Results 1-20 of 54 for 5 million speaker:Joan Collins

Financial Resolutions 2023 - Financial Resolution No. 4: General (Resumed) (11 Oct 2023)

Joan Collins: ...Ireland, like almost every country in the world, has seen a massive transfer of wealth from the bottom of our society to the top over the past few decades. In Ireland today, two billionaires own 50% more wealth than the bottom half of this country's population. We should think on this and absorb it. This is not an accident but is a political decision made by successive governments to...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Job Losses (22 Jun 2023)

Joan Collins: Since the retailer Iceland in February sold its 27 stores to Project Point Technologies, a company directed by Naeem Maniar and with an address at 5 Old Dublin Road, Stillorgan, County Dublin, the workers in Iceland have experienced wage theft and deplorable conditions. As Deputy Cian O'Callaghan stated, the temperature in some stores was very high. The matter was raised in the Chamber a...

Home Ownership: Motion [Private Members] (31 May 2023)

Joan Collins: ...of public housing. We had no money but we did it, and we can do it again. What is lacking is the political will to do so. The idea that the Government is now building the most public houses since 1975 is a joke. Putting aside the fact that Dr. Rory Hearne’s figures showed that only about 3,000 homes were planned and delivered by a local authority or an approved housing body last...

Department Underspend and Reduced Delivery of Affordable Housing: Motion [Private Members] (18 Apr 2023)

Joan Collins: ...alternative housing for them to fall back on. The RTB stated that it received 9,000 active notices to quit due to the lifting of the eviction ban. The estate agents, Sherry Fitzgerald, estimate 15,000 tenancies this year will be lost. The councils admit they have little or no emergency accommodation places left. The Simon Community and other NGOs say their services are already...

Council Development Levies: Motion [Private Members] (1 Feb 2023)

Joan Collins: ...any chance of dealing with this crisis, thousands of houses a year would need to be built in the State over the coming decades. It has been reported that the Housing Commission has estimated that between 42,000 and 62,000 new housing units will need be built per year until 2050. There is a clear need for those houses to be built. There is a deep need for homes in this country but there...

Capacity in the Health Services: Motion [Private Members] (18 Jan 2023)

Joan Collins: ...of beds in our health service over the past three decades. In 1981, we had 19,000 hospital beds. In 2022, we had 12,000 hospital beds. This is in a period where our population has grown by 1 million and got older. Experts suggest that the lack of timely access to healthcare in the country could be responsible for more than 300 unneeded deaths every year. This is simply not...

Social Welfare Bill 2022: Second Stage (Resumed) (23 Nov 2022)

Joan Collins: ...is still time to fix the problem and raise core social protection incomes by at least €20 in the Social Welfare Bill 2022, rather than by €12 as announced on budget day. This would cost an additional €600 million at a time when tax revenue is buoyant from multiple sources, not just corporation tax. For older people the loss of spending power makes all the difference...

Emergency Budget: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (28 Jun 2022)

Joan Collins: ...are under. I have to ask what the problem is with an emergency budget. We are not in a crisis with the State's finances, as noted in the motion. The Government is set to take in an extra €5.6 billion this year over what was expected in the budget last October. The Government can afford to act and act now. As also noted in the motion, there are factors in this crisis...

Rising Food Prices: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (31 May 2022)

Joan Collins: .... She said she has been really impacted by the rise in the cost of her shop. She made the point that a pack of toilet roll that was €2.90 up to a couple of weeks ago has now gone up to €5.20. Another young woman and her husband work in the hospitality sector and are low-paid workers. They have four children and she said her weekly shop has gone up from between €100...

Subsidies for Developers: Motion [Private Members] (18 May 2022)

Joan Collins: ...it legally to ensure maximum profits. The site is a prime public city-centre site of 12 acres. Councillors gave it to a developer, committed to subsidising the infrastructure to the tune of €10 million and waived development levies of €5 million. That is free land and €15 million. In exchange, Dublin City Council will buy 30% of the homes for public housing, 20%...

