Results 2,021-2,040 of 3,623 for speaker:Ulick Burke

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (11 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: I support the call by Senator Brian Hayes on the Minister for Education and Science to come to the House to clarify the SSIA issue. The interest accruing on such accounts is being taken into account by local authorities and vocational education committees in assessing the income of parents of students seeking maintenance grants. As far back as April, people who had not finalised their...

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (11 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: I will be brief. In the past two or three years, the Houses of the Oireachtas have introduced two important Bills with regard to people with intellectual and physical disabilities. We were promised that all people with disabilities would be supported to the farthest possible extent. Unfortunately, this has not happened. In County Galway, parents are waiting for three years for an...

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (11 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: In County Dublin, the wait is for five to ten years. All of this occurs despite the promise of resources and staff that would be made available. The kernel to all of this is——

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (11 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: ——we do not have the professional staff to deliver the services we were told would be made available. After nine years of this Government, matters have become worse.

Seanad: Energy Resources: Motion (11 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: I second the amendment. I welcome the Minister of State to the House. The Green Paper is aspirational and vague, and no costings are indicated, as Senator Finucane noted. While everybody understands the importance of the maintenance of security of supply, we must realise the crisis in Ireland with regard to future development. A few days before Christmas last year, we were in the amber...

Seanad: Energy Resources: Motion (11 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: I am delighted the Senator recognises that.

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: He does not know the half of it.

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: One cannot ask the Taoiseach for clarity.

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: Every ESB customer in the country faces energy cost increases of 20% form 1 January 2007. Last week we discussed the green paper on energy. Throughout that document we find the words "transparent" and "cost-effectiveness".

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: I do. I have tried on five different occasions, through every method open to me, including a parliamentary question in the Dáil through a colleague, in debate here on numerous occasions, as recently as last Wednesday when I asked the Minister if he would provide details of a contract given to Tynagh Energy——

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: Although it was debated, we were not answered. I want an answer now. It is a simple process. I ask the Acting Leader if we can have the details of a contract which states that 100% of the capacity of that generating station is to be paid for by the Government and the contract that was done for the ESB, while as little as 25% of that capacity might be used on any given day. That is what...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: It was not.

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: On a point of order, the propriety of the Acting Leader's responses to Members today and the fact that he wrote them on the back of the Order Paper is proof that since no answers are given, this is a waste of time.

Seanad: Seanad Electoral Register (18 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: The Minister of State might regret that.

Seanad: School Closures (18 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: I thank Senator Kitt for sharing time. We have previously spoken on school transport difficulties regarding Seamount College, Kinvara. The suddenness and secrecy of this decision has shocked the community, the teaching staff, the board of management and parents. Today, the Department of Education and Science informed me of confidential negotiations between the trustees of the college and...

Seanad: School Closures (18 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: The figures used by the Department of Education and Science to date are, for want of a better word, questionable. I ask that the view of the local committee, which knows best about the population, intakes and projected figures in that catchment area for the future, be taken into account before any decision is taken to close the school. The figures at both ends of this stick are unreliable...

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: I support calls for a debate on road safety. Many Members have mentioned target groups but one group has escaped the net in that regard, namely, the local authorities. It is alarming to see that the Health and Safety Authority has issued proceedings against 29 local authorities with regard to sections of the roads which are being repaired or realigned, etc. As long as local authorities...

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: Will the Leader ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, who also has a role to play, to advise local authorities that road safety is of the utmost importance, especially when so many road repairs are under way around the country?

Seanad: Nursing Home Subventions (25 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this item for discussion. What is happening in the Health Service Executive, HSE, western region in regard to providing for the needs of the elderly is nothing short of a scandal and it greatly discriminates against the elderly in the west. The failure of the HSE to rectify the position must be seen as a failure in the organising and carrying out of...

Seanad: Nursing Home Subventions (25 Oct 2006)

Ulick Burke: In cases where a glaring inequity between one patient and another existed and equalisation measures are put in place, will retrospective compensation be given to those who were penalised by the system, particularly in the west?