Results 1,041-1,060 of 2,940 for speaker:Séamus Healy

Leaders' Questions (4 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: There are fewer people working now than when this Government took office.

Leaders' Questions (5 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: There has been net loss of employment since the Government took office.

Leaders' Questions (5 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: What is the number of jobs in the economy?

Leaders' Questions (5 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: The figures for jobs in the economy are decreasing. They were down 5,800 in the last quarter, 8,000 in a previous quarter and 40,000 in the 12 months to last June.

Funding for Disability Services: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (5 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: Funding for disability services is a touchstone for the dishonesty of the Government. The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, and leader of the Labour Party, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, is strongly identified with this issue, having described it as his priority in government. He has reneged on the commitments the Government gave on disability funding. I propose to share with the...

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: This is a deeply unfair and shameful budget that attacks the most vulnerable in society. It hits the poorest people by hitting the working poor, middle Ireland, the elderly and children. The Government refused to go with the alternative of taxing high earners and preferred to attack the most vulnerable. The most shameful cut is the attack on children. Central Statistics Office figures...

Financial Resolutions 2013 - Budget Statement 2013 (5 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: Shame on the Tánaiste and shame on the Labour Party. This is a disgraceful and shameful attack on families. It shows that the Labour Party has absolutely nothing in common with the Labour Party of James Connolly, Jim Larkin or any of the founders of the party. The budget hits almost every other section in society. Carers, who look after those with disabilities, are having their...

Report of the Expert Group on the Judgment in the A, B and C v. Ireland Case: Statements (Resumed) (6 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: I welcome the opportunity to speak on the report of the expert group. It is both a difficult and sensitive issue, with which we must deal with compassion and understanding. The issue must be dealt with urgently. We simply cannot continue to put women's lives at risk. We cannot have a situation where the medical profession is unclear as to the legal position of the professionals on this...

Social Welfare Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: This Social Welfare Bill is shameful, offensive and deeply unfair. It shows that the Labour Party has completely lost touch and has turned its back on its founders, its members and the general public. If the party had even a modicum of decency, it would ensure the Bill was withdrawn immediately. What Barnardos has said about the budget and its impact on family incomes, namely, that the...

Social Welfare Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: It is absolutely shameful that the commitments and promises Labour made during the election campaign are being broken at will. In the context of the reduction in child benefit, some 200,000 children are living in poverty. In the budget, the Government has cut the child benefit for a family with six children by €606 per annum. This is in addition to last year's cut of €383...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2012
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (Supplementary) (11 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: This budget was not sustainable, and we have known that from the outset. That is where we must start.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Estimates for Public Services 2012
Vote 39 - Health Service Executive (Supplementary) (11 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: It is the reason we are dealing with a Supplementary Estimate. It was accepted by senior people in the HSE that the budget was unsustainable from very early this year. There were €1 billion in cuts last year and €750 million in cuts this year. We are talking about a Supplementary Estimate of €360 million, with the prospect of another €781 million in cuts in...

Confidence in the Government: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (12 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: I wish to share my time with Deputies Catherine Murphy, Luke Flanagan, Shane Ross and Mattie McGrath. The Labour Party has absolutely no mandate for the policies it is pursuing - policies which make a blunt and brutal assault on middle and lower income families, children, the elderly, social welfare recipients and the working poor. On taking office last year there was a deliberate,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Cystic Fibrosis Unit: Discussion (13 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: I welcome the visitors and thank them for their informed submissions. As a public representative, it comes down to this: a constituent of mine was unable to get a bed recently. As Professor Gallagher said, this particular illness affects not only the individual but also the family and the community. The level of stress and anxiety surrounding the non-availability of admission is...

Credit Institutions (Stabilisation) Act 2010: Motion (14 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: I will not be sharing time.

Credit Institutions (Stabilisation) Act 2010: Motion (14 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. The extension of the Credit Institutions (Stabilisation) Act 2010 is inadequate in terms of protecting the interests of Irish people, bank customers and, to use the words of James Connolly, "The re-conquest of Ireland by the Irish people". More than €60 billion in borrowed public funds have been poured into failed Irish banks, for...

Finance (Local Property Tax) Bill 2012: Second Stage (14 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: This family home tax is draconian, anti-family double taxation, which represents a blunt and brutal assault on family incomes with no sense of fairness or equity. When in Opposition, the Taoiseach said: "It is morally wrong, unjust and unfair to tax a person's home," with which I agree. However, he has now done a U-turn on this issue. Families have been hammered by this and the previous...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child and Family Support Agency (18 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her policy for the continuation of family resource centres into the future having regard to the establishment of the Child and Family Support Agency; if she will confirm the continuation and extension of the delivery of community based universal services and early intervention programmes as heretofore; if she will confirm that the ethos and...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child and Family Support Agency (18 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: I thank the Minister for her reply. As the Minister said, there are 106 of these centres throughout the country, three of them in my own constituency. They are Millennium Family Resource Centre in Glengoole, Spafield Family Resource Centre in Cashel and Three Drives Family Resource Centre in Tipperary Town. They do tremendous work with scarce resources and are providing essential...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Child and Family Support Agency (18 Dec 2012)

Séamus Healy: Will the Minister ensure there is a representative of the centres on the board? This is a new situation and these centres provided a range of vital services in local communities. If the reform the Minister talked about is to be successful, every element of the services must be represented at the highest level.