Results 15,181-15,200 of 21,128 for speaker:James Reilly

Seanad: Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: The Central Bank of Ireland is the Financial Regulator for this country and, as such, regulates for matters governing the prudential insolvency requirements for the health insurance market. Insurers wishing to operate in the Irish market must satisfy the Central Bank and other requirements before they are authorised to operate in the Irish market. On the other hand, the Health Insurance...

Seanad: Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: I have a long answer but I will not go into it in the interests of brevity other than to say we had all this in the Dáil and the Seanad earlier. The fact of the matter is that this is accepted as reasonable by the EU and to go away from it would not make much sense. Regrettably, I will not be accepting the amendment.

Seanad: Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: The effect of this amendment would be to introduce an element of flexibility to the agreed 12% return on equity ceiling above which an insurer would be deemed to be over-compensated. I agree that only efficient insurers should be rewarded and to this end, I am committed to maximising cost efficiencies across the market. All of the insurers are working with the Health Insurance Authority and...

Seanad: Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: An undertaking, as defined in the Health Insurance Act, means a health benefits undertaking, "registered in relation to an undertaking" means registered in the register and cognate words shall be construed accordingly. The term, "health insurance undertaking" means the business of effecting health insurance contracts and, therefore, the effect of this proposed amendment would have no...

Seanad: Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2013: Committee Stage (17 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: Section 12 of the Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2013 amends section 125A of the Stamp Duties Consolidation Act 1999 in respect of the revised rates of stamp duties, which will apply in respect of health insurance contracts entered into or renewed after 1 March 2014. The current legislation provides for the payment of the stamp duty levy by authorised insurers on a quarterly basis in...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE National Service Plan (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: I have sympathy for Deputy Ó Caoláin. His question is as much a priority for him as Deputy Kelleher's question is for him.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE National Service Plan (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: I am more than happy to answer them seriatim.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE National Service Plan (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: To respond to Deputy Kelleher's comment on stretching credibility, I thought that was his party's forte. As for his comment about being on an unsustainable path, we have not only sustained the health service in the past 12 months but improved it, as demonstrated by the improvements in inpatient waiting times and the number of people who must endure long waits on trolleys. These figures are...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE National Service Plan (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: -----service plan will be laid before the Oireachtas at 10.15 a.m. In previous years, it was often presented at this time of year or later. The budget was announced earlier this year and while we face a challenging year in 2014 in terms of the finance available to us, we had very good news this morning when the ESRI issued its growth projections for the domestic economy. The country is...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE National Service Plan (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: I did not say that. The Deputy should correct the record.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE National Service Plan (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: The real problem is that the Deputy does not recognise the truth and engages in fantasy. I never said any of the words he uttered.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE National Service Plan (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: The Deputy should allow me to finish. We discovered that 380,000 people were on the waiting list. This is an issue that the Fianna Fáil Party in government ignored because it did not want to count the number waiting or tell people the truth. We were up-front in stating how many people were waiting. I stated it was an awesome figure but that it had to be put in context because 200,000...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE National Service Plan (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: -----to ensure people have not left the country or moved on and that doctors are not being paid for services they are not delivering. I wish to make an important point.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE National Service Plan (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: I accept that, but this is a critical point.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE National Service Plan (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: We had this discussion at a meeting of the select committee. The Deputy would like the world to believe that during his party's time in government no Supplementary Estimates were introduced in the area of health. Fianna Fáil-led Governments more than quadrupled the health budget between 1997 and 2009, but in 2010 the then Minister for Health and Children brought forward a whopping...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE National Service Plan (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: Exactly. The reality is that we are facing a very challenging year. The economy is recovering, but we must continue to consider ways in which we can operate more efficiently. I again congratulate the people who work in the health service on the great job they are doing and acknowledge that waiting times have been reduced. Hundreds of thousands of people had been awaiting inpatient...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE National Service Plan (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: The HSE's national service plan will be placed before the Oireachtas, as required, at 10.15 a.m.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE National Service Plan (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: The plan took quite some time to prepare on foot of the challenges we faced. However, we have managed to address many of the main issues of concern. This does not mean that we are going to have an easy year. In fact, it is going to be a very difficult year, but we will continue to work hard to implement the plan. I reiterate that I do not wish services to be cut; rather, I wish to see the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE National Service Plan (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: I do not know whether there is something wrong with the air filtration system in the House. Again, a Deputy opposite is stating I referred to something as being a success. I never used that word; rather, I stated it was going to be a very challenging and difficult year. I never described anything as a success.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: HSE National Service Plan (18 Dec 2013)

James Reilly: If, in the context of the substantive question posed by Deputy Caoimghín Ó Caoláin, one averages out the cost of a medical card at €1,000 and if one is purely going to remove medical cards on that basis, it might not be unreasonable to assume that 113,000, 115,000 or 133,000 medical cards might be taken back. Of course, there will be many other factors involved when the...