Results 21-40 of 71 for 5 million speaker:Mattie McGrath

Forestry Sector: Motion [Private Members] (1 Oct 2019)

Mattie McGrath: ..., yet it does not receive a fraction of the attention it deserves at Government level. I know that the Minister of State knows that the area of forest cover in the State is estimated to be 731,650 ha, or 10.5% of the total land area of Ireland. That alone speaks to the enormous importance of the sector, not to mention the employment of well over 10,000 people, generating €2.2...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (9 May 2019)

Mattie McGrath: ...of rural Ireland as we have been privileged to know it. According to the report from the European Court of Auditors, the first problem is the large reduction in the number of farms. In 2005, there were 14.7 million farms in the European Union. The latest available data put the number at approximately 10 million. Almost 5 million farms have disappeared in the intervening period....

Courts (Establishment and Constitution) (Amendment) Bill 2019: Second Stage (10 Apr 2019)

Mattie McGrath: ...spin that was being peddled regarding the impact that the Court of Appeal would have on addressing the backlog of cases. Spin is all it was. The Government did not have a spin machine worth €5 million at that time worth, but it was going to spend money at the same time. It was spin and nothing short of it. At the time, the idea of a new court was being sold to the people. It...

Finance Bill 2018: Second Stage (Resumed) (23 Oct 2018)

Mattie McGrath: I am pleased to speak on this Bill which seeks to give effect to the taxation changes announced on budget day. The Bill also provides for the budget day announcements of a reduction to 4.5% in the 4.75% rate of universal social charge, USC, and an increase in the ceiling at which the 2% rate of USC is payable. We know from the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, that income tax,...

Nomination of Member of the Government: Motion (16 Oct 2018)

Mattie McGrath: ...the Taoiseach is more interested in "opinion polls than telecoms poles" and in "optics than fibre optics". That has been the problem with this Government since its inception. We know about the €5 million that was spent on spin. The dysfunctional nature of this Government was on full display in October 2016, when a row about judicial appointments broke out between Fine Gael and...

Financial Resolutions 2019 - Budget Statement 2019 (9 Oct 2018)

Mattie McGrath: ...sufficient income, access to the services they need and active inclusion in a genuinely participatory society. The VAT hike for the tourism sector is expected to cost the sector over €400 million. This is a retrograde step. During the week an increase to 11% was mooted. Why was there no such incremental increase? The step outlined by the Minister is very unfair. This really...

Children's Health Bill 2018 [Seanad]: Second Stage (Resumed) (27 Sep 2018)

Mattie McGrath: ...there at the moment. I have met nurses who cried in front of me and I am sure other Deputies have met them. They told me how long it takes for them to get in and out of work. Some of them have to get up at 5 a.m. They arrive there at 6 a.m. to get ahead of the rush and then sleep in their cars for an hour or an hour and a half. They do it to avoid the rush. It was a crazy decision. I...

Local Government (Restoration of Town Councils) Bill 2018: Second Stage [Private Members] (26 Sep 2018)

Mattie McGrath: ...executive officer, CEO, of the council - they are not called county managers any more - wanted to close that as well. He gave us a lucky-bag chain of office, while we have a noble chain, worth €50,000, that is locked away in a vault. It is an insult to the town of Clonmel. That is what we have and a lucky-bag would be better. We are in and out to - I was going to say...

Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (22 May 2018)

Mattie McGrath: ...money spent by one Department. I am not expecting the Taoiseach to understand the frustration of the people, but he should. The Taoiseach set up his own specialist communications unit at a cost of €5 million. That shows how much he cares about the people. A parliamentary question revealed that €112,000 was spent last year by his Department on entertainment for the guests...

Markets in Financial Instruments Bill 2018: Second Stage (3 May 2018)

Mattie McGrath: ..., like so many that have come our way from Europe, but it is not all bad. I refer in particular to the repeal and replacement of the criminal sanctions in section 3 that proposes to repeal section 5 of the Markets in Financial Instruments and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2007, which sets out the penalties for conviction on indictment of Irish investment services in law. This is very...

