Results 501-520 of 2,723 for speaker:Barry Andrews

Medical Cards. (16 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: I thank Deputy Jan O'Sullivan for raising this Adjournment matter, which I take on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney. In the budget, the Government decided to end the automatic entitlement to a medical card for persons aged 70 and over, with effect from 1 January 2009. This was done to ensure that public health funding is used to help those most...

Planning Issues. (16 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: I will take this matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. An Bord Pleanála has a key role as an independent planning appeals body in ensuring physical development and major infrastructure projects respect the principles of sustainable development and are planned in an efficient, fair and open manner. In recent years, the board has...

Planning Issues. (16 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: I have taken a note of it.

Written Answers — Adoption Services: Adoption Services (16 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: The purpose of ratifying the Hague Convention is to protect children in the process of adoption. It is the intention that the proposed adoption legislation will ensure all intercountry adoptions meet standards of the Convention either through ratification of the Convention or through bilateral agreements which meet the standards of the Hague Convention. After giving the matter detailed...

Medical Cards: Motion (21 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: Have some manners.

Medical Cards: Motion (21 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: This has been a very difficult week for everybody in politics.

Medical Cards: Motion (21 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: Anybody opposite who delighted in the difficulty over the past week should be ashamed. It was a difficult week for everybody in politics. Anybody opposite who would say otherwise should be ashamed because it was not pleasant for anybody to hear some of the concerns and emotions expressed by older people in our community. They telephoned the offices of every Deputy and Senator.

Medical Cards: Motion (21 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: The Deputy should let me speak.

Medical Cards: Motion (21 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: If Deputy Bannon had a little control and restraint, there might be a small bit of illumination on this issue because people want to know what went on over the past six days or so and the way we approached this issue. They do not want to see Deputy Bannon jump up and speak his usual incomprehensible garbage.

Medical Cards: Motion (21 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: What happened over the past few days was——

Medical Cards: Motion (21 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. The Cabinet had a number of difficult choices to make. We are in a very difficult position. Many of the older people who telephoned me lacked information on the specific detail of the scheme.

Medical Cards: Motion (21 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: Again, we take responsibility and we are sorry for that. We apologise to right thinking people with common sense who know the score, who know we had extremely difficult choices to make and who know we will have more extremely difficult choices to make. It will be a measure of this Government and its supporters that we will get through this. Older people know that we have come through other...

Medical Cards: Motion (21 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: We have to take responsibility for the fear sown in some people's minds and we must move on from that. Some 95% of over 70s will now have a full medical card. That is the most important message that will come out of this debate tonight. We listened to what the people, our councillors and our backbenchers said as well as to what anybody else who cared to share their opinions with us had to...

Medical Cards: Motion (21 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: We have a situation where medical cards are being given to people who, by their own admission, do not need them. Large numbers of people over 70 years of age have not applied for them because they are genuinely patriotic people who know they do not have the need for that provision. They know the spreading of resources around our economy is more appropriately served by issuing cards to those...

Medical Cards: Motion (21 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: People have bandied the word patriotism around this House, but what it means to people is that their patriotism can assist us in a practical way to get through this difficult period. I do not say this in an effort to achieve some short-term political dividend or to get us out of the hole in which we find ourselves. I say it because all of us must contribute to some extent. I know that...

Medical Cards: Motion (21 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: The well chosen throw of the rattle out of the pram is acceptable. However, when all the backbenchers throw it out at the same time, we know we have stepped into dangerous territory. Our backbenchers spoke clearly and eloquently and I would make no criticism of them. Fianna Fáil has never shied away from honest and robust debate within the parliamentary party. A number of people have...

Medical Cards: Motion (21 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: I was referring to myself. Deputy Shatter should have paid attention throughout my speech. The names Lemass and de Valera are used in the context of not using high office for personal enrichment. Older people have rung me and asked about the values of Lemass and de Valera. We have come a long way from that time.

Medical Cards: Motion (21 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: At the beginning of the State our statesmen had no interest in self enrichment through public office. At the end of his life de Valera was worried about his own pension, which demonstrates the kind of people they were. It is wrong for people to assume that by bandying these names about, they can imply they are the inheritors of their legacy. That is a wrong assumption.

Medical Cards: Motion (21 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: I wish to refer to a reference made as far back as 1977 that will give some context to our situation now in 2008. We have had this debate before, have been in this position and will get out of it. People must accept this. In 1977, the NESC published research carried out by Eithne Fitzgerald, later a Member of this House, that concluded by stating: The problem of coping with limited finance...

Medical Cards: Motion (21 Oct 2008)

Barry Andrews: We have had an extraordinary downturn in our economy and in the global economy and must accept we are in a difficult position. It is not a case of people running for cover or of people avoiding responsibility. We must show we have the confidence to govern and that we will make the tough decisions. That will serve not our short-term interest, but the best interest of people in Ireland.