Results 701-720 of 1,047,609 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Paschal Donohoe OR speaker:John Halligan OR speaker:Seán Haughey OR speaker:Peter Fitzpatrick OR speaker:Joe Flaherty OR speaker:Leo Varadkar OR speaker:Barry Cowen)

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I do not follow the Deputy’s line of questioning. On the one hand, he asked me if I am listening to the Central Bank and then, when I say that I have to listen to all of what the Central Bank says-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: When I say that I have to listen to all of what the Central Bank has to say, the Deputy finds that a worrying admission. Any construction company that I meet, or any engineering company I go to, tells me that it cannot find the people it needs to do the work that is needed. That is just the reality we are facing as an economy at full employment. What the Government will do, and what we...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: It appears that whatever answer I gave, the Deputy would have predicted a decade of failure. What I believe we can do-----

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: The people will have to make a call on that because a decade is a long time. I believe there is the prospect that if future governments can maintain the momentum that this Government has started, we will make progress on the delivery of more homes in a way that will make a big impact on the needs of our country and society. I am confident that we can do that.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: First, I acknowledge that working in our hospitals, particularly hospitals that are very busy, is demanding work and our public servants who do this do great work on our behalf in demanding circumstances. I acknowledge and thank them for the contribution they make in looking after those who are sick in our country. The agreement the Deputy is talking about is the agreement whereby we made...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: It is like any other part of our public service. The pay and numbers strategy is the same approach that we have for any other part of our public service, which is simply that given the availability of the money that you have, how many people do you expect you will be able to hire during the year and how many do you currently have recruited.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: We then require and depend on our public service to stay within those figures. With the amount of additional money that has been made available here, I challenge the Deputy with regard to how he can make the case that this is a negative development.

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I will, but just before I do that I want to join the Minister for Finance, Deputy Chambers, in what he said about the Deputy's point about children with intellectual disabilities. We are all aware of how difficult this is for families and the challenges they have in accessing services despite our best efforts. We certainly acknowledge the importance of the point the Deputy made. On the...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I am not familiar with what measure of material deprivation NERI are using so I cannot comment on the point the Deputy made, but I definitely am aware of the challenges of inequality within our society. That is the main reason we have ensured each of the budgets we have done has been progressive. As we have laid out each year in the budget, if we combine the core welfare rate changes that...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: No. Deputy Conway-Walsh is correct that if the one-off payments were removed, the progressive impact would be less because a fixed payment of a large amount has a bigger impact for somebody on a low income, but they have been made available. These were happening at a point at which core welfare rate increases were below the rate of inflation. If we get to a point that core welfare rates...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: Because inflation rates have decreased, there is definitely a strong argument, which I make, that the scale of the cost-of-living measures should reflect the fact that inflation has fallen so much. Just because inflation has decreased does not mean prices have done so. Prices have increased. We are all aware in all of our budget deliberations that even though on a macro level our economy...

Committee on Budgetary Oversight: Pre-Budget Engagement (18 Sep 2024)

Paschal Donohoe: I expect it will probably happen in the second half of November.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (18 Sep 2024)

Ivana Bacik: I welcome the Government's commitment to establish a commission of investigation in the wake of the awful revelations about abuse of children in religious-run schools as illustrated in Mary O’Toole’s scoping inquiry. I also pay tribute to Mark and David Ryan. Can we have clarity from the Taoiseach on the timing of when the Government will introduce the terms of reference,...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (18 Sep 2024)

Cian O'Callaghan: The Taoiseach has claimed that 40,000 new-build homes would be completed this year. A report from the Central Bank published this morning rubbishes this claim and states it will be 8,000 homes short. Does the Taoiseach accept the findings of the Central Bank report? Given that another report published today shows that house prices have increased by 10% in the past 12 months, will the...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (18 Sep 2024)

Mattie McGrath: I welcome the Ceann Comhairle’s statement on the bike shed. I understood from discussions at the Business Committee meeting that a party leader here asked for another bike shed to be built in the front yard of Leinster House. Maybe we could get clarity on that. The situation with Irish Water is just untenable. This was an outfit set up by the former Minister, Phil Hogan, and the...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (18 Sep 2024)

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn: I support the request from Deputy Murphy. There has been report after report of the use of Irish sovereign airspace to transport munitions to be used in the genocide of the Palestinian people and all the issues that flow from that. This has caused widespread concern among the Irish people. We do not have clarification from the Ministers for Foreign Affairs or Transport about what are the...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (18 Sep 2024)

Thomas Pringle: On behalf of the Independent Group, I support those calls for a debate on the use of Irish airspace by the Israelis. It seems that the Government is operating on the basis that if it does not ask it will not get an answer and that is the best way to do it. We need to address that and quickly. Therefore I support a debate this week.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (18 Sep 2024)

Simon Harris: I wish to be associated with the Ceann Comhairle’s comments on former Deputy Joe Carey. I wish him, his wife Grace and his family the very best and I thank him for his service to this House, to my party and to the people of County Clare. My understanding is that there was no dissent at the Business Committee to the Order of Business but new season, same old, so that is okay. ...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (18 Sep 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: The problem appears to be that if a case is a difficult one, the provider can decide that it is too much hassle and throw the money back. That is what is going on. People need to start being responsible for the jobs they have at hand. The facts at the moment are that if someone is under 18 years of age there is really no place to go. We tried everything for that youngster. It is such a...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (18 Sep 2024)

Simon Harris: I can hear the passion in the Deputy's voice about the situation he is working his way through. I think it highlights a broader issue about how we empower the person with a disability and their family in terms of the budget that the State allocates to them. I know the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, and others have done work in relation to this....