Results 5,421-5,440 of 11,979 for speaker:Billy Kelleher

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Primary Care Strategy (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: I will tell the Minister of State if I get the opportunity.

Other Questions: Medicinal Products Expenditure (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: 8. To ask the Minister for Health the net savings he anticipates in 2014 in the State’s expenditure on drugs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48050/13]

Other Questions: Medicinal Products Expenditure (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: This question is about the net savings the Minister anticipates in 2014 in the State's expenditure on drugs. The reason I ask the question is that I note there have been agreements with the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association, IPHA, and the Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers in Ireland, APMI. However, in the Estimates last year it was reckoned there would be a saving of...

Other Questions: Medicinal Products Expenditure (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: I thank the Minister of State for his response.

Other Questions: Medicinal Products Expenditure (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: He does. Hopefully, those measures will come to fruition. Time and again, the difficulty is that anticipated savings are not being realised. This year, we will have a shortfall of €40 million, placing pressure on other services. At the back end of the year, we now have a certain amount of fire brigade action in our hospital budget and the broader budget to try to rein in costs. It...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: We are being asked to legislate for a real betrayal of policy on eligibility criteria for those aged over 70. By any credible stretch of the imagination, this is a full-frontal assault on the over 70s. The Minister stated previously that people should be entitled to medical care based on need, not on their ability to pay. He spoke about universal entitlement to GP access, but this Bill...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: The Taoiseach told us that it would affect only 3% of the people. Not only can the Minister not do his sums, but the Taoiseach cannot do his sums either. According to the Taoiseach, 3% of those over 70 were going to be affected by the reversal of policy on eligibility in this budgetary proposal. I do not mind having a cut and thrust, but it takes hard brass neck to come in here and state...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: That is an assault on the most vulnerable people in this country. The Minister cannot say that is not the case.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: If he does, he is wrong. No matter what way he goes through the arithmetic, his commitment is to universality. He committed to not reducing the entitlements of over 70s. That was his clear commitment.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: The Minister has broken that commitment time and again.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: In the meantime he expects us to applaud him and give him a clap on the back for introducing free GP care for under-fives.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: I would have no problem applauding him for doing that if he was not asking an elderly person to pay for it. That is what he is doing and he cannot camouflage it. Not only is he asking the elderly person to pay for it, he is asking a very sick person, a very sick child, who may be only three or four, or six or seven, to pay for it because that child will lose their discretionary medical...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: -----the Department is assessing people who had been given a discretionary medical card. It is assessing them under the income guidelines.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: They are being assessed under the income guidelines and a letter is written to the applicant informing them that they no longer qualify. Maybe the Minister has read none of those letters. I have read many of them and we have presented many individual cases to this House. It has been discussed continually on the national airwaves and the Minister knows it as well as I do. There were 85,000...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: -----and that is the case.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: What the Government thought coming into the House a couple of weeks ago-----

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: What the Government thought would be a great political stunt-----

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: -----has backfired on it because people know that the under-fives are being subsidised by the over 70s and by those who are the sickest.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: If the Minister decided to announce GP access for under-fives but did not reduce the budget for those on medical cards and on GP cards, and the eligibility criteria, he could legitimately argue that this is not being subsidised by the over 70s and the sickest. On every perusal of the estimate, the Minister cannot argue that because it is in black and white in his estimate that €113...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: If the Minister wants scaremongering he should look at the statements he made in 2008 and at the present Taoiseach’s statements on Molesworth Street.