Results 201-220 of 20,758 for speaker:Alan Kelly

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Oct 2008)

Alan Kelly: It is a disgrace. If the Minister is to address aspects of the national development plan next week, he must address that. I agree with Senators who have requested a debate on unemployment. It has been raised by a couple of Senators already today. Aer Lingus has in the past two days again given the two fingers to the Irish people who made that company and who created the circumstances by...

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Oct 2008)

Alan Kelly: It is disgraceful that he will not say why he cannot use some of the assets to leverage against the cost-cutting that he wants to put in place and that he has indicated that even with the changes in the fuel prices, he will not change his mind on the volume of redundancies he seeks. The management at Aer Lingus has done it again. It has acted in this way since the company was privatised. It...

Seanad: Order of Business (8 Oct 2008)

Alan Kelly: I agree we need a statement from the Minister for Finance as it is pertinent after the events of last week. I concur with my colleague, Senator Alex White, who summed up the situation very well. We are now in no-man's land and until the Minister clarifies where we are going, we are at a loss. In reply to Senators Hanafin and O'Malley, the Labour Party is very happy with its position on this...

Seanad: Order of Business (8 Oct 2008)

Alan Kelly: I agree wholeheartedly with people across the House who have raised the issue of the Morris tribunal. It is a very good report but unfortunately overshadowed by something which in my view is fundamentally wrong. The way in which these two former Members of this House were treated in the report is quite worrying. All Members receive information from time to time. If such information is of...

Seanad: Budget Statement 2009: Statements (15 Oct 2008)

Alan Kelly: I hope I do not follow the last speaker's slightly patronising tone. This budget will be the Waterloo for this Government and for this generation of Fianna Fáil. For the past couple of months, the people of this country were led up the garden path into believing this Government would deliver a tough but fair budget. Their understanding was that this Minister for Finance was different from...

Seanad: Budget Statement 2009: Statements (15 Oct 2008)

Alan Kelly: The Labour Party is the oldest party in the State.

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2008)

Alan Kelly: I support the proposed amendment to the Order of Business. I also support my colleague, Senator Alex White, in asking how many changes there will be to the budget. How many more climbdowns will there be? Contrary to the previous speaker for whom I have great respect, I do not believe this medical cards issue has been sorted. It simply has not. Frankly, I do not believe the statistics I...

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2008)

Alan Kelly: If it were only 5% who would be affected by this and who would lose their medical cards, from an administrative point of view it would be hardly worth doing.

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2008)

Alan Kelly: The calculations that have been done suggest approximately 14% will lose their medical cards. I would not like to accuse the Taoiseach of misleading the people, but in the next few weeks we will certainly find that out. We may have to come back into the House and say so. The other aspect is that there is a fundamental change in that the Minister can use a ministerial order to change the...

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Oct 2008)

Alan Kelly: I ask the Leader to arrange a debate on this issue in the near future. This sector must be examined carefully, particularly in view of how the Minister has treated it in the budget.

Seanad: Special Educational Needs: Motion (29 Oct 2008)

Alan Kelly: I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I hope he does not have as difficult a week this week as he has had in the past two weeks. However, from the telephone calls I have been receiving I somehow doubt it. This is a very important motion and the Labour Party is proud to bring it before the House. I am very proud to second it. The motion is about protecting the most vulnerable in...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Nov 2008)

Alan Kelly: I call for the Minister for Health and Children to come before the House to debate acute care in hospitals. I do so in the belief that she should resign because we, as Oireachtas Members, and public servants in general are being misled by the HSE——

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Nov 2008)

Alan Kelly: ——on acute care and the recommendations that have not been published by the HSE with regard to various hospitals throughout the country. I do so in the knowledge that the final report on acute services in the mid-west was completed on 20 December 2007. Why are we attending meetings, engaging in debates and meeting occasionally with the Health Service Executive only to be told...

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Nov 2008)

Alan Kelly: I, too, wish to raise the issue of the public service. Mr. Rody Molloy was right to resign and took the honourable option. In a time when we have not seen that from many people, especially in politics, it is good to see honour still exists and we did not see enough of it during the Celtic tiger years. If it is coming back into vogue for a person to resign because he or she believes it is...

Seanad: Order of Business (27 Nov 2008)

Alan Kelly: I return to the subject matter of the public service, about which I spoke yesterday in light of the Government's announcement. I will not repeat everything I said, but yesterday's announcement was much ado about nothing. Another report will be commissioned and, no matter what language is used or what thesaurus is brought out to say the same thing in a different way, this will be the fifth...

Seanad: Order of Business (27 Nov 2008)

Alan Kelly: ——and we would not have the scenario where everybody is refusing or afraid to get information under the freedom of information legislation because the costs are so excessive. That is to the detriment of democracy and to information.

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Dec 2008)

Alan Kelly: I will not prejudge the debate on the economy on Friday but the turnaround in Exchequer figures over the past year amounts to €9.5 billion and updated live register figures will be announced later. We have rightly engaged in a great deal of discussion about the reform needed in the public service but the debate on Friday should concentrate on how to stimulate job creation. The Government...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Dec 2008)

Alan Kelly: ——and work with the rest of us to ensure these practices are discontinued, that the exploitation of workers is stopped and that they will do all in their power, as they try to do in other areas of their industries, to ensure these practices are not tolerated?

Seanad: Order of Business (9 Dec 2008)

Alan Kelly: We should be having a debate about the scary situation in which our food industry finds itself this week, and we should be doing it today rather than tomorrow. I acknowledge that the Leader has provided time for it tomorrow but it is something that we should be speaking about today. It has a dramatic impact on a great many people. As the Cathaoirleach will be well aware, in our own areas...

Seanad: Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Report and Final Stages (10 Dec 2008)

Alan Kelly: I call a quorum.