Results 941-960 of 1,253 for speaker:John Crown

Seanad: Finance (Local Property Tax) Bill 2012: Second Stage (19 Dec 2012)

John Crown: I know we are all a little cranky this evening but-----

Seanad: Finance (Local Property Tax) Bill 2012: Second Stage (19 Dec 2012)

John Crown: I would make the point to anybody who would have the temerity to interrupt me in my crankiness this evening that we are also the only country in Europe that charges people 9% and makes them borrow money to pay a tax to buy the house in the first place. I know of no other country that does that but we will come back to that issue another time. Of all the assets somebody could have, the only...

Seanad: Finance (Local Property Tax) Bill 2012: Second Stage (19 Dec 2012)

John Crown: If he believes my negative equity home is a taxable asset I will gladly give it, and the mortgage, to the State. That is the ultimate-----

Seanad: Finance (Local Property Tax) Bill 2012: Second Stage (19 Dec 2012)

John Crown: The Minister accepted an extra 4% of it last week but I am not complaining about that. I make tonnes of money and I have a house in negative equity. The logic is to charge me more income tax. I have no problem paying more money than I would pay on the property tax in income tax because that is fair. What would happen if I owned the same house but I lost my job? I would have the same tax...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2012: Committee Stage (19 Dec 2012)

John Crown: Every public servant and every Minister should speak for themselves. Every chief executive officer in a Department in the Civil Service should be given the job in rotation once a week of taking a press conference and answering questions unspun. We should end mandatory retirement so that people who wish to continue working do not become dependent on the State. We should have a once-off...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2012: Committee Stage (19 Dec 2012)

John Crown: I will not get involved in any recrimination, name calling or umbrage. I know the Minister is a caring person. I also know she is not an unthoughtful person. In the big spectrum of contemporary politicians she would be from a tradition that puts some thought and - to use what is considered a bad word but it should not be - "ideological" inspiration into how she acts. I am not being...

Seanad: Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (19 Dec 2012)

John Crown: I know we are working to a timeline and perhaps I misunderstood how the Order of Business was to run. However, there are a few points I want to make, more on the general tenor of the Bill. When I heard my colleague talk earlier about the evil markets, I was reminded of the comparethemarket.com advertisement, on which the little meerkat accused people of confusing the term "compare the...

Seanad: Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (19 Dec 2012)

John Crown: I have been informed we have two minutes left.

Seanad: Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (19 Dec 2012)

John Crown: If I stop speaking now, will Senator Jillian van Turnhout's amendment be debated? If so, I will yield.

Seanad: Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (19 Dec 2012)

John Crown: My understanding is that everything is to be guillotined at 1.30 p.m. and that no other amendments will be discussed. As this is my chance to speak, I am sorry-----

Seanad: Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (19 Dec 2012)

John Crown: I will gladly yield to Senator Jillian van Turnhout if her amendment can be heard.

Seanad: Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (19 Dec 2012)

John Crown: Will it be heard?

Seanad: Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2012: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (19 Dec 2012)

John Crown: I will skip the point I wanted to make about consultants and focus on the issue of inputs and outputs, on which I am very sympathetic to the Minister's view. There is a necessity to focus on outputs, but there are still some inputs which are being yanked up, one of which is the appointing of financial coaches to teach people in a system which we believe will be obsolete in one or two years,...

Seanad: Social Welfare Bill 2012: Second Stage (Resumed) (18 Dec 2012)

John Crown: I know the Minister is not an uncaring, unthoughtful or unkind person. However, the specific cuts to the carer's respite grant will come across as unkind and I believe they were not well thought through. I know it will be irritating to hear criticism from some folks who, to varying degrees, have been responsible for the predicament in which the Minister finds herself. It is difficult to...

Seanad: Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2012: Second Stage (13 Dec 2012)

John Crown: With respect, what is proposed today is to remove the right of the general practitioner to send the child. The Minister would not send the child to the surgeon inappropriately because------

Seanad: Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2012: Second Stage (13 Dec 2012)

John Crown: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2012: Second Stage (13 Dec 2012)

John Crown: I welcome the Minister. I will broadly support the Bill while taking on board all of the reservations raised by Senator Barrett. The only hopeful way to consider this legislation is to view it strictly as an interim measure until the big bang of major reform into a universal, single-tier insurance-based health care system occurs. I hope it occurs yesterday. The Minister has committed to...

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Dec 2012)

John Crown: I want to draw the attention of the Members of the House to an article in the front of today's Irish Examiner entitled, "HSE to restrict 20 most common surgeries", which states that access to hip replacements and skin operations will be restricted. I would be insistent that the Leader would ask the Minister to clarify for us, preferably in this House, exactly what is this change in policy....

Seanad: Order of Business (13 Dec 2012)

John Crown: This is a far-reaching change in policy. Let me add parenthetically, not apropos of this, that as someone who has been a frequent trenchant critic of the role the Provisional IRA and its Sinn Féin wing had in propagating the Northern Ireland conflict for 30-odd years beyond the Sunningdale Agreement because they thought they could be dumb enough to bomb the majority living in Northern...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Cystic Fibrosis Unit: Discussion (13 Dec 2012)

John Crown: I do not share this confidence either. We could have a severe winter, bad flu or an outbreak of the winter vomiting bug. These events happen and need to be planned for. I am not convinced we have heard any real cogent credible plan which ring-fences the number of beds needed for people with cystic fibrosis. This has been a very waffly exercise. I have not been served so much waffle since...