Results 5,121-5,140 of 5,173 for speaker:Joe O'Reilly

Seanad: Order of Business (31 Jan 2008)

Joe O'Reilly: I concur with Senator Norris's remarks on the pharmacists' dispute. It should go to arbitration immediately and an outcome should not be pre-empted. The recent decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions to withdraw a major charge in the case against Mr. Eddie Halvey was somewhat contentious. The DPP stated that he cannot give details about the process by which he arrives at decisions...

Seanad: Hospitals Building Programme (30 Jan 2008)

Joe O'Reilly: I welcome the Minister of State and thank my colleague, Senator Wilson, for sharing his time on this issue. I greatly appreciate it and it is consistent with his approach to public life, in that he puts the interests of the community ahead of narrow partisan considerations. I reiterate my full commitment to and belief in the maintenance and development of services at Cavan General Hospital...

Seanad: Substance Abuse: Motion (Resumed) (30 Jan 2008)

Joe O'Reilly: I welcome the Minister of State to the House. This is an appropriate and worthwhile debate. The first thing we need to give our young people is the confidence to say "No". Therein lies the key. To give young people the confidence to say "No" is to engage in a holistic set of practices from the time children are born. I believe that a State system of preschool education, which may seem...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I support the remarks made by Senator Callely that we do not adequately use home help and home care facilities. There is potential in those services to do more good and it is madness not to use them more to make our services more cost effective and bring savings rather than further expenditure. This is the season when we remember people living alone and call on people to visit them. During...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I agree with him that it is criminal to hand over such a vital resource to private companies. I agree with his remarks on Veolia, but will leave debate on that for another day.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I will conclude by wishing colleagues a good Christmas. We can be collectively and individually proud that we have had an exceptionally good Seanad term and that the quality of debate has been excellent.

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I join other Senators in passing my good wishes and congratulations to Senator Norris on donating his archive to the National Archives of Ireland. I am pleased to hear that additions will be made and that it is not complete yet. I wish to develop the points raised by our leader, Senator Fitzgerald. I appeal to the Leader of the House to arrange an early debate yet again on the mental health...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I am coming to my point. It should also not be the case in a Celtic tiger Ireland. I ask the Leader to raise the following issues with the Minister and to have a debate on a number of specific points. There has been too dramatic a move from institutionalisation to community care and there is still a need for a sufficient core number of institutional places. The move has been too dramatic...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I strongly support Senator Twomey's remarks about nursing homes and about the enactment of legislation. It is an extraordinarily serious matter. We need a well resourced inspectorate and regular inspections. We owe that to our old people. We all know that there are wonderful nursing homes and wonderful people working in them. Great work is being done in most of them but that in no way...

Seanad: Broadband Access: Motion (12 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Killeen. I congratulate my colleagues in the Independent group on tabling this important motion. Broadband represents the future and the Independent Senators have done a worthwhile job in bringing forward the motion which merits serious consideration. There are a number of compelling reasons the availability and use of broadband are important....

Seanad: Water Quality: Statements (6 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: It is creating considerable difficulty.

Seanad: Water Quality: Statements (6 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I assume that we are discussing not only water provision by group schemes but also public water provision. I salute the pioneers who put the rural water schemes in place between the 1960s and 1980s. They were great volunteers and this was the most radical improvement in people's lifestyles after rural electrification. Those people followed the...

Seanad: Water Quality: Statements (6 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: Can the Senator repeat that please?

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: It is timely, after yesterday's budget, for me to renew my plea to the Leader on behalf of non-contributory old-age pensioners and those who will shortly apply for this pension. I propose that we remove the means test for this pension. The bulk of pensioners in this country are on a contributory pension, have a State pension or have private pension schemes. We are talking about...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: ——who did not come above the radar on tax and PRSI, and people who were duped in the workplace and did not have their cards stamped, to use the old colloquialism, or in other words people whose employers did not pay their PRSI contribution. The majority of people who apply and receive non-contributory old-age pensions are deserving. The cost of administering the means test must at least...

Seanad: Budget Statement 2008: Statements (Resumed). (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Noel Ahern, to the House. The tragic backdrop to today's budget is the waste of the boom years. There is no improvement in services, traffic is in gridlock, class sizes are enormous in suburban schools and the health service is paralysed. We have created neither a fair society with the money earned in the boom nor a...

Seanad: Budget Statement 2008: Statements (Resumed). (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: For capital expenditure too. The budget is not progressive. In the year 2000 the Government published a climate change strategy that proposed a carbon tax by 2002, more investment in buses, the cessation of coal use at Moneypoint power station by 2008, rebalancing vehicle registration tax and integrated traffic management. None of this happened and consequently we are over our emissions...

Seanad: Budget Statement 2008: Statements (Resumed). (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: There should also have been a provision to grant aid the marshalling of water from old corn and flax mills to provide power to alternators to create electricity locally. I should acknowledge that my colleague, Senator Burke, has raised the question of domestic wind turbines on a number of occasions in this House. The increases in social welfare are just about adequate but do not take enough...

Seanad: Budget Statement 2008: Statements (Resumed). (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: More than €1.5 billion is to be borrowed and there is no statement that we will arrive at current expenditure.

Seanad: Budget Statement 2008: Statements (Resumed). (5 Dec 2007)

Joe O'Reilly: On a point of information, would it be in order to ask——