Results 421-440 of 445 for speaker:Eoghan Harris

Seanad: Order of Business. (7 Nov 2007)

Eoghan Harris: It has been used as a stick to beat the Minister for Health and Children, the bravest and toughest Minister we have ever had in this area——

Seanad: Order of Business. (7 Nov 2007)

Eoghan Harris: ——and a man who is trying to do this job properly for the first time in Ireland. I am old enough to remember the aftermath of former Deputy Noel Browne. I remember from my childhood that he had to threaten to train local authority workers to give injections of streptomycin to break the consultants' attempts to smash his health reforms. Everybody knows what the problem with the health...

Seanad: Order of Business. (7 Nov 2007)

Eoghan Harris: ——and none of the small hospitals is up to it.

Seanad: Order of Business. (7 Nov 2007)

Eoghan Harris: Every time a reform is proposed, Senators start off this romantic business of saving the local hospital.

Seanad: Order of Business. (7 Nov 2007)

Eoghan Harris: I understand their reasons for doing this. I do not have to stand for election as I am appointed. That is one of the reasons I can tell the truth. These local hospitals are not up to it. Second, the consultants are a vested interest group.

Seanad: Order of Business. (7 Nov 2007)

Eoghan Harris: The consultants continually block reforms. There are vested interests in trade unions in the health services. There are hospitals in which managers cannot take decisions because they are afraid of the unions. As every European report has pointed out, the health services are a nest of vested interests. What we need is a proper debate on health services that points the finger at the people...

Seanad: Order of Business. (7 Nov 2007)

Eoghan Harris: This Government is the first in my lifetime — I do not want to talk about Michael Noonan or Barry Desmond, although I could——

Seanad: Order of Business. (7 Nov 2007)

Eoghan Harris: There is a long tradition of dragging feet in the Department of Health and Children over the past 50 to 60 years.

Seanad: Order of Business. (7 Nov 2007)

Eoghan Harris: This is the first Administration——

Seanad: Order of Business. (7 Nov 2007)

Eoghan Harris: By the way, I hold no brief for the private-public reforms of the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney.

Seanad: Order of Business. (7 Nov 2007)

Eoghan Harris: I believe in a free national health service and universal insurance. However, it is ridiculous. For once, the Taoiseach was right — it is smoke and daggers, to use the phrase he used. The media and the consultants are creating smoke around the issue from which the consultants come out with daggers——

Seanad: Order of Business. (7 Nov 2007)

Eoghan Harris: ——and tell us with their daggers that a salary of €250,000 is a Mickey Mouse one. If that is not a vested interest, what is?

Seanad: Order of Business. (7 Nov 2007)

Eoghan Harris: It was more heckling than clapping, a Chathaoirligh.

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (1 Nov 2007)

Eoghan Harris: One of the great functions of the Seanad has been to increase the comity and civility of Irish life. It was good to hear so many touch on many aspects of that this morning because it is often wrongly felt that public life is the only life. It is actually the small details of domestic life that engage the public interest and engage the public desire for people to speak out for them....

Seanad: Witness Protection Programme Bill 2007: Second Stage (31 Oct 2007)

Eoghan Harris: I am grateful to Senator Hanafin for sharing his time. I will vote against the Bill but I do so reluctantly because it has one huge merit, the indication to involve the Director of Public Prosecutions in the programme. I say this as a matter of principle because I would like to see the DPP and the new prosecuting judges involved much more deeply in the prosecution of crime. However, I do...

Seanad: Death of Former Member: Expressions of Sympathy (31 Oct 2007)

Eoghan Harris: I was very moved by the tributes to Joe Sherlock from his political colleagues here. I did not really know him in that capacity and my knowledge of him is very different. The Joe Sherlock I knew was much more steely, as he helped the republican movement come out of a cul-de-sac and into the broader stream of the socialist and constitutional struggle. I knew him through ten years of very...

Seanad: Witness Protection Programme Bill 2007: Second Stage (31 Oct 2007)

Eoghan Harris: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Housing Market: Statements (31 Oct 2007)

Eoghan Harris: I do not need five minutes. I congratulate the Minister of State, whom I have always admired very much as an independent, tough and clear-minded local politician, on the tough job he is doing. I ask him to think outside the box on his watch. One of the troubles of housing is that it has always been ideologically trammelled. We have had two great historical interventions. We had the great...

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (25 Oct 2007)

Eoghan Harris: In no contentious spirit, I ask for guidance from the Cathaoirleach and the party leaders. The Cathaoirleach referred to the abuse of the Order of Business. While I accept that he must interpret the rules — I welcome that he is a firm Cathaoirleach, as I believe in order as a teacher — I am an inveterate reader of Dáil and Seanad debates. In preparation, I have worked my way through...

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (25 Oct 2007)

Eoghan Harris: We discuss connecting with the public and the Oireachtas is anxious to have a high public profile, but one cannot have a bureaucracy in which everyone behaves well and still holds topical discussions. Last year, Senator O'Toole and others on the Committee on Procedure and Privileges investigated the establishment of a topical hour as in the Bundestag. The Oireachtas is like an iceberg. The...