Results 2,561-2,580 of 4,810 for speaker:Liam Twomey

Seanad: Health Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: I made the point that an elderly person was paying for her private health insurance out of her own resources. The basis is that one will put a levy on people under 50 and will give a tax credit to those over 50. If elderly people aged 70 are paying for their own private health insurance, they will be expecting a tax credit of around €950 back per year. If they are not earning enough to...

Seanad: Health Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: Which means they could pass it on.

Seanad: Health Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: They do not have to pass it on.

Seanad: Health Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: When we were debating this on Second Stage, I spoke about these levies that are being applied. The Minister of State may say that the same levies may have come into play if risk equalisation were in place, but I do not know whether that is true. It is a significant levy on young families. If we take a mother, father and three children, there will be an additional tax on young families of...

Seanad: Health Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: That is a quick fix.

Seanad: Health Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Committee and Remaining Stages (7 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: When the Minister of State is looking into the issues raised by Senators Feeney and Prendergast, perhaps he will also examine another matter I would like to highlight. When some private hospitals do an MRI or CAT scan, the patient in question does not have to do anything other than present his or her VHI card. In other private hospitals, however, patients have to pay in advance of the scan...

Seanad: Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) and Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices Bill 2009: Second Stage (7 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: We would all welcome many of the changes proposed in the legislation and support the reasons for them. These are changing economic times and everyone must play their part. People who hold positions as Chairmen of committees have had their allowances cut in half and Vice Chairmen, Whips and convenors have had their allowances abolished. Members' travel expenses have been massively reduced....

Seanad: Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) and Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices Bill 2009: Second Stage (7 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: It reflects the fact that one can find oneself out on one's ear fairly quickly. It is said that one is not a real politician until one has won and lost an election. I managed to achieve that fairly quickly. However, continuing to pay a ministerial pension to a sitting TD on a substantial salary was not right and needed to be addressed. That is the sort of thing that gives the public a bad...

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: I seek an urgent debate in the House on the issue of social welfare fraud and the manner in which this issue is being raised in the media. It is being reported that non-nationals are flying in here to collect social welfare benefits, but social welfare fraud is a wider problem. There has been cross-Border social welfare fraud for years. Irish people have been travelling to the United...

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: It is true, we will never know. Why will the Order of Business start at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning and will the time for it be shortened? If we are asked to sit an extra day we should make it a full day's work and make it look like a full day's work, with a full Order of Business.

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: We should have a full Order of Business and make it look like a proper day's work.

Seanad: Health Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Second Stage (2 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: The risk equalisation issue goes back to 2003. I find it surprising that this legislation is necessary in 2009. I was a Member of the Dáil when many of the issues related to risk equalisation cropped up and they were debated at length. The level of corporate knowledge of this issue in the Departments of Health and Children and Finance must be substantial. I do not understand the need for...

Seanad: Health Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Second Stage (2 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: It would frighten me if the Senator agreed with me twice in the one day.

Seanad: Health Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2008: Second Stage (2 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: If I pay for somebody else, can I claim the credit?

Seanad: Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009: Second Stage (2 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: This legislation is quite straightforward. The only surprising thing about it is that it took so long for this work to start. The Prospectus report which was published in 2001 or 2002 discussed rationalising services and agencies in all areas of Government. Deputy Micheál Martin, the then Minister, has the distinction of managing to set up the largest number of agencies while he was...

Seanad: Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009: Second Stage (2 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: They got to Senator Feeney over lunch.

Seanad: Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009: Second Stage (2 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: I do not mean to correct Senator Feeney, but the staff are not agency staff as she and I may know them. There is an agency, but its staff are permanent. It is a trained team that collects the patients in question.

Seanad: Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009: Second Stage (2 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: It is a specially trained agency.

Seanad: Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009: Second Stage (2 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: What does the Senator mean by "pseudo"?

Seanad: Unemployment: Motion (1 Jul 2009)

Liam Twomey: I second the amendment. In many of his contributions Senator Boyle asks for co-operation from this side of the House as if, in some way, we had the solution for the Government. The problem with the Government is that it clearly has not accepted the damage it has done to the economy or people's lives or that the solutions lie within itself. We might consider a standard family income of...