Results 11,021-11,040 of 15,491 for speaker:Eamon Gilmore

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: EU Enlargement (19 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: This Government remains supportive of Turkey’s EU candidacy. Turkey is currently in accession negotiations. Accession may follow once the country fulfils the established membership criteria and provided that EU member States and the European Commission are satisfied that all the conditions have been met. However, progress on Turkey’s EU accession has been very slow of late,...

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Ministerial Staff (19 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: The information requested by the Deputy is set out in the following tables. Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Micheál Martin TD - Salary Costs 2009 Salary Costs 2010 Private Office €481,953 €454,562 Constituency Office €174,297 €176,415 Minister of State for Overseas Development, Mr. Peter Power TD - Salary Costs 2009 Salary Costs 2010 Private...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: General Affairs Council Meeting: Discussion (19 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: I thank the Chairman. As always, it is a pleasure to have this opportunity to meet the Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Union Affairs and to brief it ahead of this month's meeting of the General Affairs Council which will take place in Brussels on Monday, 24 September. The General Affairs Council will meet for a morning session next Monday. I will represent Ireland and will be joined...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: General Affairs Council Meeting: Discussion (19 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: I agree with Deputy O'Reilly that the priority and the focus in Europe now needs to be on jobs and growth. As he said, there has been, quite rightly, a strong emphasis on budgetary discipline over recent times. Obviously, that will remain. We all have to recognise that if the European economy is to recover, there has to be economic growth. In particular, there has to be employment. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: General Affairs Council Meeting: Discussion (19 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: Deputy Dooley raises the interesting question as to whether a small state like Ireland should be rocking the boat. The problem with rocking a boat is that it makes one seasick. I prefer to think in terms of helping to steer the boat. That is the space we are in. At an organisational level, when we take on the Presidency of the European Union at the beginning of next year we will be in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: General Affairs Council Meeting: Discussion (19 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: The issue the Senator has raised relates back to Deputy Donohoe's questions regarding banking recapitalisation. It is important to take stock of how far we have come in this regard. When the Government came into office 18 months ago, shortly after the agreement of the EU-IMF-ECB programme, the State was unable to borrow money from any private source. That is the position in which we found...

Leaders' Questions (20 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: I listened to the contribution by the Minister of State, Deputy Shortall, to last night's debate, as well as the contribution by the Minister, Deputy Reilly, and the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch. I also heard the collective voice of this House, which voted by a margin of 2:1, with every Government Deputy commending the Minister on the reforms that have been undertaken to date,...

Leaders' Questions (20 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: -----and supporting the reform programme this Government is pursuing in health. What we have seen from this Government over the past 18 months is an urgency and impatience to reform our health service with less money and fewer staff than the party opposite had available to it. The country and I expect these reforms to be delivered.

Leaders' Questions (20 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: I do so because, while Deputy Calleary may wish to make a political issue of it, out there somewhere-----

Leaders' Questions (20 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: -----there is a mother with a child who has a nasty cough and she is wondering whether she can take that child to the doctor. This is why, for the first time, we have a Government that is committed to introducing-----

Leaders' Questions (20 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: -----a system of universal health insurance with equal access to care for all. Under that system there would be no discrimination between patients on the grounds of income or insurance status and the two tier system of unequal access to hospital care will end. That is what we committed to doing in our programme for Government and that is what we are going to deliver. I have discussed the...

Leaders' Questions (20 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: -----and have confidence that the ministerial team in the Department of Health will do that delivery.

Leaders' Questions (20 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: When it comes to gall, Fianna Fáil has it in abundance. After 14 years of doubling the expenditure in health and doubling the number working in the system, it left us with a health service that was worse than when it got it.

Leaders' Questions (20 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: This Government is in the process of repairing that. We have a strong team in the Department of Health-----

Leaders' Questions (20 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: -----led by the Minister, Deputy Reilly, and the Ministers of State, Deputies Shortall and Kathleen Lynch.

Leaders' Questions (20 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: They are getting on with the job of repairing the health service that Fianna Fáil broke. I expect and am confident that they are going to deliver on that.

Leaders' Questions (20 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: I thank Deputy McDonald for her welcome for the publication of the constitutional amendment to enshrine the rights of children, for the first time, in our Constitution. I welcome her support and that of her party for the Government's effort in that regard. I hope we will, collectively, succeed in having the referendum passed and having, for the first time, the rights of children enshrined...

Leaders' Questions (20 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: I did not mention Fianna Fáil.

Leaders' Questions (20 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: Sinn Féin never listen to the answer and always assume we have said things.

Leaders' Questions (20 Sep 2012)

Eamon Gilmore: I never mentioned Fianna Fáil in my answer to Deputy McDonald.