Results 1-20 of 22 for 5 million speaker:Richard O'Donoghue

Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Second Stage (Resumed) (17 Apr 2024)

Richard O'Donoghue: ...minimum wage is worth nothing to them. They have got no increase and in fact they have got a decrease because of the cost of living. However, the Government's tax take is going up and up. As for the millions it is taking in, it has no concept of small business. It is one thing for an international business to sustain a small increase but small businesses in communities that are...

Ceapachán an Taoisigh agus Ainmniú Chomhaltaí an Rialtais - Appointment of Taoiseach and Nomination of Members of Government (9 Apr 2024)

Richard O'Donoghue: ...from Cork and a general secretary from County Limerick. It is as if history is repeating itself. As a member of the Limerick Motor Club and a rally person, I am telling the Government that €300 million in investment is being looked for. All the Government has to spend is €5 million a year for a €95 million return. It spent €20 million on two referendums...

Housing and Homeless Prevention: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (23 Jan 2024)

Richard O'Donoghue: ...about the Land Development Agency, LDA. Much of what he was talking about is a crock of bull. I hate to put it that way, but it is. The LDA was set up to deal with infrastructure within 15 minutes of cities. This is what the Government set it up to do. In my area, this brings in Patrickswell, Adare, Croom, Ballyneety and Crecora, which are all about 15 minutes from Limerick city,...

Financial Resolution No.3: Value-Added Tax (22 Feb 2023)

Richard O'Donoghue: If other people who interacted with others while they were speaking had a bit of cop-on, they might have had a bit more time themselves. We are looking at the Minister's budget and he had €5 billion left over from excess taxes after the Government did its accounts this year. There is €5 billion left over and people have increases in their energy costs of up to 300%. The...

Energy Costs and Windfall Taxes: Motion [Private Members] (15 Feb 2023)

Richard O'Donoghue: At the end of the year, the Government's budget showed it had taken €5 billion extra off the people in Ireland in taxes, even though Electric Ireland had €390.3 million in profits. I believe Bord Gáis Energy is expected to have €1 billion extra in its coffers this year than it had in 2021. Yet, representatives from Barnardos are in the audiovisual room in LH2000...

Pre-European Council Meeting: Statements (21 Jun 2022)

Richard O'Donoghue: I commend the European Union on its overall social and financial support for Ukraine. The protection it offered to millions of refugees fleeing the war has made headlines all over the world. Ireland has been very supportive of the refugees. We have opened our doors to them and, if anything can be done in this country, we always wear our heart on our sleeve and we help everyone we can help....

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (21 Jun 2022)

Richard O'Donoghue: ...taxes like they have never been taken before. The Government was given a toolbox by the EU in November but it has done nothing. On 6 April, the EU allowed member states to reduce the VAT rate to 5%. The Government has done nothing. Why does the Government not take a leaf out of Malta's book? Diesel in Malta costs €1.21 per litre today and petrol costs €1.36. We are...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Jun 2022)

Richard O'Donoghue: ...emissions yet we have thousands of cars parked in Dublin. People are travelling up from the country to get cheap flights from Dublin because the Government has allowed that airport expand from 31 million and now they want to go to 40 million. The Government starved every other airport around this country from business by letting a monopoly go in Dublin so they are priced out of the...

Transport, Accelerating Sustainable Mobility: Statements (31 May 2022)

Richard O'Donoghue: Social media is a great thing and if we look at it, we will see that more than 12 months ago I brought up that pre-Covid Dublin Airport had 31 million people going through it; Shannon had 1.8 million, with a capacity of 4.5 million; and Cork had 2.4 million, with a capacity of 5 million. I asked the Government at that time to disperse the traffic, which would have lowered emissions for...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Drug Dealing (29 Mar 2022)

Richard O'Donoghue: Some 596 gardaí were allocated to Limerick. Of those, 92 were superintendents, detectives and sergeants. There are 7,596 uniformed gardaí in the country out of 8,539, if one removes the detectives from that. Will the Minister explain why Dublin, with a population of 1.4 million, takes 44% of the new recruits? When there is a population of more than 5 million in Ireland, that is...

