Results 1,901-1,920 of 2,967 for speaker:Séamus Healy

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Implementation of Government Decision Following Expert Group Report into Matters Relating to A, B and C v. Ireland (8 Jan 2013)

Séamus Healy: I thank the witnesses for their submissions. I will be brief. I gather from what we have heard this afternoon and this morning suicide in pregnancy is rare indeed. There is a suggestion - it has been made regularly - that legislating for suicide in this area would open the floodgates on the basis of mental health. I call on our witnesses to address that subject and the related issues....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Implementation of Government Decision Following Expert Group Report into Matters Relating to A, B and C v. Ireland (8 Jan 2013)

Séamus Healy: I thank the witnesses for their submissions, which have been very informative and helpful, certainly to me. I wish to address a number of issues. I would like to have clarification on the probability of real and substantial risk to the life of the mother. While we can all understand an immediate situation, is there a situation in which the life of the mother might be at serious risk in six...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Implementation of Government Decision Following Expert Group Report into Matters Relating to A, B and C v. Ireland (8 Jan 2013)

Séamus Healy: I thank the Medical Council representatives for coming before the committee. With respect, we must ask the invitees again about emergencies and locations as I do not think they have adequately responded to the questions from members on these. On page 4 of the submission in paragraphs 6.5 and 6.6, the Medical Council has put forward a particular point of view. Its response in respect of...

Private Members' Business - Care Services: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (19 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: I have seen it over the past 25 years and I know that two years or 18 months ago, people who were being refused now would have got it without any difficulty. They should be getting it and I want the Minister of State to address that point. There has been a political instruction to the Department to change the criteria for carer's allowance so it can be refused. The delay in applications...

Private Members' Business - Care Services: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (19 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: I quote:Carers will be recognised and respected as key care partners. They will be supported to maintain their own health and well-being and to care with confidence. They will be empowered to participate as fully as possible in economic and social life.That comes from the National Carers Strategy 2012. What has happened in the budget is very far from respecting carers as key care partners....

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child and Family Support Agency (18 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: Will the Minister ensure there is a representative of the centres on the board? This is a new situation and these centres provided a range of vital services in local communities. If the reform the Minister talked about is to be successful, every element of the services must be represented at the highest level.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child and Family Support Agency (18 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her policy for the continuation of family resource centres into the future having regard to the establishment of the Child and Family Support Agency; if she will confirm the continuation and extension of the delivery of community based universal services and early intervention programmes as heretofore; if she will confirm that the ethos and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child and Family Support Agency (18 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: I thank the Minister for her reply. As the Minister said, there are 106 of these centres throughout the country, three of them in my own constituency. They are Millennium Family Resource Centre in Glengoole, Spafield Family Resource Centre in Cashel and Three Drives Family Resource Centre in Tipperary Town. They do tremendous work with scarce resources and are providing essential...

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Unfinished Housing Developments (18 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the position regarding the redevelopment of an estate (details supplied) with particular reference to the current builder, his continued involvement with the work and timescales for completion; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56350/12]

Written Answers — Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: Rail Network (18 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the details of the track and infrastructure alterations proposed at the railway station in Carrick-on-Suir County Tipperary and the timescales involved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56349/12]

Finance (Local Property Tax) Bill 2012: Second Stage (14 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: This family home tax is draconian, anti-family double taxation, which represents a blunt and brutal assault on family incomes with no sense of fairness or equity. When in Opposition, the Taoiseach said: "It is morally wrong, unjust and unfair to tax a person's home," with which I agree. However, he has now done a U-turn on this issue. Families have been hammered by this and the previous...

Credit Institutions (Stabilisation) Act 2010: Motion (14 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: I will not be sharing time.

Credit Institutions (Stabilisation) Act 2010: Motion (14 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. The extension of the Credit Institutions (Stabilisation) Act 2010 is inadequate in terms of protecting the interests of Irish people, bank customers and, to use the words of James Connolly, "The re-conquest of Ireland by the Irish people". More than €60 billion in borrowed public funds have been poured into failed Irish banks, for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Cystic Fibrosis Unit: Discussion (13 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: I welcome the visitors and thank them for their informed submissions. As a public representative, it comes down to this: a constituent of mine was unable to get a bed recently. As Professor Gallagher said, this particular illness affects not only the individual but also the family and the community. The level of stress and anxiety surrounding the non-availability of admission is...

Confidence in the Government: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (12 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: I wish to share my time with Deputies Catherine Murphy, Luke Flanagan, Shane Ross and Mattie McGrath. The Labour Party has absolutely no mandate for the policies it is pursuing - policies which make a blunt and brutal assault on middle and lower income families, children, the elderly, social welfare recipients and the working poor. On taking office last year there was a deliberate,...

Social Welfare Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: This Social Welfare Bill is shameful, offensive and deeply unfair. It shows that the Labour Party has completely lost touch and has turned its back on its founders, its members and the general public. If the party had even a modicum of decency, it would ensure the Bill was withdrawn immediately. What Barnardos has said about the budget and its impact on family incomes, namely, that the...

Social Welfare Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: It is absolutely shameful that the commitments and promises Labour made during the election campaign are being broken at will. In the context of the reduction in child benefit, some 200,000 children are living in poverty. In the budget, the Government has cut the child benefit for a family with six children by €606 per annum. This is in addition to last year's cut of €383...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2012
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (Supplementary) (11 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: This budget was not sustainable, and we have known that from the outset. That is where we must start.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2012
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (Supplementary) (11 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: It is the reason we are dealing with a Supplementary Estimate. It was accepted by senior people in the HSE that the budget was unsustainable from very early this year. There were €1 billion in cuts last year and €750 million in cuts this year. We are talking about a Supplementary Estimate of €360 million, with the prospect of another €781 million in cuts in...

Report of the Expert Group on the Judgment in the A, B and C v. Ireland Case: Statements (Resumed) (6 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: I welcome the opportunity to speak on the report of the expert group. It is both a difficult and sensitive issue, with which we must deal with compassion and understanding. The issue must be dealt with urgently. We simply cannot continue to put women's lives at risk. We cannot have a situation where the medical profession is unclear as to the legal position of the professionals on this...