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LEO VARADKAR HAD a busy day yesterday, what with gifting socks to the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, while also getting in some hurling and a run in Phoenix Park.
But there are still a raft of issues for him to deal with.
Today he was questioned about bin charges, insurance costs and the recent raid on insurance companies, and the delay in SNA allocations.
Micheál Martin is talking about the raid on insurance companies yesterday, stating that people around the country thought “about time” when they heard the news.
He says there has been platitudes and no action from those in government as car insurance prices skyrocketed.
Martin said it has taken Europe to shine a light on the issue.
Varadkar says he does not want to comment too much on the issue as the investigation is live. He says the rise in the cost in insurance is impacting on a lot of people.
He said a lot of action has been taken, unlike what Martin believes.
He mentions a report by Minister Eoghan Murphy, which he says is being implemented, such as changes in the Book of Quantum (which was brought into law last week).
The Taoiseach reads out a statement from the European Commission which confirms that raid on the companies yesterday, for fear they were in engaged in anti-competitive practices, and were operating against “anti-trust” laws which “prohibits cartels”
The statement read out states that just because there was a raid that does not infer that the companies were engaged in anything unlawful.
There is no legal deadline to complete the investigation.
Martin says it has taken Europe to finally take action, pointing out that there has been an unacceptable rip-off of consumers.
Mary Lou McDonald is talking about the delay in allocating Special Needs Assistants to children. She points out, as Thomas Byrne did yesterday, that they are a month behind in filling the spots.
She says this is unacceptable and is unfair on the families.
She said families do not know if they are getting an SNA and with the schools out for summer, there is nothing being done, and no certainty.
On the other side, there are the SNA workers, who McDonald says they do not have job certainty and do not know if they have a job come September.
She reads out a letter from one SNA:
How is this fair on SNAs, we deserve respect… every year it is the same old story… I am a parent of two children, I have a mortgage.
Varadkar says that everyone needs certainty and there are more SNAs than there are gardaí.
The Taoiseach says this was discussed in Cabinet this morning and two decisions were made.
There will be an extra 975 SNAs allocated for September, and Minister Bruton will be detailing that in next day or two.
The second decision was that government would not do this again. “We aren’t going to have this process again”, said Varadkar, adding that the decision is made relatively late in the year every year.
People should not have to wait until July to find out what they will get in September.
Varadkar agrees with McDonald to say that the need is great.
But he says the decision will now be made in the normal yearly estimates, which is done in October, which will mean people will know a lot sooner.
Howlin says Varadkar’s socks and jogging may have captured the headlines, but the big issue was the discussions around the CETA Agreement.
He says there are concerns about large corporations being able to challenge government decisions behind closed doors.
Howlin says it is not transparent enough. He points out that this country has suffered from light-touch regulation, so we have more reasons than most to have questions about companies challenging Ireland’s regulations.
The Seanad voted against the ratification of CETA, Howlin points out.
Varadkar says both countries are committed to CETA and it will create more jobs.
Want to know more about CETA and what it means? Check out our recent Debate Room on the issue:
The Taoiseach says the ratification of CETA will require a motion and a full debate in the Dáil, though there is no date set for that yet.
You are in the House, says the Ceann Comhairle, who has asked him to remove his bag of rubbish.
Ryan holds up all the plastics that was in his bin.
“That is not allowed,” says the Ceann Comhairle, who tried to shut it down. He says advertisements are not allowed in the chamber.
“I don’t think you should be acting in that fashion,” he adds.
“We are drowning rubbish,” says Ryan.
Varadkar says there is a lot being done to tackle waste, such as the roll-out of brown bins, and also a new scheme to scrap tires.
Martin is back up and talking about The Irish Times story today that Simon Coveney put pressure on a pilot to fly to Cork during fog back in 2015.
I don’t think safety should be compromised, he says.
He says professional judgement should be compromised and asks if minister has apologised.
“When it comes to aviation safety must come first,” says the Taoiseach.
“As far as we are concerned safety always comes first and it is always the pilot’s decision to fly, not the passenger,” he adds.
He says he does not think it is correct to characterise Coveney’s behaviour as “being intimidatory”.
“I don’t think that was his intention… it was just to ask a question… there is no suggestion that Minister Coveney or any minister would try and second guess the judgement of a pilot.”
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The more I read and research, the more I think the EU is a scam, and our boys have fallen for it hook, line and sinker.
what did you find in your research?
