Results 6,501-6,520 of 11,979 for speaker:Billy Kelleher

Leaders' Questions (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: That is what community rating is about.

Leaders' Questions (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: The Taoiseach is having a Roscommon moment.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: That is what the Minister said in 2008. Another area in which one can discern an attack on people who have medical cards and who are dependent on prescriptions is the cost of the prescription charge. On taking up office as Minister for Health, the first thing done by the Minister, with great fanfare, was the sacking of the board of the Health Service Executive. However, the other policy...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: This constitutes a further undermining of the basic principle that people who are sick and who need support from the State will get such support and will do so based on their need and not on their ability to pay. While that is what the Minister keeps saying, he is doing the opposite here by denying the sickest people the ability to access medicines because they now are being charged...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: That is what the Minister had to say when the fee was 50 cent. As the fee has now risen to €2.50, I seek an explanation as to how the Minister can square that circle in respect of this U-turn or change of policy. Overall, this Bill shows one thing only, namely, the Minister has brought forward policies that are at variance with everything he has said about universality and about...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: This is the reason that were the Minister to come into this Chamber-----

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: -----to announce the rolling out of free GP care to the under-fives-----

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: -----but that he would not ask those who are the sickest in society to subsidise it.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: -----the Minister might then have got a pat on the back. However, he will not receive a pat on the back for this measure and I will not support the shameless betrayal the Minister is introducing today.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: Private health insurance will go up across the board. It is a cross-subsidisation for older people in order that they will not pay more than younger people, but the price of insurance goes up for a young person and goes up for an older person too. Otherwise, it is obvious the Minister does not understand the basic principle. Premiums will go up across the board. The Minister knows that, I...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: This is where the Minister has a problem with credibility. Regardless of what he thought of the previous Government, in 2008 the Minister knew where the economy was. He knew the difficulties in the public finances to the last pounds, shillings and pence, unless he was the last person who was aware of the economic catastrophe facing the country.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: The Minister cannot, on assuming office, somehow absolve himself from the responsibilities, commitments and promises he made between 2008 and 2011 because he knew the full context of where we were as a nation.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: Let us keep to the truth of the matter. I could quote a great deal more of what was said and what has been implemented since.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: I do. The elderly have not only been undermined by the Minister, his policies and those of the Minister for Finance but the Minister for Social Protection has waded in to the equation as well. While the programme for Government makes a strong commitment to an increase in funding for the provision of services for older people between 2011 and 2016, in every analysis, policy, tranche of...

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: If it is, then the Minister is the only person left who believes it. The Minister for State with responsibility for primary care, Deputy Alex White, has moved a little, but if the Minister is the last man standing in this area, we have a greater problem than I had thought, because primary care is a central tenet of all policy.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: The problem is that nothing is happening in the area of primary care.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: That is the problem. He outlined what will happen as opposed to what has happened.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: What has happened in the meantime is that we have a situation whereby home help hours-----

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: This is a basic but efficient way of providing care and of allowing people to stay in a home environment for as long as possible.

Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Bill 2013: Second Stage (13 Nov 2013)

Billy Kelleher: We have seen those hours reduced. There are difficulties whereby public health nurses are under extreme pressure to deliver care in the community. If the Minister does not believe me, he should talk to them. They are providing care on a shoestring budget and under great personal sacrifice in terms of the commitment they are making day in, day out to provide care in the community. That is...