Results 12,181-12,200 of 19,445 for speaker:Brian Cowen

Order of Business (29 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: The Minister for Health and Children has often enunciated the full details of how it would work.

Order of Business (29 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: The Bill will be debated when it comes forward because the Minister is anxious to proceed with it. The legislation provides for a new nursing home support scheme, the final details of which are being addressed.

Order of Business (29 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: The Minister proposes to publish the Bill following Government approval and have the legislation in place in time for the new year.

Order of Business (29 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: A significant amount of legislation was cleared before the election was called.We have said we will publish the majority of the Bills before the next session. The Whips will decide on the balance of the work for the House in this session but that includes the budget, the Social Welfare Bill, the nursing homes support scheme Bill, the Appropriation Bill and there is the possibility of another...

Order of Business (29 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: The Minister has several times enunciated the content and political direction of that Bill in the past few months.

Order of Business (29 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: I have outlined the position on the nursing home Bill and as soon as it is published the arrangements will be made for it to be taken in the House. The issue requires urgent attention. Many families are waiting for it to ensure that a fair deal is available to all. It will not affect people who are now in long-term nursing home care. It will provide arrangements for the future to ensure...

Order of Business (29 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: There are people who unfortunately have to sell their homes under the existing system.

Order of Business (29 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: We will make sure that situation does not arise. It is the old story here, where everyone says they are talking about reform but continue to talk about the status quo.

Order of Business (29 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: That Bill provides for social housing reforms aimed at improving services and their delivery, including strengthening local authority powers to deal with anti-social behaviour, expanding the path to home ownership for social housing tenants and providing for the rental accommodation scheme. The Bill is due next year and our capital programmes contain a strong commitment to enhance the...

Order of Business (29 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: I apologise to Deputy McCormack as I did not hear him.

Order of Business (29 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: The Ceann Comhairle's suggestion would meet more fruitful results than coming directly to me on this matter.

Order of Business (29 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: This is a matter for the Whips but, to take up Deputy O'Sullivan's point, it is important that this House plays a role in all services, rather than seek to undermine them. It is important to point out that 96,000 people who, unfortunately, have this disease were diagnosed properly and that is 75% more than ten years ago. BreastCheck is being rolled out and many positive things are happening.

Order of Business (29 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: The genesis of this strategy was the 1996 cancer care strategy of Deputy Michael Noonan and that is to his credit. As Minister for Health and Children, I brought forward a cardiovascular strategy——

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: The five short minutes I have in this debate are inadequate for the number of issues which have arisen. We require more debate in this House on issues like this, not just arising from crises coming up from day to day or week to week.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: We need a far more general debate.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: There is no problem about that. We have allowed the narrative about health to be dictated in the political culture of this country on the basis of the presumption that we have a perfect system, and if a problem arises, the person with ministerial responsibility should resign on every occasion. We need to bring into our debate that reform is the buzzword of every political progressive and...

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: It does a disservice. At the moment we have a public and private health care system. I do not want this argument to take up all the three or four short minutes I have in defending the Minister.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: The idea of co-location is really about making sure we have the cheapest way of getting more beds into the system on a co-located basis.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: That is not the chief thrust of my argument, which is as follows. We also heard in this House because of the absence of analysis and thinking about this area the idea that we should revert back to the health board system because in some way that was a better system.

Confidence in Minister for Health and Children: Motion (Resumed) (28 Nov 2007)

Brian Cowen: Nowhere is that true, even considering what happened in Portlaoise, about which I know because I was Minister for Health and Children at the time. The problem has always been the argument not just at political level but also at medical political level, which has been far more partisan in many respects when it comes to debates about health and the need for change. The real issue is that in...