Results 5,441-5,460 of 11,979 for speaker:Billy Kelleher

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 recording of the statements that night.

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

Billy Kelleher: If I want to read out-----

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

Billy Kelleher: Unfortunately-----

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

Billy Kelleher: I am not scaremongering. Is the Minister accusing the Jack and Jill Children's Foundation of scaremongering? Is he accusing all the organisations who are on the ground, day in, day out, of scaremongering?

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

Billy Kelleher: Is the Minister saying that they are scaremongering? Is he saying that advocacy groups who campaign and represent older people are scaremongering? Is he saying that every Deputy here is scaremongering? More important, is he accusing the Deputies on his side of the House of scaremongering?

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

Billy Kelleher: Is the Minister accusing all those people of scaremongering? That is what is happening and the Minister can dress it up any way he likes. I am not scaremongering. I am speaking to the facts and many Deputies on both sides of the House, when speaking on a Private Members’ motion, highlighted the serious difficulties in accessing medical cards.

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

Billy Kelleher: That is the fact of the matter.

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

Billy Kelleher: I will and we will stick to the substance of the Bill. The Minister referred to other areas in the context of the provision of primary care. He mentioned universality and universal health insurance, UHI. The difficulty is that the Minister’s credibility in this area is well questioned because the Minister for Finance announced to the Dáil on budget day that he was putting a cap...

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

Billy Kelleher: We are having a debate on the broad substance of the issue. It is a requirement to have funding in place to fund medical care.

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

Billy Kelleher: The Minister for Health put a cap on the tax relief of €1,000 for an adult and €500 for a child.

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

Billy Kelleher: Yes, this is the exact point. It was the Minister for Finance. He has driven a coach and four through the Minister’s policy on universal health insurance. In every stated policy that the Minister for Health has advocated from time to time, he has said that we would have a vibrant private health insurance market, that there would be competition and a flow of insurers into this State...

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

Billy Kelleher: That is a very serious attack on the affordability of private health insurance. It comes back to this Bill because it must be asked what is happening now. Private health insurance is becoming unaffordable for many in society. I accept that there is an economic backdrop to the number of people falling out of health insurance but the Minister for Health's policy decisions have been...

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

Billy Kelleher: Private health insurance will go up across the board. It is a cross-subsidisation for older people in order that they will not pay more than younger people, but the price of insurance goes up for a young person and goes up for an older person too. Otherwise, it is obvious the Minister does not understand the basic principle. Premiums will go up across the board. The Minister knows that, I...

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

Billy Kelleher: This is where the Minister has a problem with credibility. Regardless of what he thought of the previous Government, in 2008 the Minister knew where the economy was. He knew the difficulties in the public finances to the last pounds, shillings and pence, unless he was the last person who was aware of the economic catastrophe facing the country.

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

Billy Kelleher: The Minister cannot, on assuming office, somehow absolve himself from the responsibilities, commitments and promises he made between 2008 and 2011 because he knew the full context of where we were as a nation.

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

Billy Kelleher: Let us keep to the truth of the matter. I could quote a great deal more of what was said and what has been implemented since.

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

Billy Kelleher: I do. The elderly have not only been undermined by the Minister, his policies and those of the Minister for Finance but the Minister for Social Protection has waded in to the equation as well. While the programme for Government makes a strong commitment to an increase in funding for the provision of services for older people between 2011 and 2016, in every analysis, policy, tranche of...

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

Billy Kelleher: If it is, then the Minister is the only person left who believes it. The Minister for State with responsibility for primary care, Deputy Alex White, has moved a little, but if the Minister is the last man standing in this area, we have a greater problem than I had thought, because primary care is a central tenet of all policy.

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

Billy Kelleher: The problem is that nothing is happening in the area of primary care.

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

Billy Kelleher: That is the problem. He outlined what will happen as opposed to what has happened.