Results 101-120 of 260 for going forward speaker:Bernard Durkan

Climate Action and Low Carbon Development: Statements (Resumed) (10 Jun 2020)

Bernard Durkan: ...on local authority housing lists or who are likely to become part of the local authority housing list. Members should not forget that when I was a member of an all-party committee a few years ago I called for a greater emphasis on direct building by local authorities and a move away from the approved housing bodies as a means of solving the problem. That is still the way to solve the...

Health (Covid-19): Statements (Resumed) (23 Apr 2020)

Bernard Durkan: ...the expressions made by other Deputies about the victims of this pandemic. It is something that happens to individuals and their families. It hits them like it hits no one else. The battle goes on, as it must. I support what others have said that we must be safe. We must continue with the restrictions that are in place in order to achieve the best possible result. Even with all those...

Taoiseach a Ainmniú - Nomination of Taoiseach (20 Feb 2020)

Bernard Durkan: Tairgim: Go n-ainmneoidh Dáil Éireann an Teachta Leo Varadkar chun a cheaptha ag an Uachtarán mar Thaoiseach. I move: That Dáil Éireann nominate Deputy Leo Varadkar for appointment by the President to be Taoiseach. I also congratulate the Ceann Comhairle on his return to office, which he has discharged with distinction and fairness in the past. I wish him...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Independent Expert Panel Review into Cervical Screening: Discussion (18 Dec 2019)

Bernard Durkan: ...allows for a wide margin of error. It is a bit like an opinion poll which has a margin of error. Are the witnesses satisfied, given the margin of error, that vague and nebulous area, that we can go forward with absolute confidence in the system, that it will work in the future and that we will not have to revisit this particular issue?

Patient Safety (Notifiable Patient Safety Incidents) Bill 2019: Second Stage (12 Dec 2019)

Bernard Durkan: ...the health services to also predict what contingency might be required. We know that a contingency will be required so we make provision for it. If the contingency is not spent it can be carried forward to a subsequent year to the benefit of patients and the quality of their treatment. It is distressing for patients admitted to hospital to be on hospital trolleys for lengthy periods....

Select Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 38 - Health (Supplementary) (4 Dec 2019)

Bernard Durkan: I wish to repeat the point that the normal procedure in a debate of this nature is for discussions to alternate between Government and Opposition. Otherwise there is no sense in some of the rest of us coming in until the Opposition is finished. I could come back tomorrow. If the Chair gives me notice I will be quite happy to do that. I want to draw attention to some of the fallacies in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Workforce Planning in the Irish Health Sector: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Oct 2019)

Bernard Durkan: ...the fact that, before and during the boom, we had waiting lists and we still have them. The witnesses say they are growing but if we are exporting our medical professionals, they are going to grow. Incidentally, the way we operate, there are backlogs everywhere and waiting lists for almost everything. This has been the case for years and we have become accustomed to it. That is the...

Financial Resolutions 2019 - Financial Resolution No. 9: General (Resumed) (9 Oct 2019)

Bernard Durkan: ...across Europe. They saw the Irish political system standing firm and they stood firm as well. The other 27 EU countries stood firm. We owe a great debt of gratitude to them and we look forward to that continued support in the future. While of course everybody would like to spend more money and have more money to spend, it does not happen that way. We have to pay for it first, we...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: Alliance Building to Strengthen the European Union (Resumed): Institute of International and European Affairs (26 Jun 2019)

Bernard Durkan: ...be successful, but it will not be easy. There are new challenges and opportunities. We must presume to take full advantage of every opportunity that comes our way because there may not be one to go back and revisit this issue again. As the Vice Chairman said, the committee was represented at the recent COSAC meeting in Bucharest. It is ironic that the debate there could have been...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Oral Health Policy: Discussion (15 May 2019)

Bernard Durkan: ...interact with the HSE or, previously, with the Department of Health, the health boards or whatever? Do they do so annually, as I believe they need to do, or at particular times? Do they have ongoing dialogue with the responsible officials in the HSE with a view to advancing the cause to which they have alluded? My colleague raised questions about those seeking service outside the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: Alliance Building to Strengthen the EU: Dr. Catherine Day (3 Apr 2019)

Bernard Durkan: I welcome Dr. Day to the meeting. I have no doubt that the role she continues to play will bear good fruit in the future as it has in the past. I happened to be at a meeting in Bucharest for the past two days at which the same subject matter was up for debate. I have been attending meetings for a long time in Europe. I have been doing it for almost 40 years, when I think of it. The same...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Chairperson Designate (13 Mar 2019)

Bernard Durkan: ...but I do not want to see over-exaggeration of the costs, even in the context of making a political point. I contend that the original guesstimate was way short of what it should have been. I look forward to the PwC report because it will identify the basis on which the figures were arrived at in the first instance. There was no basis at all for arriving at the figures mentioned at the...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Comhairle na Tuaithe (23 Jan 2019)

Bernard Durkan: 227. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the role of Comhairle na Tuaithe going forward as envisaged by him; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3383/19]

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Water and Sewerage Schemes (15 Jan 2019)

Bernard Durkan: ...I cannot understand is that, long before Irish Water was invented, an indication was given to the effect that the local authority and the then Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government together did not want to proceed. I tabled parliamentary questions way back, from 2000 onwards, asking why provision of capital funding towards the scheme was not made by the Department...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social and Affordable Housing Provision (15 Jan 2019)

Bernard Durkan: ...the Minister is saying and hope that it progresses satisfactorily. There have been more than 100,000 people on local authority waiting lists for as long as I can remember and only when the economy goes down does that figure go down. In the current economic climate, is due regard being taken of the need to provide for a sufficient number of direct-build local authority houses? They...

Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Report Stage (Resumed) (29 Nov 2018)

Bernard Durkan: ...One of the first things we did was to eliminate the disability area as a reason for accessing abortion. There was no dissent and everybody agreed to it. The reasons for this have already been put forward by my colleague across the House. It would not be right. I gave an interview to a well known journal at least 20 years ago and I held the same view, and I believe the reasons for that...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Hospital Facilities (6 Nov 2018)

Bernard Durkan: ...provided by the management and staff at Naas General Hospital. They have done exceptionally well over a long number of years. In order to give a realistic imprimatur to their work, now is a good time to bring forward the date for the finishing of the tendering process and approval of contract. Quite an amount of time can elapse between the two so it would be no harm at all, by way of...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Bernard Durkan: ...we cannot afford to uphold it. It would be a retrograde step to do it at this stage. We should stand by what we said when we spoke about it prior to the referendum. We told people what we were going to do and we did it in good faith. While there might be various reasons put forward at a later stage about how it can be improved, they are for a later stage and not for now. We have...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Bernard Durkan: ...of the services", it would apply even in the most extreme circumstances or in the case of Savita Halappanavar and similar cases. It would be a terrible tragedy if we were to allow ourselves to go down that road. An opinion poll indicates that 44% of the people who voted "Yes" were opposed to public funding of the service. I do not know how it was intended to fund the service in the...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Bernard Durkan: ...to comparisons being made with jurisdictions where there was such ready access that people made the point - I am not referring to committee members, but to people throughout the country - that going a bridge too far might not necessarily be in the best interests of the proposed legislation that would arise as a result of the referendum or of its potential for success. Even to this day,...