Results 7,541-7,560 of 11,979 for speaker:Billy Kelleher

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Legislative Measures (31 Mar 2015)

Billy Kelleher: 390. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality when she will publish the sexual offences Bill 2015 providing for criminalisation of the purchase of sex; and her plans to have it enacted. [13048/15]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Mental Health Services Provision (31 Mar 2015)

Billy Kelleher: 481. To ask the Minister for Health the reasons he has ceased providing mental health services to children and adolescents in Gorey in County Wexford and forced families from north Wexford to seek support in Enniscorthy in County Wexford; and if he will reverse the decision. [13040/15]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospitals Policy (31 Mar 2015)

Billy Kelleher: 490. To ask the Minister for Health if a conflict of interest arises in respect of the chief executive officers of hospital groups being appointed by the Health Service Executive to manage the resources, assets and staffing of hospital groups containing both Health Service Executive hospitals and non-Health Service Executive hospitals; and, if so, the measures being put in place to mitigate...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospitals Policy (31 Mar 2015)

Billy Kelleher: 491. To ask the Minister for Health the safeguards being put in place to maintain the autonomy of non-Health Service Executive hospitals within hospital groups; and the extent to which hospital group managers may interfere with that autonomy. [13174/15]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospitals Policy (31 Mar 2015)

Billy Kelleher: 492. To ask the Minister for Health if safeguards are being put in place to ensure that non-Health Service Executive hospitals are not competing for funding with a block of Health Service Executive hospitals within the groups in circumstances where the allocation of funding is controlled by a manager appointed by the Health Service Executive; and the powers the manager of a hospital group...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (31 Mar 2015)

Billy Kelleher: 582. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will remove the registration fee for apprenticeships which in some cases is now €900 and is creating an obstacle to persons undertaking apprenticeships. [13043/15]

Written Answers — Department of Environment, Community and Local Government: Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (31 Mar 2015)

Billy Kelleher: 644. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will reconsider the decision not to fund Ballymun Whitehall area partnership under the social inclusion and community activation programme, in view of the vital services the partnership provides in an area of socioeconomic disadvantage, and the devastating impact its closure will have on the local community. [12960/15]

Residential Mortgage Interest Rates: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (1 Apr 2015)

Billy Kelleher: I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate and I commend Deputy Michael McGrath again on raising this issue. I have also listened to the debate over the past two nights and there is a strong consensus, to which the Minister referred, that the views of the House should be conveyed to the Governor of the Central Bank. I welcome the fact that the Minister will have a meeting with...

Residential Mortgage Interest Rates: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (1 Apr 2015)

Billy Kelleher: It was a crisis of their making. One must be very strong and very forceful. If there was an unequivocal statement from the Minister for Finance on this issue, it would have an impact. The Minister should not underestimate his authority. He has it in spades and he can stand up and say in this House that the banks should pass on the savings to variable mortgage holders because it is the...

Residential Mortgage Interest Rates: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (1 Apr 2015)

Billy Kelleher: They cannot get them, but when they are negotiating, sitting around the oak tables of the banks of this country, they are being told that the cost of funds is 2%. We know, even from the evidence presented by the banks to the committee, that it is no longer 2%, but they consistently tell people who are trying to secure funding for small businesses that the cost of funds is 2%.

Residential Mortgage Interest Rates: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (1 Apr 2015)

Billy Kelleher: Someone is misleading someone here, because all the small businesses that have contacted us about this in recent months, which are in discussion with bankers themselves, will tell us that the cost of funds is 2%. We then find officially that the blended cost of funds at Permanent TSB is 1.74%. At Bank of Ireland the cost of funds was 1.15% in June 2014. At AIB it was 1.64%. We know that...

Residential Mortgage Interest Rates: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (1 Apr 2015)

Billy Kelleher: We all have to be of one voice on this. We must accept that the idea that the banks have the veto on determining what is a sustainable solution flies in the face of everything we have learned over recent years about the banks. Their only abiding interest is their balance sheet, their profitability and moving their salaries back to where they were.

Residential Mortgage Interest Rates: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (1 Apr 2015)

Billy Kelleher: I urge the Minister, in his discussions tomorrow with Patrick Honohan, the Governor of the Central Bank, tomorrow, to impress upon him that Parliament has overwhelmingly endorsed this view and expressed strongly that the variable rates charged by banks on existing mortgage holders are unacceptable. It is morally wrong that those who were thrown a lifeline are taking the lifeline from those...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Maternity Services (1 Apr 2015)

Billy Kelleher: 112. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 724 of 24 March 2015, if either the Rotunda Hospital or the Coombe Hospital in Dublin will be relocating to the Mater or Tallaght Hospital in Dublin, as recommended in the 2009 KPMG report; if either hospital has indicated a desire to move to those proposed locations or to move to a different co-location with another...

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Billy Kelleher: Today across the country there are up to 6,000 Dunnes Stores workers on strike. This strike is not about an increase in pay; rather, it is about basic rights such as respect, equality and dignity. Yesterday, the Taoiseach said in the Dáil:I support the Dunnes Stores workers in having a right to clarity in so far as their working lives and working weeks are concerned ... I hope this...

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Billy Kelleher: What we need is an unequivocal statement from the Tánaiste that she supports the workers on the picket lines outside the Dunnes Stores outlets today. In terms of a response, Dunnes Stores has offered a 20% discount on online purchases up to midnight tonight. What does this say to the Taoiseach and Dunnes Stores workers? It is high time this Government stood up and stood with the...

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Billy Kelleher: These workers are only looking for their basic rights and entitlements and the Tánaiste should support them unequivocally.

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Billy Kelleher: I thank the Tánaiste for her reply. We need to be unequivocal in this. During a radio programme this morning, some of the staff involved spoke of their working hours being limited to 15 hours per week spread over five days, which means they are not eligible for social assistance from the Department of Social Protection. Not only are they not getting any form of contract from their...

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Billy Kelleher: If so, we would want to revisit that very quickly. On the broader issue, over the past couple of days we have heard strong words of condemnation, and people have been urging Dunnes Stores and Mandate to involve themselves in negotiations. However, Dunnes Stores has already indicated that it does not accept the findings of the Labour Relations Commission or the Labour Court and is saying...

Leaders' Questions (2 Apr 2015)

Billy Kelleher: They believe they have no choice because of the threats from Dunnes Stores management and the fact that it has failed to engage with the industrial relations machinery. The Government seems to be paralysed in addressing this fundamental abuse of basic working rights.