Results 301-320 of 5,034 for speaker:Billy Timmins

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: On PPS numbers, people generally did not have a difficulty in the past giving that information to Government agencies. In fact, in 2012, the Joint Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht recommended that PPS numbers be used as a method of collating information for a body that would be set up in the future to deal with water services. What caused the difficulty in actuality...

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: Deputy Catherine Murphy spoke about PPS numbers in her contribution.

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: The same issue arose in regard to the non-principal private residence tax and gave rise to a great deal of difficulty. It should be a policy of government, irrespective of which parties are in office, that if something is included in a Bill which goes beyond the original remit of that Bill, the Title will be amended to reflect the change. In the case of Irish Water, the manner in which the...

Water Services Bill 2014: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: Even the most partisan Government Member would acknowledge that this has turned into quite a fiasco. I acknowledge that the previous system did not work with 34 local authorities overseeing a system that did not get adequate investment over the years and could not be managed. It is impractical to expect a utility to have so many bodies overseeing it. However, what should have been a good...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Appointment Status (9 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: 352. To ask the Minister for Health the process and wait time in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Wicklow to be added to the pulmonary rehabilitation programme at St. Michael's Hospital, Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47230/14]

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: The Leas-Cheann Comhairle has only one more minute to listen to me.

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: A lot of water will flow under the bridge before Deputy Shane Ross turns down a Cabinet position if he can get himself into such a position. The challenge for all of us on this Bill is to have the public believe any of us. I am not an advocate for the concept of independence per se. It is nice and touchy-feely and many Independent Members make a fantastic contribution here, but from the...

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: I thought members of the Labour Party were utilising Dublinbikes to enable them to weave in and out of traffic.

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: Labour Party and other Government Deputies have tended to travel incognito around Dublin in the past few months.

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: It is not something they should continue doing; they need to show their faces.

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: This is a very important part of the debate.

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: I am always concerned when making a proposal here that some vacuous and cheap editor of a newspaper will interpret it incorrectly. For example, in the homelessness debate that has been taking place for the past few days the most obvious solution to avoid having people sleep rough on the streets is the introduction of legislation to make it illegal to sleep on the streets. Sometimes a...

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: The Deputies will not be calm in a few minutes. In recent times Sinn Féin has put itself in the vanguard of opposition. A couple of days ago its Deputy Leader articulated the names of a number of people against whom allegations had been made. I do not believe this served democracy well. It is important, now that the names are in the public domain, that a mechanism be found to get to...

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: It is important, in the context of the attempts being made to destabilise the Government, that we see what people have to offer. To name people in the House and call for the truth in certain matters in only one aspect of Irish society is not satisfactory. I can understand a Member being disorderly and being asked to leave the Dáil; it has happened to me, as sometimes one believes it is...

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: If, following a vote to suspend a Member of the House, that Member refuses to leave the Chamber, a sanction of suspension from the Chamber for in the region of 83 days should apply.

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: This Chamber was recently closed to 165 Members for half a day because of such activity. Where a Member sees fit to cost other Members the loss of a day or half a day in this Chamber, he or she should be punished for doing so, be it Deputy Mary Lou McDonald, Deputy Billy Timmins, Deputy Peter Mathews and so on.

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: I have no difficulty in speaking harshly about Sinn Féin, but there are other groups represented in the Chamber that also deserve a lash.

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: I listened to my colleague, Deputy Shane Ross, articulate a view on the ineffectiveness of the Chamber in recent times. He also outlined an approach which he and Deputies Finian McGrath, Stephen S. Donnelly and John Halligan proposed to take. I am inclined to disagree with him. Trying to move the flower power of the 1960s into the Dáil Chamber might not necessarily be the most...

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: Recently, on each occasion I have got up to speak, I have looked over and seen the Minister of State at the Department of Social Protection, Deputy Kevin Humphreys, representing the Government. I hope he is not neglecting his constituency.

Water Services Bill 2014: Second Stage (Resumed) (5 Dec 2014)

Billy Timmins: We should not be here today, as we all know. We are here, I suppose, due to the failure of Government to properly plan and implement policy on an issue that should have been a positive message. That failure was due to a complete disregard for this House and, by extension, the Irish people. The Water Services (No. 2) Bill 2013 passed through this House almost a year ago to the day. Deputy...