Results 5,461-5,480 of 11,979 for speaker:Billy Kelleher
- Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: What has happened in the meantime is that we have a situation whereby home help hours-----
- Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: This is a basic but efficient way of providing care and of allowing people to stay in a home environment for as long as possible.
- Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: We have seen those hours reduced. There are difficulties whereby public health nurses are under extreme pressure to deliver care in the community. If the Minister does not believe me, he should talk to them. They are providing care on a shoestring budget and under great personal sacrifice in terms of the commitment they are making day in, day out to provide care in the community. That is...
- Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: The reason they are leaving the country is because there is major pressure in terms of finance but also in the fact that the Minister is pursuing a policy of landing more people in the surgery without any support. There are fewer supports. That will impact on the ability of doctors and other primary care providers to look after people in the home environment setting. It is another attack...
- Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: I remind the Minister that these issue are happening on his watch. It is not always about resourcing. This is about assessing the most efficient way of providing and resourcing care. Let us consider the position of home help hours, home care hours and home care packages. The Minister has advocated time and again that these are the best ways of treating people and providing support for...
- Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: Equally, the Government's policies are opposite. One thing that is important for a person at home is the telephone, but the Government has taken away the telephone allowance. It has decided to cut home help hours and it has decided not to fund public health nurses. Moreover, the Government has decided not to bring forward supports in the primary care setting that would allow people to stay...
- Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: That is what the Minister said in 2008. Another area in which one can discern an attack on people who have medical cards and who are dependent on prescriptions is the cost of the prescription charge. On taking up office as Minister for Health, the first thing done by the Minister, with great fanfare, was the sacking of the board of the Health Service Executive. However, the other policy...
- Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: This constitutes a further undermining of the basic principle that people who are sick and who need support from the State will get such support and will do so based on their need and not on their ability to pay. While that is what the Minister keeps saying, he is doing the opposite here by denying the sickest people the ability to access medicines because they now are being charged...
- Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: That is what the Minister had to say when the fee was 50 cent. As the fee has now risen to €2.50, I seek an explanation as to how the Minister can square that circle in respect of this U-turn or change of policy. Overall, this Bill shows one thing only, namely, the Minister has brought forward policies that are at variance with everything he has said about universality and about...
- Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: This is the reason that were the Minister to come into this Chamber-----
- Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: -----to announce the rolling out of free GP care to the under-fives-----
- Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: -----but that he would not ask those who are the sickest in society to subsidise it.
- Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: -----the Minister might then have got a pat on the back. However, he will not receive a pat on the back for this measure and I will not support the shameless betrayal the Minister is introducing today.
- Leaders' Questions (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: That is what community rating is about.
- Leaders' Questions (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: The Taoiseach is having a Roscommon moment.
- Leaders' Questions (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: The Government will be charging us for parliamentary questions next.
- Order of Business (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: The reduction in medical cards Bill.
- Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: You are changing the law.
- Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: It is the choices.
- Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (Resumed) (13 Nov 2013)
Billy Kelleher: We were honest about it.