Data Protection Bill 2018 [Seanad]: Second Stage (Resumed) (18 Apr 2018)

Mattie McGrath: ...previously on issues of big business, including the banks, and the small cohort of people who wield enormous influence, be it in the beef or wider food industry, or in spin. The Government invested €5 million in spin but only got a short spin. It spun out of control. Mr. Eddie Jordan was not driving it anyway. It crash-landed somewhere in a dustbin. The spin is now in the bin,...

Leaders' Questions (21 Mar 2018)

Mattie McGrath: That answer is pure useless, toothless and fruitless, for that matter. Instead of a €5 million spin machine, would the Taoiseach install mirrors in his office and get a gramophone that will tell him that he is in power, in government, that it was not like that when he got here, that he has been in power for seven years now and should stop blaming the past for everything? He should...

Strategic Communications Unit: Motion [Private Members] (20 Mar 2018)

Mattie McGrath: ...bob here and there. We have people today from all over Ireland asking about the Tús schemes and the rural social schemes. Small money in each community would be wonderful but instead there is €5 million for this and that and €50 million for the other and nothing for ordinary people. My two colleagues are bussing people up to Belfast on nearly a weekly basis to get...

Project Ireland 2040: Statements (Resumed) (21 Feb 2018)

Mattie McGrath: ...of the capital investment plan, South Tipperary General Hospital, which was formerly known as St. Joseph's - I still affectionately call it St. Joseph's although somebody decided to change it - received €3.2 million for the provision of a new outpatient clinic. The total investment in South Tipperary General Hospital amounts to just under €50 million but again this has been...

National Broadband Procurement Process: Statements (7 Feb 2018)

Mattie McGrath: ...they had paid their taxes and everything else. They made the donations to fund this wonderful project. For the past couple of years, to apply for EU tenders, small people must have a turnover of €5 million. No one has made millions in recent years. It just stinks to high heaven and is a lethargic approach adopted by the mechanisms of government. I am speaking about the...

Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2017: Second Stage (Resumed) (17 Jan 2018)

Mattie McGrath: ...because it would have a huge impact. The farcical part about it was that tractors travelling at 40 km/h or above were going to be put off the road. Such vehicles could not travel at just 15 km/h. Where I live, one could not get from Dungarvan to the mart or to Castlemartyr. If one got a tractor that was 20 years old and had the lowest box, it could be very defective but one could drive...

Online Advertising and Social Media (Transparency) Bill 2017: Second Stage [Private Members] (13 Dec 2017)

Mattie McGrath: ...and how ordinary people are suffering and trying to fend for themselves from day to day. We get caught up in tweeting and Facebooking and God knows what kind of spin. I, too, am hugely concerned about the €5 million of taxpayers' money sneakily taken to fund the PR machine for St. Leo, the Taoiseach, "hashtag Leo". He was unable to answer any of the questions asked of him...

Situation in Syria: Motion [Private Members] (5 Dec 2017)

Mattie McGrath: ...people over the course of recent years has caused untold misery. The Syrian civil war is now in its sixth year. It has been reported that more than 400,000 people have died, with more than 11 million people displaced from their homes, including 5 million registered refugees. It is an appalling crisis by any standard. The news agency Catholic World Report has said that civilian...

Social Welfare Bill 2017: Second Stage (Resumed) (28 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: ...of the recent analysis performed by publicpolicy.ieon the levels of severe deprivation within the EU. Indeed as publicpolicy.iehas noted, EUROSTAT recently published data to the effect that 7.5% of the population both in Ireland and the EU suffers from severe deprivation. This is a large number of people. The number ranges from 0.8% in Sweden to 31.9% in Bulgaria, which is a staggering...

Finance Bill 2017: Report Stage (Resumed) (22 Nov 2017)

Mattie McGrath: ...them and say live horse and get grass. Duirt bean liom gur duirt bean lei go fear i Tiobrad Árann with a póca ina léine aige. I do not know if the Minister understands that. There was a saying 40 or 50 years ago, "A woman told me that a woman told her that there is a man in Tipperary with a pocket in his shirt". This is the type of tomfoolery that is going on. Get on...