Results 101-120 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (4 Dec 2019)

Joan Burton: If the Chair listened-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Fiscal Assessment Report: Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (4 Dec 2019)

Joan Burton: I have asked about it.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Staff Data (3 Dec 2019)

Joan Burton: The new European Commission has been sworn in. We note that one of the Government's own Deputies is taking up a job with it despite serious questions over his use of fobbing in the House and whether the Taoiseach is standing over his appointment as an employee of a member of the Commission. Dr. von der Leyen has stated that her Commission is going to pursue an agenda of change,...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Staff Data (3 Dec 2019)

Joan Burton: 7. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of the EU and Northern Ireland division of his Department. [48843/19]

Ceisteanna - Questions: Biotechnology Industry (3 Dec 2019)

Joan Burton: The constituency I share with the Taoiseach has seen the investment of billions of euro in plants in the Dublin 15 area which manufacture biological drugs. They are at the cutting edge of modern medical treatments which are particularly important for children with rare conditions and diseases. Regarding the bioeconomy, we know clean air is critical to the wellness of both adults and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)

Joan Burton: Does the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform have a chart or an estimate of exactly how much extra money the Department of Health got between last year’s and this year’s budget process, as well as the additional allocations during the year? We ended up this year with Supplementary Estimates where an additional €400 million was given to the Department of Health....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)

Joan Burton: Does Mr. Watt meet the Taoiseach regularly, face to face, to discuss some of these issues which are regularly debated by people up and down the country? Does the Taoiseach get the message that such an issue is a problem but we have it solved or we are working on it but we are not yet sure of the answer?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)

Joan Burton: And the Coombe.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)

Joan Burton: We have seen with the children's hospital low-ball estimates that have then climbed enormously. In some jurisdictions there would be an immediate query as to why one moved from estimates, which start off sounding reasonable, and then climbed dramatically. I do realise that situations can change. However, we have crisis after crisis in the health service yet we have an escalating health...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)

Joan Burton: The challenge is a very simple one. Notwithstanding all of the good work that is going on in different parts of the health service, which everybody here would acknowledge, the problem is that there appears to be a budgeting system that is subject to regular massive overspends. My understanding is that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is a Department that addresses the issue...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)

Joan Burton: What about the Vatican? Has there been a discussion? Has Mr. Watt and the Taoiseach discussed the Vatican and its role? The function of Mr. Watt is to be both a leader and a problem solver for other Departments and it is a function that he has carried out extremely well. I have listed some examples and I am sure everybody here could list four or five other examples. I shall not even...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)

Joan Burton: Is somebody up there not listening?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Matters relating to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform: Discussion (3 Dec 2019)

Joan Burton: Is the Government consciously ignoring the advice?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Impact of Brexit on Ireland's Economy: Economic and Social Research Institute (28 Nov 2019)

Joan Burton: The ESRI's budget assessment was that the budget was regressive and significantly likely to adversely affect people on low incomes and social welfare recipients. I note in this paper the ESRI expects the impact of a more difficult Brexit to be borne more significantly by people on lower incomes than any other category in Ireland. Does this mean that our guests anticipate that, unless there...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Impact of Brexit on Ireland's Economy: Economic and Social Research Institute (28 Nov 2019)

Joan Burton: The ESRI referenced the fact that for people on modest incomes, the forecast increase in wages was likely to be 2% to 3% but it was closer to 3%. It noted that if tax bands, allowances and so on for people, particularly on lower incomes, had not increased, that would have been a tax hike on people on lower pay.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Impact of Brexit on Ireland's Economy: Economic and Social Research Institute (28 Nov 2019)

Joan Burton: The ESRI has a figure here for €892 and €1,360 as the likely cost to poorer households. When one adds that to the budgetary impacts in terms of welfare and of no indexing of tax allowances and no indexing in any way of welfare allowances, both impacts are not too far away from each other, so it is a fairly big combined hit to poorer households.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Impact of Brexit on Ireland's Economy: Economic and Social Research Institute (28 Nov 2019)

Joan Burton: Coming back to earlier comments, which I do not think anybody could contest, about there still being physical checks on the border between the EU and Turkey and about Switzerland and Norway, Turkey is in the customs union while Switzerland and Norway are in the Single Market. It was just said that it is going to be difficult to have an exit of the UK from the customs union and Single Market...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Impact of Brexit on Ireland's Economy: Economic and Social Research Institute (28 Nov 2019)

Joan Burton: We have experience of this in terms of our economic history. Let us say one is in business in Sligo and one is extremely law-abiding, but there may be other operators and businesses in the town that are less picky. What happens along the Border region is that the businesses that would like to be law-abiding are simply undercut to a very significant degree by the businesses that might not be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Impact of Brexit on Ireland's Economy: Economic and Social Research Institute (28 Nov 2019)

Joan Burton: There have been frequent references in the current UK Prime Minister's speeches, both when he was elected Prime Minister and subsequently, about the development of a string of what are called freeports in the UK, and there have been three locations spoken about in the North, namely, Derry, Belfast and Larne. Does the ESRI have any experience of how this kind of freeport arrangement would be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Impact of Brexit on Ireland's Economy: Economic and Social Research Institute (28 Nov 2019)

Joan Burton: I turn to labour standards. We have a minimum wage and there is something of a movement to the introduction of a living wage, for which we have structures. Is Dr. Lawless concerned that that could be put under great pressure by the type of Brexit deal that has been discussed? Some of the more recent discussions have been associated with a race to the bottom in respect of labour standards...