Results 2,301-2,320 of 9,823 for speaker:Thomas Byrne

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Primary Care Services Provision (15 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: I am very grateful to the Leas-Chathaoirleach for allowing me to raise this important matter on the Adjournment. It relates to primary care. We could discuss primary care centres in Kells, Laytown and Bettystown, and perhaps we will do so again. They are very important, but I will focus on the Ashbourne primary health care centre. It has been built a long time. I ask the Minister of...

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Primary Care Services Provision (15 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: I welcome what the Minister has said about the opening of the primary care centre in Ashbourne. At the start of the year we were told it would open in the first quarter, then that it would happen in May. From what the Minister of State has said, I note significant progress is being made, which I acknowledge and welcome. It is a shame to see a large building being under utilised, although,...

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Hospital Services (16 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: I am grateful to the Senator. I must attend an engagement so I owe her a favour. I also thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for his stewardship of the Seanad this week and for allowing me to speak twice during the Adjournment debate. I appreciate his efforts. In County Meath there are significant issues that need a response from the Government this evening or this week. My issue relates to the...

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Hospital Services (16 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: That is what I said.

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Hospital Services (16 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: The people of Meath will greet the Government's statement with great disappointment. Today is the first time that I have heard the new emergency department in Navan referred to as the "new minor injury unit". That is its formal description in the Government's reply. I am not making a personal attack on the Minister of State. He simply read the statement on behalf of the Minister who did...

Seanad: Diesel Laundering: Statements (23 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: Ireland currently faces an epidemic of illegal diesel. There is a huge problem with the sale of illegal diesel, and figures suggest at least 12% of all diesel in Ireland is sold illegally. When one goes to a garage, unless one knows it is wholly owned by one of the major oil companies, one is never 100% certain whether there is some illegal diesel in the tanks. This is not a victimless...

Seanad: Diesel Laundering: Statements (23 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: It has not happened in decades.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: The Senator should talk to the parish priest.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: We will have a debate on this.

Seanad: Early Child Care Education Standards: Statements (30 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: Will the Bill come before the House before the recess?

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Second Stage (30 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: On a point of order, a Chathaoirligh, níl go leor daoine anseo le héisteacht leis an méid atá le rá againn ar ábhar chomh tábhachtach le reachtaíocht a ghearrfaidh pá na mílte Státseirbhísigh. Dá bhrí sin, tá mé ag iarraidh córam a ghlaoch sa Teach seo anois.

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Second Stage (30 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: That is self praise.

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Second Stage (30 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: With all of the praise and self-praise in which the Minister's speech is steeped, one would be forgiven for thinking Croke Park II was just a bad nightmare in the dreams of public servants, and that the proposals which the Government put forward, which were to divide union against union and to target those workers who work shift work and weekends, were all a nightmare, a dream that did not...

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Second Stage (30 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: We have the unedifying spectacle of a Minister coming in to extoll the benefits of the previous Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act in 2009 and 2010 when he viciously and vociferously opposed it on purely populist grounds at the time. We in Fianna Fáil acknowledge that the public pay bill must be tackled but we believe it should be done in the fairest possible way....

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Second Stage (30 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: They were done in accordance with the ability to pay. This Government's position and values were expressed in the Croke Park II agreement, which does not get any mention in the Minister's speech, and reflected an attitude of unfairness and pitting one side against the other. I object most strenuously to the guillotining of this legislation. There is a specific commitment in the programme...

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Second Stage (30 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: It is not enough to say that Fianna Fáil did it because Fianna Fáil was thrown out of office at the last general election precisely because Fine Gael and Labour promised they would do things differently. When the Taoiseach was challenged on this yesterday in Dáil, I was very disappointed to hear him respond by saying that Fianna Fáil did it so it is okay for the...

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Second Stage (30 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: The Government seems to have brought an end to the process of overall public pay deals by conducting a series of bilateral negotiations in Croke Park II. Some sections of this Bill give it potential for further negotiations. This could appear to favour particular unions over others. There seems to be no overall decision, strategy or vision in respect of this, which may have a long-term...

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Second Stage (30 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: The Minister has not learned the lessons of Croke Park II.

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Second Stage (30 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: The whole point of Croke Park II was that allowances, and in some small cases, overtime but particularly allowances on weekends were the core pay of nurses. Core pay includes all of those things and they are the lessons to be learned. There must be severe doubts about whether section 2 is lawful. It is certainly news to me that a Minister has an existing power to reduce terms and...

Seanad: Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2013: Second Stage (30 May 2013)

Thomas Byrne: They are not spurious. Ask any nurse in the country is that a spurious payment?