Results 6,821-6,840 of 7,765 for speaker:Maurice Cummins

Seanad: Home Help Service: Motion. (19 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: I do not have a problem with the stated policy of the Minister, Deputy Harney, of keeping elderly people at home and providing adequate home help for them to enable them to be cared for outside of nursing homes, a policy with which I am sure everyone would agree. However, the Government's stated policy and practice in this area are different. As the motion states, home help hours have been...

Seanad: Home Help Service: Motion. (19 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: Obviously it did. Perhaps for many of the consultants involved in PPARS and other projects——

Seanad: Home Help Service: Motion. (19 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: ——it was payback time for them, and perhaps there was a lot more to do in that area. We have witnessed cutbacks in home help hours. When one hears of the work home helps do, and Senator Glynn outlined that work, one realises they are the unsung heroes in the health service. If one talks to any family member with elderly parents who want to live at home, one hears that those families need...

Seanad: Home Help Service: Motion. (19 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: What we are seeing is Government by committee and by consultants. We hear all the pious words about the Government's aspirations and we cannot disagree with them, but when the people examine its practice they realise how false those promises are and how false the Government has been in regard to the care of the elderly. There can be no question about that. The delay in the repayment of...

Seanad: Home Help Service: Motion. (19 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: That is not true.

Seanad: Home Help Service: Motion. (19 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: It could not have been £1 then, as the Senator argued earlier.

Seanad: Order of Business. (19 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: I ask that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform be invited to the House to state if he is satisfied the Incorporated Law Society is the appropriate body to investigate solicitors in respect of overcharging on cases taken to the redress board. Does he intend to initiate an inquiry into the matter? Many solicitors are appalled that such practices occur and it is essential the...

Seanad: Order of Business. (19 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: He is an Irish citizen and although I hold no brief for the Worker's Party, I am anxious that an Irish citizen of 71 years of age, in ill health, not be extradited until proper legal scrutiny of any legal warrant is effected.

Seanad: Order of Business. (19 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: I ask the Minister to ensure this happens; we would ask the same for any Irish citizen in a similar situation.

Seanad: Salmon Fisheries Report: Statements. (19 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: That is agreed.

Seanad: Northern Ireland Issues: Statements. (6 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: I propose to share time with Senator Coghlan.

Seanad: Northern Ireland Issues: Statements. (6 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: I welcome last week's decommissioning which was a recognition by the IRA that it could not bomb 1 million Protestants into a united Ireland. One hopes the IRA is now committed to peaceful means as the only way of securing its objectives. I joined Fine Gael in the early 1970s when our policy on Northern Ireland encompassed unification by peaceful means and with the consent of a majority in the...

Seanad: Northern Ireland Issues: Statements. (6 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: I compliment the members of the policing board and offer support to the PSNI which is of paramount importance for the future of good policing and good relations within the North's communities. The Taoiseach said he would deal with the issue of so-called on-the-runs at a later stage. I hope any such persons with an involvement in the death of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe will not come into the...

Seanad: Corrib Gas Field: Statements. (6 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: Will we be issued with copies of the Minister of State's speech?

Seanad: Tax Evasion: Motion. (5 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: I fully support this self-explanatory motion. There is no doubt that the State has come down heavily on social welfare fraud in the last number of years. It is right that it should do so. Between them, the 259 people brought before the courts for welfare fraud fiddled more than €1 million, an average of €70 per week per person. Of this number, 36 were imprisoned. I have no problem with...

Seanad: Tax Evasion: Motion. (5 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: It is sensible to ask why such persons should be imprisoned when this costs more than the amount they owe.

Seanad: Tax Evasion: Motion. (5 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: Money can be recovered through a weekly deduction from a person's social welfare payment. Other Members have observed that it seems possible to evade tax if one is able to employ tax consultants and the best lawyers. The objective should be equity and consistency in the system, not revenge. Senator Mooney got carried away when he spoke about death sentences in the United States. That is...

Seanad: Tax Evasion: Motion. (5 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: The public is aware that this is unfair. Fine Gael fully supports this motion.

Seanad: Order of Business. (5 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: Is the Senator on the move again?

Seanad: Order of Business. (5 Oct 2005)

Maurice Cummins: Are they not telling the Senator?