Results 521-540 of 704 for speaker:John Kelly

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Sugar Beet Industry (18 Oct 2012)

John Kelly: Yesterday Senator Michael D'Arcy referred to the answers Senators received when they raised matters on the Adjournment. Yesterday evening I received a written reply to a health related matter I had raised. I guarantee that Senators who were not present for last night's debate would be unable to work out what the motion was about if they read the reply. Worse still, an official from the...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2012)

John Kelly: Yesterday Senator Michael D'Arcy referred to the answers Senators received when they raised matters on the Adjournment. Yesterday evening I received a written reply to a health related matter I had raised. I guarantee that Senators who were not present for last night's debate would be unable to work out what the motion was about if they read the reply. Worse still, an official from the...

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Hospital Services (17 Oct 2012)

John Kelly: Before I was elected to the Seanad, apart from being a county councillor, I was a community welfare officer for 28 years, during which time I dealt with medical card assessments. I predicted that problems would arise with the centralisation of the medical card system to the primary care reimbursement service, PCRS, in Finglas. I cannot blame the Government for the centralisation decision...

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Hospital Services (17 Oct 2012)

John Kelly: I do not doubt that the person who wrote the Minister's response has five years of experience in dealing with health related matters, but I have 28. I take the Minister's point that 1.8 million people have medical cards, but that does not mean someone should be refused a medical card if he or she is entitled to receive it. I do not want to see a repeat of the response often given to those...

Seanad: Valuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Oct 2012)

John Kelly: I welcome the Minister of State. I have called for the re-evaluation of rates three times in this House and I welcome some movement on it. However, I must agree with some Senators that we are not going far enough in this Bill. The reality is that there is a world of difference between life and business in the larger towns and cities and that in rural areas. For four days of the week in...

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Oct 2012)

John Kelly: The Senator's party was in government for ten years.

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Oct 2012)

John Kelly: It is no thanks to Senator Leyden.

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Oct 2012)

John Kelly: I compliment my party colleague, Senator Ivana Bacik, on her proposal yesterday for a new initiative of a purple flag area which would indicate a crime free zone in an urban area. It is a great idea and we should fully support it. I would like to take it a step further in an effort to outlaw crime in the country. It is time we had a debate in the House on the availability to serial...

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Oct 2012)

John Kelly: -----but certainly the people I deal with fully support the idea.

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Oct 2012)

John Kelly: I fully support the eloquent case made by my colleague, Senator John Whelan, in regard to the provision of child benefit. There is a general acceptance among the public that wealthy people should not be in receipt of this payment or, at the very least, that it should be means-tested.

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Oct 2012)

John Kelly: I remind Senator Darragh O'Brien, for whom I have great respect, that the social welfare budget is costing taxpayers ¤21 billion per year. The reason it is so high is that the Senator's former leader prepared for three general elections by increasing social welfare provision, including child benefit, year on year. He even promised to increase the State pension to ¤300 per week.

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Oct 2012)

John Kelly: How much worse would our current situation be if the State pension had been increased to ¤300?

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Oct 2012)

John Kelly: Yes, when I am finished making this point. I also remind Senator Darragh O'Brien that his party in government chose to deal with the issue of increasing child care costs by way of the provision of a ¤1,000 payment per child under six years of age. While this sounded like a good idea at the time, within two days of the announcement it transpired that there was an obligation to make this...

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Oct 2012)

John Kelly: It was soon discovered, moreover, that such workers were also entitled to child benefit payments even, once again, where their children were not living in this country.

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Oct 2012)

John Kelly: A review of child payment provision would be worthwhile and timely. There is a great deal of money tied up in that payment which should not have been lost to the economy.

Seanad: Smarter Travel: Statements (27 Sep 2012)

John Kelly: I welcome the Minister of State to the House and hope he is winding down from the celebrations of the past week. However, knowing Donegal people, I think the celebrations will continue for months. The aim of smarter travel is to get us to think about how we travel and our travel choices. It is about considering how our travel decisions impact on ourselves and others. We all know that...

Seanad: Order of Business (27 Sep 2012)

John Kelly: Like every other Senator, I pay tribute to Deputy Shortall. She was a principled Minister of State and I hope that her resignation does not mean the fine work she was trying to achieve for front-line services will be lost. I was amazed at the weekend to see what was going on in my own town. I spoke to 17 year old girls and I said to them when I was their age, if girls their age drank, they...

Seanad: School Transport: Statements (26 Sep 2012)

John Kelly: I welcome the Minister of State to the House. Senator Ned O'Sullivan called this a timely debate and it is only now we are seeing the repercussions of the blunt instrument introduced. I contacted the Minister of State about a number of cases. One involves a woman who came from Galway to a rural part of Roscommon and enrolled her twins in a school in Glenamaddy. She did not have children...

Seanad: Health Service Executive (Governance) Bill 2012: Second Stage (26 Sep 2012)

John Kelly: I will be as brief as possible. I welcome the Minister and support the Bill. However, like other Members, I will move swiftly along and raise a couple of issues with the Minister. One of the issues relates to Government policy on co-sharing of services. I spoke to the Minister a number of months ago about the possible use of fire stations for the co-location of ambulances and ambulance...

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Sep 2012)

John Kelly: I ask the Leader to bring the following matter to the attention of the Minister for Health because the problems related to medical card assessments have not gone away. I know for a fact that families who submitted comprehensive information to the primary care reimbursement service, PCRS, have had some of their documentation selected but not some documentation that would favour their...