Results 2,401-2,420 of 4,363 for speaker:Arthur Morgan

Written Answers — Health Service Staff: Health Service Staff (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: Question 124: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the number of agency staff providing extra care in the community; and the number of hours per week in each of the Health Service Executive areas. [34496/07]

Social Welfare Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: I support the amendment. I support all the amendments tabled by Deputy Enright but chose not to use up the time available unnecessarily because other speakers had made all the necessary points. I concur with Deputy Shortall's point that there is a difference between the groups with respect to this issue. It would be very useful to have a committee examine the issue in a speedy manner to...

Social Welfare Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: ——because he has not been listening all evening to the points we have made. He has continued to repeat that the Minister for Finance has given him his budget, that he is working within it and that he is not prepared to be creative or handle the matter differently. He is going along merrily on his own way. This is most unfortunate because many of the points made by Deputies would have...

Social Welfare Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: It is much broader.

Social Welfare Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: I move amendment No. 1: In page 3, before section 2, to insert the following new section: 2.—The Minister shall, within the next 12 months, complete a review to determine and set new longer term benchmarks against which the evolution of social welfare rates can be measured. There are systematic weaknesses or bottlenecks in the system that need to be ironed out. It would be constructive if...

Social Welfare Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: It is always good to have a debate with the Minister, especially when he gets into a fiery humour and there is a bit of a row to liven it up. It is always interesting. Perhaps I should try to provoke the Minister now to get the debate going.

Social Welfare Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: It would not work through the Chair. It is useful to debate these matters. The Minister stated that a review is ongoing, but does he accept my point about how to achieve long-term benchmarking? I am not sure he is saying "No" because I did not hear him reject the amendment, despite that being what he will do. Does he reject the notion of the amendment, namely, a long-term review of the...

Social Welfare Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: Am I back in?

Social Welfare Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: We will hear from the Minister.

Social Welfare Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: Many poverty groups state that the current rates are insufficient to meet living needs. I referred to this matter when I stated that the people affected should not ask, cap in hand, for what is a basic threshold to meet living needs. I do not doubt that the Minister knows this through his constituency office. Many of my colleagues on this side of the House and I know it because these are...

Social Welfare Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: I move amendment No. 2: In page 3, before section 2, to insert the following new section: 2.—The Minister shall, within the next 12 months, review the Fuel Allowance payment and report to Dáil Éireann on the implications of increasing it substantially.". The fuel allowance period was extended by one week in this budget but it was not extended by one cent. I would like to hear from the...

Social Welfare Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: I acknowledged at the opening of my Second Stage contribution that there will be a difficulty in managing a budget in the face of the current economic downturn we are experiencing, but will the House accept that a jackass could run the scheme if we are to simply let it run on and not be imaginative? What we should be trying to bring to this budgetary situation is a change in our thinking....

Social Welfare Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: Perhaps I should have tabled an amendment to provide for the Minister for Social and Family Affairs to attend a training course in negotiations so he could be more effective in getting a better deal with the Department of Finance and various Ministers.

Social Welfare Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: The Minister is a lonely figure in that line of thought. It is not shared on this side of the House.

Social Welfare Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: It is relevant because I am trying to enhance the Department's social welfare budget. One way of achieving that is to upskill the Minister in negotiating.

Social Welfare Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: We have made the important points on this amendment but the Minister is not listening.

Social Welfare Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: What about the Exchequer returns?

Social Welfare Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: That was a lovely after-dinner speech to a chamber of commerce, well practised by the Minister and his colleagues in various parts of the State. To say there has been no change in Revenue receipts is more than ridiculous. It is unfortunate the Government was over-reliant on the property and construction sector. If it had managed it more carefully, we would not be in this situation.

Social Welfare Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: The Government should have been cleverer with the resources it had to end that overdependency.

Social Welfare Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (12 Dec 2007)

Arthur Morgan: There was a gross overdependency on revenue from the construction sector while the Government sat on its hands, asleep at the wheel.