Results 20,861-20,880 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: I quoted the Deputy's remarks about Deputy Howlin.

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: I just quoted what the Deputy said.

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: I asked the Deputy for the details last week. She should give them to me. She should also give me details about the person paying a taxi fare of €600.

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: The Deputy should give me the details.

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: I asked for those details two weeks ago and the Deputy still has not given them to me.

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: The Deputy should give me the facts.

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: I wish to share time with Deputies Devins and McGuinness. I am pleased to have an opportunity to contribute to this debate this evening. The only aspect of the Opposition's motion that I can agree with is the expression of sympathy to the family of the late Mr. Pat Joe Walsh. However, I believe that a politically hostile motion is not the most appropriate format in which to express our...

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: Their expectations of my performance were obviously great. I am sure their expectations were not just of me personally, but are the same as those they would have of any ministerial office holder, including their own. Therefore, I invite them to take any one year period when their own Ministers were in office, between 1993 and 1997, and to show us any lasting reforms that led to improvements...

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: Mr. Finlay writes, "Brendan was the one who took the most persuading. He didn't want to be Minister for Health....Dick had to tell him there was no other option, but he was the most reluctant Minister". How was Deputy Howlin, as Minister, judged? We are told he "lost his nerve", that he had "simply made things worse." Who said that? Deputy McManus said it in the Dáil on 31 March 1993, when...

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: I want to talk about Deputy McManus' record.

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: When Deputy Howlin launched the health strategy, Deputy McManus told us it was "a great disappointment" that "simply does not do the business". She went on, predictably, to say that "It includes slavish concessions to private health care". That was on 4 May 1994. The same, transferable speech 12 years later. The Ministers may change, but Deputy McManus's words remain the same. When Deputy...

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: She said there was a taxi fare of €600 for a patient but she was wrong again.

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: Deputy McManus has no policies. She is drifting along on flotsam policies, like the proposal for free GP cards for everybody, even the rich. Let us contrast the records on primary care and GP cards in particular. This year the Government has increased the income guidelines by 29%, the highest increase since 1974. What happened between 1993 and 1997? In 1993, there was an increase of £2,...

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: What of the Deputy's throw-away remarks on universal insurance, which would cost €1 billion? She has now acknowledged that it could not be implemented in the lifetime of a single Government and Fine Gael has run away from that idea. At least Deputy Howlin delivered a health strategy in 1994. The deputy leader of his party has not delivered any policy on health since 2002. I am confident...

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: The HSE is not an end in itself. It is merely an enabler of change, reform, accountability and of the creation of a consistent and equitable health service for all our patients. We are only at the beginning of the journey but the signs are encouraging. I have been asked by the Leader of the Opposition to issue a political directive to the HSE, under section 10 of the Health Act, regarding...

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: There is the carping, negativity and wrong suggestions that constantly come from Deputy McManus. She gave Deputy Howlin three months in office when he was Minister and we have a lot of notes to compare. All the comments are the same. Any good suggestions will be taken on board. Wrong suggestions will be challenged but, above all, the people know the Government is committed to health reform...

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: The Deputy said the same about the economy. He is defeatist and should be positive.

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: There has been support for both sides.

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: We have 50% more treatments.

Health Services: Motion (Resumed). (26 Oct 2005)

Mary Harney: It has improved substantially.