Results 3,721-3,740 of 9,823 for speaker:Thomas Byrne

Seanad: Health Services: Motion (25 Feb 2015)

Thomas Byrne: Can children be subjected to the maximum waiting time? Are they part of that or is the 20-week target completely separate?

Seanad: Health Services: Motion (25 Feb 2015)

Thomas Byrne: In other words, the 20-week target is not completely separate from the 18-month maximum.

Seanad: Health Services: Motion (25 Feb 2015)

Thomas Byrne: That included last year's bailout.

Seanad: Health Services: Motion (25 Feb 2015)

Thomas Byrne: I thank the Minister for his patience and for staying here. It is appreciated as I would have understood if he had to put his Minister of State in for a while as Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda is facing an unprecedented crisis as we speak.

Seanad: Health Services: Motion (25 Feb 2015)

Thomas Byrne: I am not saying that and I am not saying he should leave. I am saying I would have understood. I do not want the Minister in a hospital. The last thing hospitals need is to have politicians floating around. The reality is that there are 30 admitted patients there according to the INMO at the moment.There should be 14 nurses working tonight, but I understand from the INMO that only nine...

Seanad: Health Services: Motion (25 Feb 2015)

Thomas Byrne: -----in respect of the lack of orthopaedic and paediatric services after that man retired.

Seanad: Health Services: Motion (25 Feb 2015)

Thomas Byrne: The Government can sit back and relax because it is all Fianna Fáil's fault. That election was over four years ago.

Seanad: Health Services: Motion (25 Feb 2015)

Thomas Byrne: It is an easy way of abdicating responsibility and asking what the Government can do because its hands are tied.

Seanad: Health Services: Motion (25 Feb 2015)

Thomas Byrne: Today, the former Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, complained that the Minister for Health was pretending about something. On the questions of targets and maximum waiting times, there are strong hints of pretence. What is a target? What is a maximum waiting time? How do they relate? There is no clarity. In fact, after parsing the Minister's speech and the motion, there...

Seanad: Health Services: Motion (25 Feb 2015)

Thomas Byrne: Of course it is all someone else's fault from four years ago. The Government entered into office with specific commitments on universal health insurance, which was dropped by the current Minister last summer but has been resurrected in light of the upcoming election. The former Minister, Deputy Reilly, stated that we would need two terms to do it, but little has been done.

Seanad: Health Services: Motion (25 Feb 2015)

Thomas Byrne: The establishment of the HSE did not even take that length of time. The period of two terms was just an excuse for the Government to do very little. It is the Minister's Government that has no health policy. That is frightening. The Minister is crisis managing day in, day out, analysing and stating the obvious. There is no problem in that regard, as he is a good man at stating the...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Heritage Sites (5 Mar 2015)

Thomas Byrne: I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Tom Hayes. It would appear that the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht is busy. I ask that the Minister responsible for Brú na Bóinne, whom I understand to be Deputy Heather Humphreys, would meet a delegation of residents from the area. We are talking here about a very...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Heritage Sites (5 Mar 2015)

Thomas Byrne: We are afraid that the public consultation process is merely a box-ticking exercise. The evidence for such a belief is that the project was started back in 2011 and, as the Department's officials admitted at a meeting last week, very little has happened since. The Department was restructured and there was a move from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to the...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Heritage Sites (5 Mar 2015)

Thomas Byrne: I have said so a number of times. We are extremely proud of the site and we love it.

Seanad: Succession (Amendment) Bill 2015: Second Stage (11 Mar 2015)

Thomas Byrne: I did not get any indication from Senator Mulcahy on whether he would support the Bill but I think it deserves serious support. A judge of the High Court has not been able to decide a case satisfactorily because of an absence of legislation. The Oireachtas has failed to do its job. As Senator Mullen said, this is not a new proposition in law but a well-known issue. There is a name for it...

Seanad: Succession (Amendment) Bill 2015: Second Stage (11 Mar 2015)

Thomas Byrne: My point still stands. What killer will take a constitutional challenge against this in any event? Last week, we were talking about the constitutional rights of banks and today we are talking about the constitutional rights of murderers. What are we coming to? Let us do our job as legislators, pass a Bill, study it carefully on Committee Stage and get it on the Statute Book. We should...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Services for People with Disabilities (25 Mar 2015)

Thomas Byrne: This is a very serious issue. A gentleman has been effectively under the care of disability services in a place called Caridas House in Drumconrath, Navan, County Meath, since 2007. At times he has been illegally asked to pay rent to the HSE, although I understand that was stopped when the HSE decided it was illegal, as it was not allowed to be a landlord. However, there is doubt about the...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Services for People with Disabilities (25 Mar 2015)

Thomas Byrne: I am very disappointed with the Minister of State's response. I plead with the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, to examine this case. In the reply the onus has been put on the applicant, and he has been told he did not fill out the forms. The man has Asperger's syndrome which creates serious difficulties. That is why he is under the care of the HSE disability services, which has...

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Mar 2015)

Thomas Byrne: I want to raise the issue of the dramatic cuts being made to Leader funding. When the European multiannual financial framework and CAP reform package were passed, the Taoiseach and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine could not wait to tell us that it was a great deal for Ireland and Europe at the time. The fruits of that rotten, disastrous deal that this Government negotiated...

Seanad: An Bille um an gCeathrú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Comhionannas Pósta) 2015: An Dara Céim - Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution (Marriage Equality) Bill 2015: Second Stage (25 Mar 2015)

Thomas Byrne: I and my party give our full support to this referendum. I am proud to stand here as a Fianna Fáil Senator, given our track record on the issue of equality for gay people over the years. This has been a journey not just for our party but for society as a whole, and that needs to be recognised at all times. Homosexuality was decriminalised after our colleague's case some time ago, and...