Results 32,961-32,980 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: Yes, it does. Let me finish. I did not interrupt the Deputy at all. The consequences of the crash have been very simple. The actual powers of the Central Bank and of the regulatory authority as well as the independence of the Central Bank as an institution have been strengthened significantly to ensure for everybody's sake that we will never see a banking crash again. The Deputy asked...
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: These include the banks the Deputy has mentioned. If we are having a serious discussion about this, we need to look at the different elements of the problem. Is the Deputy suggesting that somehow or other we should move away from the independence of the Central Bank, but not from dialogue with the Central Bank or requiring it to act both in terms of the security of the banking system and...
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: That is the balance we have to achieve concerning this matter. In the context of where we have come from, it is absolutely a legacy issue. It is also a legacy issue for all of the European banking system where we have a properly independent regulatory structure. If Deputy McGrath is suggesting that the Minister for Finance should personally regulate the Central Bank, I do not agree with him...
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: Today marks the first day in office of the new Governor of the Central Bank, who is properly independent in the exercise of his functions to protect the system and customers.
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: If the examination shows - and I hope it will - that more protection is required, then I absolutely believe that.
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: I thank Deputy McGrath for his comments. The Department of Social Protection, my Department, actually has two services, the Citizens' Information Board and the Money Advice and Budgeting Service. We deal with some of these difficulties in terms of helping families who have problems. In fact, we have recently introduced a court mentoring service for people who have other mortgage...
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: What I am saying to Deputy McGrath in respect of this matter is that we set up a structure, in light of some of the lessons learned about the banking crash, such that we have a strongly independent Central Bank that is not at the whim of any politician.
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: That structure has been established on a Europe-wide basis to avoid banking crashes. At the moment, the Central Bank is actually undertaking an examination of this particular area. Those involved have not given an actual date for when they are going to report, but, as I understand it, they have been in contact with the different institutions and people who have been affected by the kinds of...
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: They are now doing the evaluation.
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: I hope we will get the report by the middle of December, as has been suggested.
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: We will certainly be prepared to act on the recommendations.
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: The State industrial relations machinery is at the disposal of the parties to the dispute. It is at the disposal of the nurses and their representatives as well as the management of the HSE. I sincerely hope that if those mechanisms are used there will not be industrial action. It is to be hoped such a situation could be avoided with the use of industrial relations machinery. On the...
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: -----173 extra community beds have been opened and 65 beds have been opened in Mount Carmel, which is now the first public community hospital in Dublin.
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: The question of emergency departments requires widespread constructive and positive action from hospital management, consultants, senior management and nurses. Some 700 more nurses are employed in the public health service than one year ago.
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: There are a total of 35,163 whole-time equivalents, compared to 34,404 whole-time equivalents in October 2014. As recently as a couple of days ago, an OECD report, which was widely circulated in the media, indicated that we have one of the highest ratios of nursing employment among all of the OECD countries. We need extra resources, but we also need to improve management. The emergency...
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: As it happens, I know the Mater Hospital extremely well because I have been with people who have used its services, in particular elderly people-----
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: -----on many occasions throughout the decades, and not just today or yesterday. I do not know whether the Deputy has been in the Mater Hospital recently, but it probably has one of the best emergency departments in Europe, which is situated in a very fine, improved, refurbished and rebuilt hospital. I do not deny for a moment that there are very serious stressors for very hard-working...
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: If we are interested in solutions-----
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: If the Deputy knows anything and has ever spent nights in an emergency ward or emergency department, she will know one solution which most hospitals could adopt, and which is available in a number of hospitals at the moment, is an urgent assessment unit. Older people can go to a special facility, which the Deputy needs to go and see in operation. I can tell her-----
- Leaders' Questions (26 Nov 2015)
Joan Burton: The Deputy needs to talk to staff working in emergency departments, nurses and those who work in hospitals with such facilities.