Results 4,141-4,160 of 9,393 for speaker:Alex White

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: We know the answer to that question and the Deputy knows it himself. It is no use for Deputy Kelleher and Deputy Dooley to seek to apply standards to this side of the House which they are not prepared to apply to their own side of the House.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: A sense of some proportion might help.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: Some 85%-----

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: Deputy Mattie McGrath does not seem to understand the over-70s and I will come to him in a minute.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: Some 85% of all persons over 70 will retain full medical cards if this measure is passed by this House. Some 93% of all persons over 70 will have free access to their GP.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: No, it is without any condition. Some sense of proportion on this measure is called for. The 10% of people involved here, some 35,000 persons, who lose access to the full medical card, will have it replaced by a GP-visit card. I do not believe anybody on this side of the House or in this Chamber relishes making any adjustments to eligibility. I have made that clear as has the Minister...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: There is no point in coming into this House and telling us we should be consistent when, of course-----

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: -----the circumstances the Government faces mean that regrettably we need to make some adjustments in eligibility.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: We have maintained cover for 93% of the over-70s. We have ensured, obviously, that people still have access to the drugs payment scheme.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: We have ensured that it is only the better off - I accept that is a relative phrase - persons over 70 will be affected by this. We have done it in the fairest possible way. That is what we have done in all the measures we have introduced in this House. Deputy Mattie McGrath seemed to make a joke that someone who was over 70 was invited to apply for the under-70 scheme.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: He should not try to mislead the House or to mislead his constituent or anybody else. A person over 70 is still free to apply in the normal scheme - the net scheme. There is no exclusion on a person over 70 from applying through the net approach that is available to persons there. He should not try to suggest that somebody who was over 70 was being told to apply for an under-70 scheme....

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: The Deputy probably knows that but it was just part of his rhetoric. None of the changes we have sought to introduce is particularly relished on this side of the House. We have done it in the fairest possible way. We have done it in a way that minimises the impact on the most vulnerable in our society and in particular on older persons. For that reason the interventions of the Members...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: Now.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: It is not ten and ten as it was in the Deputy's proposal.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: To repeat, I completely understand the Deputies' problems with this Bill but I cannot understand their problems with my amendment, which is entirely technical because it has to do with how a single person is defined.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: Whereas I could understand - although for reasons that will be clear - I would not agree with the Deputies in their opposition to the Bill and to the sections of it. I am at a complete loss to understand why they would oppose this amendment because it is manifestly a technical amendment which simply makes clearer the definition of a single person. It has no material effect - I invite the...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: No apologies arise. I propose this technical amendment No. 2 to improve the construction of the existing text to address a possible ambiguity in the description of a single person as it appears in the Bill and under section 45A(3). In order to make the technical amendment to correct a conjunction in section 45A(3) in a clear and understandable manner, it is proposed to substitute the...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: That is a different Bill.

Topical Issues: Maternity Services (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: The director general of the HSE forwarded the 2014 service plan to the Department of Health late yesterday evening. In accordance with the Health Act 2004, as amended, the Minister for Health has a period of 21 days from the date of receipt of the plan to either approve the plan or to seek amendments to it in consultation with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. The question of...

Topical Issues: Maternity Services (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: The Deputy make the point well. He has raised this issue before. What I said in my reply stands. A maternity strategy will be developed. As I indicated in my concluding remarks, the strategy will address issues, including the issue of appropriate maternity services staffing, and recommend best practice models of care for maternity services in future. That is the position. The service...