Results 1,281-1,300 of 1,091,967 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Róisín Shortall OR speaker:Jennifer Murnane O'Connor OR speaker:Stephen Donnelly OR speaker:Brendan Griffin OR speaker:Verona Murphy OR speaker:Michael Collins OR speaker:Noel Grealish OR speaker:Thomas Byrne OR speaker:Ivana Bacik OR speaker:Damien English OR speaker:Michael Fitzmaurice OR speaker:Hildegarde Naughton OR speaker:Alan Farrell OR speaker:Aodhán Ó Ríordáin OR speaker:Darragh O'Brien OR speaker:Seán Haughey OR speaker:Sorca Clarke OR speaker:Jack Chambers OR speaker:James Browne OR speaker:Joan Collins OR speaker:David Cullinane)

Finance Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Oct 2024)

Catherine Connolly: Go raibh maith agat. We are way over time.

Finance Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Oct 2024)

Maurice Quinlivan: Then there are the bike shed, the security hut and €9 million for pouches, not to mention the children's hospital. The Government is a serial waster.

Finance Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Oct 2024)

Michael Healy-Rae: I am grateful to have the opportunity to speak on the Finance Bill 2024. I said in my contribution on the budget that this was a budget of choices. I believe many of the choices made were poor. There was plenty of money but no plan. I have continuously said that. The announcement on inheritance tax, for example, and the changes do not reflect the situation on the ground or the value of...

Finance Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Oct 2024)

Richard O'Donoghue: Why does the Government get it wrong all the time? I have a business background and have been self-employed nearly all my life. I have education of life and of business because I am in business. Why does the Cabinet get it wrong all the time? The Government likes percentage models. How many in the Cabinet are businesspeople or come from the farming or community sector where they have...

Finance Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Oct 2024)

Danny Healy-Rae: I am glad to get the opportunity to say a few words about the missed opportunities in this budget. There was very little in it for farmers. I have been on about solar panels months and perhaps years. There was a promise that farmers would qualify for a 60% grant to put in solar panels, which could produce anywhere between 60% to 80% of their overall power consumption on farms. However,...

Finance Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Oct 2024)

Maurice Quinlivan: Unfairness was at the heart of this budget. Once-off gesture measures cannot mask that fact. The choice was made by the Government parties and is not the choice that we in Sinn Féin would have made. The Government opted, in this and previous budgets, to give significantly more benefit to higher earners than to those workers and families who have been most impacted by the ongoing...

Finance Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Oct 2024)

Cathal Berry: I welcome the opportunity to make some brief comments on this Finance Bill and budget 2025 in general. I will focus on primary care and the tax treatment of GPs working in it. It is fortuitous that the Ceann Comhairle is in the Chair and the Minister of State, Deputy Lawless, is on the ministerial podium. I think they are familiar with the case I am about to raise. Deputy Shortall raised...

Finance Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Oct 2024)

Noel Grealish: My colleagues and I in the Regional Group have consistently supported the reduced rate of VAT for businesses in the food and hospitality sector because of the huge importance of this sector to the fabric of our communities. Tourism is a vital contributor to the economy of Ireland, particularly the west and Galway, but also to the survival of some communities in areas where there is little or...

Finance Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Oct 2024)

John McGuinness: I continue from where the previous speaker left the argument. There is a huge case to be made for small businesses. They are under enormous pressure. That is not a whinge; it is a fact. We have failed to understand the challenges that face small cafés, restaurants, retailers, food outlets and clothing outlets. We do not seem to understand what it takes for them to make a profit in...

Finance Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Oct 2024)

Peadar Tóibín: I have never seen a Finance Bill in the history of the State that seeks to buy the votes of citizens so brazenly. It is incredible. Even the one-off payments are designed to happen just before and after the election. This is not the Government’s money it is using to buy votes, but the citizens’, which it is leveraging to put itself back into government. Fine Gael has been in...

Finance Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Oct 2024)

James Lawless: Four years.

Finance Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Oct 2024)

Peadar Tóibín: It has been eight years. Fianna Fáil was in a confidence and supply arrangement with the then Government, which meant the latter only existed because of Fianna Fáil’s support. It is like this Government is trying to hypnotise the people of Ireland with shiny coins to make them forget what has happened over the past ten years. That is wrong. The Finance Bill should have...

Finance Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Oct 2024)

Seán Canney: I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. First, I will speak about a situation that is pertinent to what we are talking about and has arisen in my town, Tuam. The Pieta service has operated there for the past ten years in a purpose built unit, but due to a lack of funding it is now pulling out of its facility that was purpose built with the sweat and tears of local people. The...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Business of Select Committee (16 Oct 2024)

Alan Farrell: The minutes of our previous committee meetings on 7 and 28 February and 26 June have been circulated to members. Are the imeachtaí agreed? Agreed.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Alan Farrell: The purpose of this meeting is to consider the Supplementary Estimates for Public Services 2024 in respect of Vote 29 - Programme D - Environment, Climate and Communications. I remind members that the committee has no role in approving the Estimates. What we are doing constitutes an ongoing opportunity for the committee to examine departmental expenditure in order to make the process more...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Alan Farrell: For the information of members, this meeting is scheduled to be short. There is a speaking list. I thank the Minister for coming in and outlining information. I was not aware of the stark fact that in the region of 4,200 homes are being connected every month.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Alan Farrell: I thank the Minister of State for that welcome additional information. I call Deputy O'Rourke.

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Alan Farrell: I thank Deputy O’Rourke. For my part, before I call in Deputy Feighan, I wish to say that it is fantastic to see this project working so quickly and efficiently. The additional information the Minister of State provided with regard to the number of homes that are being connected, at 10,000 per week-----

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Alan Farrell: Per month excuse me. It is a pretty astonishing number. It is fantastic to see. Arising from Deputy O'Rourke's contribution in respect of areas in urban environments where there are gaps, I am aware of a further gap. It might be a matter for ComReg but the Minister of State might have a view on it or it might have arisen before. There are a number of estates built in the noughties with...

Select Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Estimates for Public Service 2024
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications (Supplementary) (16 Oct 2024)

Alan Farrell: For an inferior service.