last October. It seems the Taoiseach takes a different view, beaming as he was in a photograph with that individual. I ask the...
- Leaders' Questions (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: The answer is not clear.
- Leaders' Questions (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: The Minister said there should be consequences for people against whom adverse findings have been made and that the Government must take a decision. What is that decision? After a week debating the Mahon report, the Government seems ambivalent, confused or maybe compromised about its position on genuine consequences and genuine reform. What is the Government view of contact with Mr....
- Leaders' Questions (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: -----which is further evidence of ambivalence-----
- Leaders' Questions (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: What is the position of Government in respect of Mr. Denis O'Brien?
- Leaders' Questions (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: It is a straightforward question.
- Order of Business (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: It is not agreed. This matter refers to a capital carry-over of â¬114 million. As the Minister is aware, this matter was to go to the sub-committee on public expenditure and reform. I have no idea why proper procedure has not been followed in this instance. It is a considerable sum of money. It needs proper scrutiny by the Dáil and that should happen in committee.
- Order of Business (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: I am not satisfied with that response. The matter going to committee does not prevent it coming back to the Dáil.
- Order of Business (29 Mar 2012)
Mary Lou McDonald: The Government is not following proper procedures on this matter.