Supplementary Budget for Rural Communities and Farmers: Motion [Private Members] (23 Feb 2022)

Richard O'Donoghue: For the record, of every €17 in fuel, the Government takes €10 in tax. That is a fact. This targets the 1 million people who are now below the poverty line in this country, such as those who are on social welfare, pensioners, the working middle-class and the self-employed. This hits every one of us in our pockets today. The Minister mentioned the pig farmers. If a pig...

National Retrofitting Scheme: Statements (17 Feb 2022)

Richard O'Donoghue: ...brought out the programme, I asked them about the example provided of a three-bed semi-detached house. They told me that it was based on the cost of doing the house last year. They said it would cost €50,000 to carry out a retrofit on a three-bed semi-detached house. They said it would cost the householders €26,500 and they would receive a grant of €23,500....

Appropriation Bill 2021: Second Stage (Resumed) (15 Dec 2021)

Richard O'Donoghue: ...uppers and the downsizers, and social housing and the homeless are paramount for the years ahead. Another wish list would be for accountability in the health system. Ursula von der Leyen earns €351,000 per annum and answers to 447 million people. Paul Reid earns €426,000 per annum and answers to 5 million people. He oversees a broken health system that has not improved...

Rising Costs and Supply Security for Fuel and Energy: Motion [Private Members] (10 Nov 2021)

Richard O'Donoghue: ...services. I have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is no public transport in rural villages and towns. There may be public transport in the larger cities but beyond the areas where the 50 km speed limit applies in the cities, there is very little rural public transport. It cannot work. I want to save my planet but I also want to use a common-sense approach. My car does...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Haulage Industry (4 Nov 2021)

Richard O'Donoghue: Some 1.5 million Irish homes are to be retrofitted with the support of the State through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI. This programme was costed by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, at €8 billion. The SEAI is costing it at €35 billion over 35 years, as per its website, under deep retrofit. A house will burn...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Haulage Industry (4 Nov 2021)

Richard O'Donoghue: ...trucks is made up of 24,000 vehicles responsible for 86% of the movement of goods for the Irish economy to function. It does 1.9 billion km per year, as per CSO figures. This equates to over 5 million km travelled per day and over 1.5 million l of fuel consumed per day. This works out at almost 500 l per truck per week, which supports the statement that a truck burns in one week what a...

Affordable Housing Bill 2021 [Seanad]: Second Stage (Resumed) (24 Jun 2021)

Richard O'Donoghue: ...local merchants to support local. That is what I do. In the most recent contract I did, 92% of the people were local to the area. When big contracts are given to multinational companies, 4% or 5% of the people from the local area and the local merchants get the work. This is the difference between knowing what you are doing and working off Dublin standards. We will look at why we...

Traveller Accommodation: Statements (3 Jun 2021)

Richard O'Donoghue: There is somewhere close to 40,000 people in the Traveller community, making it a significant indigenous ethnic group. Since 1996, its population has grown by 185%. The trajectory is upwards, certainly more so than for the general population, although there have been highs and lows in growth. In Limerick, for instance, the Traveller population has increased by 250% over the past 20 years....

Project Ireland 2040: Motion [Private Members] (1 Apr 2021)

Richard O'Donoghue: ...Plan (NDP) and the National Planning Framework (NPF) are not underpinned by any democratic mandate or vote, by either House of the Oireachtas, as originally promised by the previous Government; — in excess of 560 submissions were made to the recent review of the NDP; — a recent Ernst and Young report has concluded that the delivery of the €116 billion NDP, less than...

Covid-19 (Agriculture, Food and the Marine): Statements (17 Feb 2021)

Richard O'Donoghue: Farmers will pay in the region of €25 million in carbon tax in 2021. However, not one cent of those taxes will go back into the agriculture sector to help reduce emissions. Agriculture sector farmers will pay €80 million a year towards carbon tax. More than 2 million calves will be born in Ireland this year, on top of the 2 million that were born last year. Some 27% of those...