Results 5,201-5,220 of 9,393 for speaker:Alex White

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Health (Alteration of Eligibility Criteria) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (21 Nov 2013)

Alex White: Absolutely. Deputy Healy raised a fair point in the Dáil recently and he has repeated it today. In the circumstances he and others have outlined, there is no basis for doctors to impose extra charges. The position is clear and it has been communicated to the IMO. To the extent that it is necessary to do that again, it will be done. If there are doubts about any of these areas, the...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Health (Alteration of Eligibility Criteria) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (21 Nov 2013)

Alex White: As the Deputy was given latitude to make his political point, it is no harm to remind members what his party wanted to do to people aged over 70 years. The changes it proposed were more fundamental than what was ultimately implemented, namely, an income threshold of €1,400. The 3% of people who lost their medical cards through that decision did not get GP cards. Anyone who has lost...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Health (Alteration of Eligibility Criteria) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (21 Nov 2013)

Alex White: Certainly for Deputy Kelleher.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Health (Alteration of Eligibility Criteria) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (21 Nov 2013)

Alex White: The amendment to section 48A(1) includes a requirement for a person with full eligibility to provide information on income and assets if so requested by the HSE. It does not make sense, however, to only apply this requirement to existing medical card holders. Therefore, we propose to delete the reference to "prior to the coming into the operation of this section". Fair points were...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Health (Alteration of Eligibility Criteria) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (21 Nov 2013)

Alex White: I am just answering the questions put to me.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Health (Alteration of Eligibility Criteria) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (21 Nov 2013)

Alex White: I understand the Deputy's point. Will I finish my response?

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Health (Alteration of Eligibility Criteria) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (21 Nov 2013)

Alex White: The Deputy should not expect concessions.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Health (Alteration of Eligibility Criteria) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (21 Nov 2013)

Alex White: I have listened carefully to what the Deputy has said. Deputy Kelleher is correct. There are other types of reviews, apart from random reviews but we need to be able to conduct each type. Risk-based reviews will also be part of the process. Deputy Healy made the point about cards being valid until 2020 but we must have the power to review eligibility. We must have the power to do that....

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Health (Alteration of Eligibility Criteria) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (21 Nov 2013)

Alex White: I will take everything that has been said here into account. I have listened very carefully to what the Deputies have said.

Topical Issues: Maternity Services (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: The director general of the HSE forwarded the 2014 service plan to the Department of Health late yesterday evening. In accordance with the Health Act 2004, as amended, the Minister for Health has a period of 21 days from the date of receipt of the plan to either approve the plan or to seek amendments to it in consultation with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. The question of...

Topical Issues: Maternity Services (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: The Deputy make the point well. He has raised this issue before. What I said in my reply stands. A maternity strategy will be developed. As I indicated in my concluding remarks, the strategy will address issues, including the issue of appropriate maternity services staffing, and recommend best practice models of care for maternity services in future. That is the position. The service...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Order for Report Stage (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: I move: "That Report Stage be taken now."

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: I move amendment No. 2:In page 4, to delete lines 6 to 37, and in page 5, to delete line 1 and substitute the following:“(b) by the substitution of the following for subsection (3):“(3) The gross income limits for the purposes of this section and section 45(5A) are the following:(a) in respect of the period commencing on 1 January 2009 and ending on 4 April 2013—(i) if a...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: No apologies arise. I propose this technical amendment No. 2 to improve the construction of the existing text to address a possible ambiguity in the description of a single person as it appears in the Bill and under section 45A(3). In order to make the technical amendment to correct a conjunction in section 45A(3) in a clear and understandable manner, it is proposed to substitute the...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: That is a different Bill.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: Whereas I could understand - although for reasons that will be clear - I would not agree with the Deputies in their opposition to the Bill and to the sections of it. I am at a complete loss to understand why they would oppose this amendment because it is manifestly a technical amendment which simply makes clearer the definition of a single person. It has no material effect - I invite the...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: It is not ten and ten as it was in the Deputy's proposal.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: To repeat, I completely understand the Deputies' problems with this Bill but I cannot understand their problems with my amendment, which is entirely technical because it has to do with how a single person is defined.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: Now.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Report and Final Stages (26 Nov 2013)

Alex White: Deputy Kelleher talks about consistency but he applies it only to this side of the House and never to his own side. He, of course, is a member of a party that abandoned any commitment to primary care ten years ago.