Results 8,481-8,500 of 11,979 for speaker:Billy Kelleher

Other Questions: Mental Health Services Provision (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: Up to €24 million of the €35 million allocated was to be used for recruitment of psychologists, occupational therapists and social workers. Instead, that funding has been put towards the budget deficit. While the recruitment process is ongoing, those people already recruited will not take up their posts until December 2012 or early January 2013. In the meantime, there is a...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: The Minister will agree that I do not castigate but I hold him to account. I welcome his reply. He referred to physiotherapy services being used in the assessment of patients in Cork and this scheme has worked quite effectively. I welcome the Minister's commitment in this area and I hope to see some movement in this regard. The key issue is whether services can be maintained in the next...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: To ask the Minister for Health the date on which he received the July performance report from the Health Service Executive; his views on the fact that the number of patients waiting to be seen at an outpatient clinic for the first time has almost doubled to 340,000 compared with figures released in April; if he will provide information on the true extent of the outpatient figures with some...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Hospital Waiting Lists (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: I thank the Minister for his reply. The figure to which he referred is alarming. He has stated the data are being collated in order to ensure efficiencies can be achieved and that pinch areas relating to waiting lists for outpatient appointments can be identified. It is disturbing that 360,000 people are waiting for outpatient appointments. I am not trying to pin the blame on the Minister...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Primary Care Centres Provision (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: I thank the Minister for his reply. Two weeks ago, the then Minister of State, Deputy Shortall, made a statement in the Dáil. There were two items of interest in that statement, one being the omission of any support for the Minister in the motion of confidence he faced. She did not mention the Minister for Health by name or by office in any part of her contribution. The other key...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Primary Care Centres Provision (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: Would the Minister not agree that to do that there must be a transparent and open process that should be free from any form of interference, even alleged interference? I wondered at the time why a Minister of State would come into the Chamber, stand up and state that she had concerns and that the public had a right to ensure the process was carried out in an open and transparent manner,...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Primary Care Centres Provision (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: Ultimately, four centres were identified, two of which were in the Minister's constituency, one in Kilkenny and one in Ballaghaderreen. What type of criteria were used? Did the Minister run this by his Cabinet colleagues? Some of those colleagues stated clearly that he had not. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, said recently on television that this could be...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Primary Care Centres Provision (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: I am not the only one who fails to understand this; the former Minister of State with special responsibility for primary care and some of the Minister's Cabinet colleagues also failed to understand it. It is not that Billy Kelleher is the only person in this House who cannot understand the criteria the Minister decided to use to select certain sites for primary care centres that were outside...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Primary Care Centres Provision (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: To ask the Minister for Health the reason that two primary care centres in Swords and Balbriggan, County Dublin were added to the list of 35 primary care centres published by the Health Service Executive in July; the person who made the decision to add these two centres; the criteria for adding them and if different criteria was used compared to the criteria used for the original 20 on the...

Topical Issue Debate: Industrial Relations Issues (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: I thank the Minister for his reply. Is he confident that the full range of measures he says have been agreed with the IHCA and the IMO within the terms of the LRC's recommendations will begin to be implemented from 1 October onwards and that savings will start accruing immediately? Another issue of concern, about which I asked some parliamentary questions some time ago, is that of...

Topical Issue Debate: Industrial Relations Issues (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to raise this issue in order to clarify exactly what was agreed at the Labour Relations Commission recently. Obviously, we have all been for some time awaiting a conclusion to the discussions that were going on in the background. In recent weeks, the Minister said that, after losing patience with the progress that was being made in...

An Bille um an Aonú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (Leanaí) 2012: An Dara Céim (Atógáil) - Thirty-First Amendment of the Constitution (Children) Bill 2012: Second Stage (Resumed) (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. This is an historic occasion because we hope to enshrine the rights of children in the Constitution, and I thank the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, for giving the people the opportunity to express their wishes in a referendum. There is unity of purpose in the House with regard to the broad thrust of the amendment and my words should be taken as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Role and Functions: Discussion with Irish Medicines Board (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: That is the kernel of the issue. If a prescription-only medicine that is recommended by a GP becomes an over-the-counter medicine, surely people on medical cards should still be reimbursed for it? That would be the logical conclusion. I accept it is a policy issue, but that is the kernel of it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Role and Functions: Discussion with Irish Medicines Board (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: That is why the role of the pharmacist should be expanded to include the prescription of certain medicines to ensure that large amounts are not bought morning, noon and night, and that there are controls in place. We must move to such a system because it can be expensive for families to go to GPs.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Role and Functions: Discussion with Irish Medicines Board (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Role and Functions: Discussion with Irish Medicines Board (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: Does the IMB have the resources available to deal with generic substitution or will it require further resources?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Role and Functions: Discussion with Irish Medicines Board (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: I want to get to the bottom of an issue. Mr. O'Mahony said that a company would apply for a drug to be changed from having a prescription-only to an over-the-counter classification. In the interests of being proactive, is it not within the remit of the IMB to say that medicine X or medicine Y could be available over the counter? I was not trying to be facetious earlier when I spoke about...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Role and Functions: Discussion with Irish Medicines Board (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: I stated that the IMB is slow to delist rather than that it never delists.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Role and Functions: Discussion with Irish Medicines Board (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: Of course. I am talking about the role of the Government-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Role and Functions: Discussion with Irish Medicines Board (27 Sep 2012)

Billy Kelleher: My questions relate to Government policy in regard to what pharmacists are permitted to do. There is undoubtedly an issue in this regard. There was great reluctance, for example, to permit pharmacists to administer the flu vaccine, despite such services being an obvious area of involvement for them. My point is that the Government seems concerned with seeking to limit their role.