Electricity Costs (Domestic Electricity Accounts) Emergency Measures Bill 2022: Second Stage (3 Feb 2022)

Joan Collins: ...sharp increase in the cost of living. The people who will be most affected by this cost of living crisis will be the 630,000 people living below the poverty line which, scandalously, includes 165,000 children and low-paid workers. These are the individuals and families faced with the stark choice to eat or heat. The Government must respond with much more than €113 off our...

National Ambulance Service: Motion [Private Members] (16 Nov 2021)

Joan Collins: ..., including low pay, poor management and low morale among staff. The figures relating to the National Ambulance Service in the 2018 national staff survey by the HSE are quite shocking. Only 5% of staff felt that senior management acted on staff concerns; only 5% felt that communication was effective; only 6% had confidence in decisions made by senior management; and shockingly seven...

Financial Resolutions 2021 - Budget Statement 2022 (12 Oct 2021)

Joan Collins: ...old age pension. Age Action Ireland has shown that when inflation is taken into account, the real value of the State pension has fallen by more than €10 per week in the past year. That is €542 in a year. To lose that much money is a considerable drop in income. Age Action's pre-budget submission called for a €15 increase to offset the exasperating rise in prices,...

Confidence in Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence: Motion (15 Sep 2021)

Joan Collins: ...housing policies up to 2017 that have failed the people of Ireland. I have no confidence in the Government's delivery of health services. There is an ongoing crisis in health provision, with 1 million people out of a population of 5 million on waiting lists, many of them for more than 18 months. I have no confidence whatsoever in the Government's credibility in delivering...

Finance Bill 2020: Second Stage (4 Nov 2020)

Joan Collins: I welcome the restoration of the full PUP to €350 a week and the restoration of the wage supplement. This should have been included in the budget but as I noted during the budget debate, it was inevitable that we would move to stricter restrictions very soon. The proposal to tax the PUP is mean, miserly and unnecessary. The last thing workers who have been laid off and whose incomes...

Debenhams Ireland Redundancies: Motion [Private Members] (22 Jul 2020)

Joan Collins: ...made clear points about what was going on in this case. On 14 May, when they spoke to the liquidator, KPMG claimed that debts to creditors, including the Revenue Commissioners, amounted to €19 million. Of this, €5 million was owed to Revenue, predominantly in the form of VAT. At this meeting, it was also confirmed that the value of the retail stock held in the 11 Irish...

Vote 38 - Health (Revised) (30 Jun 2020)

Joan Collins: ...scrutinise the Estimate, which is understandable but regrettable. The format it has been issued in makes it very difficult to read. We are really voting on the macro moneys and the broad figures of €115 million per month for taking over the private hospitals, paying the rent, testing and tracking and personal protective equipment critical to respond to Covid-19. I want to try to...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (19 Nov 2019)

Joan Collins: ...suitable for up to 800 housing units, has been left derelict for more than ten years. The original public private partnership, PPP, project collapsed when the developer realised that the €100 million in anticipated profit would not be guaranteed given the collapse in house prices after the 2008 crash. The PPP model failed because it was based on the premise of massive profits...

Living Wage: Motion [Private Members] (15 Oct 2019)

Joan Collins: ...implementation date. I put it to the Minister of State that the public are not saying that. Rather, they are saying the Government has given breaks to chief executives of multinationals of €28 million in tax foregone. They are saying that the very people who are making this decision have just pocketed a wage increase one month ago. During the past two years, there have been...

Financial Resolutions 2019 - Financial Resolution No. 9: General (Resumed) (9 Oct 2019)

Joan Collins: I withdraw. In his speech yesterday, the Minister for Finance mentioned Brexit more than 30 times. He initiated a hard-Brexit fund of €1.5 billion to €2 billion, if required. Of course, it will be necessary in the case of a hard Brexit for the Government to try to alleviate the worst effects on the economy, people's jobs and livelihoods, but there is no plan set out to help...