Results 23,141-23,160 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton
- Leaders' Questions (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: -----if we have more people treated at the primary level. The former Minister of State, Deputy Shortall, and the Minister, Deputy Reilly, share that view, as does the rest of this Government.
- Leaders' Questions (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: Let me make it clear, as I have done on many occasions, that everybody in the Government has confidence in every other Minister.
- Leaders' Questions (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: I have confidence in the Minister, Deputy Reilly. I have confidence in every member of the Government. I have a mandate from the people as a consequence of the last general election to implement the programme for Government.
- Leaders' Questions (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: In terms of the programme for Government, Members should bear in mind that we inherited a difficult situation in health which even the Deputies opposite acknowledge. We are dealing with that and at the end of this process we will have a set of 20 primary care centres throughout this country which will inform the experience of patients-----
- Leaders' Questions (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: -----in terms of how to access modern medicine and modern facilities in their own location.
- Leaders' Questions (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: That is an enormous achievement, and we will do that for the people. We have a vision in regard to health and universal health insurance that will put us on a par with other European countries where we will develop a unified health service that will provide for all our people, regardless of their income.
- Leaders' Questions (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: That is the objective of this Government.
- Leaders' Questions (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: I appreciate Deputy McDonald's interest in country and western but I am no Tammy Wynette and I do not think she is either in relation to-----
- Leaders' Questions (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: Deputy McDonald is challenged occasionally with her own Tammy moments in regard to her own leader and therefore she should deal with that as well. On the questions about what happened in the Department of Health, and I appreciate Deputy Michael McGrath and Deputy Mary Lou McDonald have not served in Government, the actual detail working out of proposals is a matter for the line Minister....
- Leaders' Questions (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: Excuse me. I did not say anything.
- Leaders' Questions (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: The Departments normally involved would be the Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform because it is a matter of public expenditure. Other line Ministers would not be involved in any of the detail on this issue. That is the honest answer.
- Leaders' Questions (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: It may have been different in Fianna Fáil. Perhaps everybody came into the room and looked at the list. That did not happen in this case because it is for the line Minister to deal with it, and that is what would have happened. The Deputy is trying to create something that in terms of Cabinet and the way Departments operate does not happen. The point is that there is a preliminary...
- Leaders' Questions (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: First, in regard to my colleague, Deputy Shortall, I am very sorry and saddened to see her go. That view is obviously shared very strongly in this House by colleagues in both parties.
- Leaders' Questions (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: Members of the House who are fair will recognise that she is a talented and compassionate woman, a person of very firm resolve, and very ambitious and driven in regard to the political values in which she believes. As colleagues, both of us were elected to the Dáil in 1992, in the aftermath of President Mary Robinson's historic election.
- Leaders' Questions (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: She has been my colleague for a very long period.
- Leaders' Questions (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: I value her. We were discussing the medical centres and I will return to that. However, in speaking about the scourge of alcohol misuse and drug abuse in this country, Deputy Shortall spoke truth to power. That is the job of every politician, whether in opposition where one has much more leeway, or in government. She did that.
- Leaders' Questions (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: With regard to the Labour Party, I do not know about the relevance of James Connolly-----
- Leaders' Questions (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: -----to the speakers; I suspect they owe more to people such as Leon Trotsky than they owe to Connolly. At the time of the last election, the Labour Party went to the people and asked for a mandate - as did the members of the Fine Gael Party - to put this country straight, recover its economic independence and sovereignty and make changes. That is what the Labour Party signed up to do and...
- Resignation of Minister of State: Statement (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: I wish to announce for the information of the House that the Taoiseach yesterday accepted the resignation of Deputy Róisín Shortall as Minister of State at the Department of Health.
- Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pension Provisions (27 Sep 2012)
Joan Burton: Traditional employment practices where an employee works with the same organisation for their entire career through to retirement are no longer the norm and employees are more likely to accrue pension rights through a number of different employments during their working life. My Department recognises that worker mobility gives rise to the need to facilitate a mechanism which would assist a...