Results 61-80 of 13,375 for speaker:Pat Rabbitte

Finance Bill 2015: Report Stage (24 Nov 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: I welcome Deputy Paul Murphy's announcement that he is paying his local taxes.

Finance Bill 2015: Report Stage (24 Nov 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: It is very important in my constituency in view of the fact that, after the protests about the bin charges, they left the residents with huge bills and moved on to the next protest.

Finance Bill 2015: Report Stage (24 Nov 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: We can talk all we like about €600 billion in oil revenues. The problem is, we have not found any oil. I thank the Minister for giving expression in legislation to the new regime, which will last for a decade and will give certainty to the industry. It will also ensure there is a return to the State on a field-by-field basis. A company will not be able to drill in offshore Ireland...

Finance Bill 2015: Report Stage (24 Nov 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: I did not say either of those things.

Finance Bill 2015: Report Stage (24 Nov 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: -----who were, as Deputy McGrath has observed, were unable to get credit. The Government has announced its house-building programme. There are going to be tens of thousands, literally-----

Finance Bill 2015: Report Stage (24 Nov 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: -----of construction workers employed over the next two years in this economy. The €3.8 billion announced for social housing provision, I repeat, is the largest allocation since the 1970s.

Finance Bill 2015: Report Stage (24 Nov 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: That is the fact of the matter. If Deputy Boyd Barrett is supporting this amendment, he has a very funny way of demonstrating it. If, like Deputy Boyd Barrett, his colleague in the other splinter group and Deputy Pearse Doherty in Sinn Féin, one has invested everything in things getting worse and in generating more misery in order to get more votes-----

Finance Bill 2015: Report Stage (24 Nov 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: That is one approach to politics.

Finance Bill 2015: Report Stage (24 Nov 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: Sinn Féin has done well from austerity; that is true. Unfortunately for Sinn Féin, the game has changed. Austerity is no longer the central issue in Irish politics. It is now about people getting back to work and looking for accommodation. The Deputy is right: we have a supply-side issue, but that is going to take some time to deal with. I do not know what the Minister for...

Finance Bill 2015: Report Stage (24 Nov 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: It is difficult, when language loses its meaning, to have a reasonable debate. There is no point in Deputy Pearse Doherty taking four different periods in history and asking us to look at housing output during those years compared with the period between 2011 and now. Where, in 2011, was the Government supposed to source money to build houses? Where, in 2011, was the Government supposed to...

Finance Bill 2015: Report Stage (24 Nov 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: It is always a bit of a fillip when somebody so manifestly enjoys his or her work. As I watch Deputy Boyd Barrett, he is like Willy Wonka in the chocolate factory because he is so delighted that every day he has a new target.

Finance Bill 2015: Report Stage (24 Nov 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: Having spent some 30 years on the back of a tar barrel in some corner of Dún Laoghaire raving and ranting, he cannot believe he has the Minister for Finance in his sights. He goes on and on and lectures us. He has things the wrong way around. This is a modest measure, designed to alleviate and make a contribution to solving our current problems. He is correct in that in the previous...

Finance Bill 2015: Report Stage (24 Nov 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: -----due to changing demographics, including the revival in the economy. There is an acute housing shortage in some urban areas. Despite what Deputy Boyd Barrett would like the House to believe, one cannot go to Tesco and buy a housing estate off the shelf. It takes some time to build housing. In the interim, this is a modest measure designed to make a contribution. It is entirely...

Finance Bill 2015: Report Stage (24 Nov 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: It is an accurate phrase. It will take some time to develop building output. In the interim, one does what one can. I do not think any economists in Ireland, including the small number who agree with Deputy Boyd Barrett's analysis, dispute the fact that if the Government's response was to raise the rent supplement cap, as advocated by the Deputy, it would be absorbed in the pricing...

Written Answers — Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Internet Safety (17 Nov 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: 596. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the progress to date on the implementation of the recommendations in the O'Neill report on Internet content governance; if legislation will be necessary in respect of some of the recommendations; if work has commenced on such legislation; if any interdepartmental group is in place to address these issues, given the...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Drug and Alcohol Task Forces (10 Nov 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: 382. To ask the Minister for Health if funding for the permanent position of co-ordinator for the Tallaght drugs and alcohol task force will be reinstated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39130/15]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services Provision (10 Nov 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: 422. To ask the Minister for Health his views on the services and clinics available to assist persons born with, and persons with, the condition known as neurofibromatosis type 1 (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39361/15]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Proceeds of Sale of Aer Lingus: Motion (7 Oct 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: On one point, I welcome this imaginative use of the money from the minority stake. In European terms, connectivity has a definite and modern meaning, that is, a broadband connection. However, it would be a pity if this fund was to be constrained in its definition of connectivity. Where the commercial sector cannot provide a broadband service, the State must intervene, but DG Competition...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Macroeconomic Forecast for 2016: Department of Finance (6 Oct 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: I have a final question, Chairman. Would the officials in Merrion Street be sleeping easier if inflation was slightly more than Mr. McCarthy would project?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Macroeconomic Forecast for 2016: Department of Finance (6 Oct 2015)

Pat Rabbitte: I thank Mr. McCarthy.