Results 901-920 of 1,311 for speaker:Sheila Terry

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: The Minister of State stated the Bill provides that an assessment would be carried out within three months. Does that cover every assessment carried out within the three month period?

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: I accept that. However, I am not clear on the end point — the timeframe for the completion of the assessment. It is important we should have an end point or the assessment could be open-ended, which would not deliver a valuable service to anybody. My amendment seeks to have the assessment commence immediately in urgent cases, a point the Minister did not address. What does he envisage as...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: Why does the Minister not accept my amendment and provide for this in the Bill? We seem to be leaving a lot to the regulations. Anything we can do to strengthen the Bill has to be positive. My amendment would strengthen the Bill rather than taking away from it. As Senators we do not have an input into the regulation and can only deal with the legislation. I am therefore recommending that we...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: The Minister of State said that any assessment would be carried out within three months.

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: I move amendment No. 20: In page 14, between lines 22 and 23, to insert the following new subsection: "(2) A liaison officer shall be independent in the performance of his or her functions.". The amendment seeks to ensure that the liaison officer will be independent in the carrying out of his or her duties, in the same way as the assessment officer will be independent. The legislation...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: I mean independent in terms of making decisions. I can see that assessment officers could also be the liaison officers, but I am talking of independence in making their decisions when drawing up their statements.

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: I move amendment No. 25: In page 16, subsection (3), between lines 31 and 32, to insert the following new paragraph: "(b) The public body shall communicate with the persons in this subsection the information regarding services that may be provided by the public body that it considers that the applicant is entitled to, as soon as practicable after receiving the assessment report, but within a...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage. (14 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: I am disappointed the Minister of State is taking this line. This is where the legislation will fail to deliver an adequate service or deliver it on time. We are leaving delivery of the service open-ended which is not a good way to deal with legislation. As I said earlier, we need to strengthen the legislation and provide for timeframes. It all comes back to financial constraints. The problem...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (14 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: I thank the Minister of State for introducing amendments Nos. 26 and 28, which meet the need I tried to address in amendment No. 27. I am happy to support the Government's amendments.

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (15 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: I thank the Minister of State.

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (15 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: I also wish to thank the Minister of State for bringing forward these amendments, which should help to strengthen the legislation.

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (15 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: Will the Minister of State explain how independent a complaints officer can be as an employee of the Health Service Executive? Would it not be better and more independent if that person were outside the Health Service Executive, or even from another health service area? This would strengthen the legislation and ensure that complainants really would get an independent assessment. Nobody wants...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (15 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: I apologise to Senator O'Meara because I did not read this amendment beforehand.

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (15 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: Had I realised that this amendment was forthcoming, I would not have said what I did concerning the previous one. I wish to support the amendment, which reflects the importance of the complaints officer's position being totally independent. I favour the appointment of a complaints officer being made by the Ombudsman. If we leave the complaints officer in the position as outlined in the...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (15 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: I move amendment No. 36: In page 20, subsection (3), line 3, to delete "weeks" and substitute "months". This amendment refers to the timeframe in which an applicant or a person may appeal to the appeals officer. The legislation provides that the appeal should be made within six weeks of the date on which the finding or recommendation to which it relates was communicated to the person. My...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (15 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: I am disappointed the Minister of State will not accept my amendment. I recognise that subsection (4) provides that a person may apply for an extension of up to 12 weeks. That is reasonable for the majority of people, but I seek an allowance for the minority who may not even have the capacity or be in a position to write the letter to seek the extension. I want an extension of the period to...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (15 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: I move amendment No. 41: In page 26, subsection (3), after line 48, to insert the following new paragraph: "(c) The compliance of public buildings with Part M shall be ensured by the allocation of certificates of compliance by a building control officer who will also be charged with the periodic monitoring and inspection of such buildings.". I welcome the provision in this Bill which states...

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (15 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: I welcome the Minister of State's proposal to introduce a system of disability access certificates. As he has said, it will strengthen the level of accessibility afforded to people with disabilities. Such good practices are observed in other countries, such as Australia. While I welcome the proposals, I ask the Minister of State to reconsider the possibility of introducing them in this Bill....

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (15 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: I support the amendment. This is something every Department should be obliged to do. I ask the Minister of State to consider this aspect. Every Department is not included at the moment, therefore, it would be of benefit to people with disabilities if each Department was obliged to provide for its own sectoral plan.

Seanad: Disability Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (15 Jun 2005)

Sheila Terry: I thank the Minister for the amendment. If it is agreed, will he guarantee there will be a type of disability-proofing in each Department? When drawing up legislation or regulations, will Ministers automatically tick the box to say it is disability-friendly, in the same way as Departments must equality-proof legislation? If it does not go that far, it will not be worthwhile. The amendment...