Results 401-420 of 1,730 for speaker:Colm Keaveney

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: Deputy McGrath voted for increase upon increase to senior civil servants.

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: He tickled Bertie's belly for 15 years. He implemented Fianna Fáil policy, yet he has put his name to a motion calling for the reversal of cuts of which he was the architect. He implemented those cuts over the course of the past 15 years. Shame on him. I respect the good intentions of the United Left Alliance but I query the company they keep, including elements of right-wing...

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: Deputy Pringle should not flatter himself. I do not refer to him in that respect.

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: Deputy Ross refers in the motion only to pensions of public sector workers.

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: The motion makes no reference to the obscene pensions paid in the private sector, where salaries can be capped but multiples of that salary are paid into slush funds and pension funds availing of generous tax reliefs that Deputy McGrath designed.

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: I support the proposal that in the future there would be a situation where one-on-one ratio of bankers' pay to pensions would suffice with regard to remuneration. I would expect the United Left Alliance to support that proposal in the future. Many voices on the right of politics, particularly that of Deputy Ross, are comfortable using the United Left Alliance to attack public service pay...

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: I ask the United Left Alliance to think twice about supporting cuts in the public service. They are the pawns of those on the right wing. They are fools. I know Deputy McGrath's agenda. He tickled the belly of Bertie Ahern for 15 years. For 15 years he was his two-legged bidet and now he has the cheek to come into the House and sign this motion. The right way to address this issue is...

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: Deputy McGrath signed off on a pension of €500,000 for Mr. Richie Boucher. Some of the people who proposed this motion have good intentions, but the measures proposed will not solve anything. Deputy McGrath comes in her week upon week, with Ernie and Bert politics. This is "Sesame Street" for him, but he is the architect of the destruction of a society. He has tickled the belly of...

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: Deputy McGrath's footsteps have gone up and down the corridor, cutting deals at the cost of public service pensions and vulnerable people. He voted for a cut in the minimum wage. He has a cheek to talk about a threshold of decency.

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion [Private Members] (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: Where was decency when he voted with Bertie Ahern and his ilk for cuts in minimum rates of pay? He has more cheek than the backside of a retired jockey. God bless this country. If we put our minds to it and if we were interested in resolving this problem we would refer this matter to an all-party committee, as we did for example when Sinn Féin tabled a motion on oil and gas. We...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: Constitutional Affairs Committee of the European Parliament: Exchange of Views (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: I support the sentiment of this engagement in terms of what it sets out to achieve. It is alarming, however, to see the Greek right wing party Golden Dawn policing the streets of Athens, Greek women prostituting themselves in the cities of Italy to feed their children and German companies preventing the sale of cancer drugs to dying EU citizens in Greece. It is difficult to speak about...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: Constitutional Affairs Committee of the European Parliament: Exchange of Views (6 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: I agree with Deputy Durkan in the sense that it is as a consequence of a previous Government’s ineptitude, fiscal mismanagement and a weakness of democracy in this country that the debts of private banks were socialised into a sovereign debt with a significant amount of arm-twisting from the European institutions who forced this debt onto the shoulders of ordinary Irish people. It is...

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (7 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: Deputy Mattie McGrath rubbed Bertie's belly.

Pensions and Retirement Lump Sums: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (7 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: The Deputy is a monkey grinding away.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Postal Strategy Statement: Discussion with ComReg (7 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: I welcome the delegates from ComReg and thank them for their comprehensive presentation. As Deputy Michael Colreavy pointed out, there are several fundamental issues that must be clarified regarding ComReg's role, activities and mandate. I was taken aback at the letter members of the committee received yesterday advising us - Members of the Oireachtas and legislators - that we are not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Postal Strategy Statement: Discussion with ComReg (7 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: I cannot understand the incomprehensible folly, as I consider it, that Mr. O'Brien took in exposing the State to this liability. He needs to demonstrate here today the objectivity vis-à-vis the core principle of the organisation, which is to ensure a universal postal service provider complies to protect the stability of the universal service provision and to provide regulatory...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Postal Strategy Statement: Discussion with ComReg (7 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: With the permission of the Chair, may I intervene? Will the clerk to the joint committee make a reference to Standing Order 57, as we are giving evidence in a public committee? We are legislators. There is no point in somebody telling a legislator about the Standing Orders of the Houses of the Oireachtas. There is a standing order that provides that in the public interest we can ask any...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Postal Strategy Statement: Discussion with ComReg (7 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: On a point of order.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Postal Strategy Statement: Discussion with ComReg (7 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: I am beginning to understand that ComReg gets its resources and money for current expenditure from a levy on the industry. My point of order is that the Chairman has been given his answer - the industry is paying. ComReg gets its money from three private operators and the public operator. Essentially, the people of this country are paying for this action.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications: Postal Strategy Statement: Discussion with ComReg (7 Nov 2012)

Colm Keaveney: If the quality of engagement which has taken place today is the type of engagement which has taken place with An Post, I would be incredibly concerned by the degree of clarity and accountability. I agree fundamentally that we need to get the Minister in to determine what amendments are required to the legislation to ensure accountability, particularly by people who are hiding behind...