They all genuinely believed in it.
Most external economists pointed out the inherent flaws and problems it would cause, famous noble economist Milton Friedman, wrote a prescient article in the late 90′s outlining why.
It reads like a summary of the last 15 years.
Germany, France, Italy, Holland are all locked in to sub-par or zero growth as far as the eye can see.
The continent will be long burst before the current strategy delivers.
The project itself is flawed, not just the regulation.
And the scam continues
The EU is a disaster. It’s only a matter of time until ‘the rules’ don’t suit the big guys anymore and then BANG little old Ireland having taken the hit for so long will be back in the mire due to ‘unforeseen crisis’ watch this space. It’s shagged.
Certainly the larger states have a habit of ignoring EU directives or having laws fudged for them.
However the Euro has destroyed their growth as well.
Germany, Holland, France, Italy all have had sub par growth or decline for 15 years.
All have seen trade with each other decline in since Euro came in.
Think that’s bad, check out EU’s own growth predications for the next 10 years… Then look at Youth unemployment figures across the med and here right now. EU bang on about tough decisions etc etc, the real tough decision that needs to be made is for somebody to admit this is a failure sooner rather than later.
Yet no one will talk about them.
The Eurozone is an economic disaster for internal trade, jobs, growth, etc etc.
It is destroying the North of Europe as surely as the South, just at a slower pace and their exports are hiding it.
We are going to have to wait a few more years, the Eurozone and EU have a cult following and loyalty.
They can’t fix it, the devaluations to bring the disparate forces in to line would destroy demand and employment in most of the continent for decades to come.
If I ever meet anyone who admits to voting for Brian Hayes I will slap them. The cost of this monster has been €8000 per head. This elephant can’t be fed and we are killing ourselves and starving our children trying.
Where do you get the €8000 per head figure from?
Ireland has paid 42% of the total cost of the European banking crisis, at a cost of close to €9,000 per person, according to Eurostat.
That’s were I got figure
“Ireland has paid 42% of the total cost of the European banking crisis, at a cost of close to €9,000 per person, according to Eurostat.”
Germany’s bank bailout cost her ~€300 billion.
Ireland’s cost her ~€65 billion.
65 billion isn’t even 25% of 300 billion.
If we didn’t even pay for a quarter of Germany’s bank bailout, how could we have paid for 42% of the whole of Europe’s.
The 42% figure is propagated by people who either can’t interpret figures correctly or more deviously, people with an agenda for whom fact does not matter.
Every single Eastern European capital has mover closer to the Viennese standard of living except Slovenia’s. Key difference, it is in the Euro.
For 15 years the Eurozone has had problems with growth, half of it has been chronic.
The ECB itself does not predict any decent growth this decade, especially in the well run North of it.
There is something far deeper wrong here than just the banking regulation.
no matter how fast you spin it this is bad news and further ties us into Euro and EU, no accountability, it means things like MARP can’t happen in response to national crises and this model is untested. It means a regulator is unaccountable and not appointed by elected government. The ECB is also not accountable and the name is as miss leading. The Emperor has no clothes.
Jobs for the boys on a European scale! All looking out for themselves!
Job for which boys? Banking regulators? Oh gawd…
An Irish politician educating us on how banks work….isn’t that a contradiction!
Most of Europe’s banks at the time were broke as well, including German ones.
They just let us take the hit and later on flooded their own ones with cheap LTRO trillions.
You have Germans telling us they are an economic miracle with 2% growth. Holland is a stable success story with bare growth for 10 years.
Sick parody.
He’s educating us about banking supervision – not how banks work.
@ Seanie: With aging populations and shrinking workforces, where exactly is the new growth going to come from?
” new pan-eurozone Single Supervisory Mechanism. ” – & so, the plot thickens…
“Staff working on the Supervisory Mechanism will not be entitled to regulate banks in their home country.”
Imagine if this had been the case in Celtic Tiger Ireland…
“Let’s remember that the financial crisis was truly European in nature and to eradicate potential future contagion, we need to develop a unified European approach.” Really????
So when people spoke out about the EU not being fit for purpose Brian, you told us it was a global issue/crisis starting with Lehman Brothers…No???
I for one certainly agree that most of our current problems are “truly European in nature”, but not exclusively. Cowards in FF, FG and LB also share that accolade.
have your say