Results 13,001-13,020 of 15,491 for speaker:Eamon Gilmore

Order of Business (29 Nov 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: The nursing homes support scheme Bill is of serious concern to people around the country but it has not even been published. If the Government has any intention of railroading that Bill through the House it will meet with almighty resistance. The same applies to any other Bill. Will the Tánaiste tell us what Bills the Government will put on the Dáil Order Paper between now and Christmas?...

Order of Business (29 Nov 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: There is a long-standing practice which I understood Government had accepted that there would be a period of two weeks between the publication of a Bill and the commencement of Second Stage, except when emergency legislation was required. Normal practice allows a decent time for Committee and Report Stages. The Nursing Home Support Scheme Bill has not yet been published. The Tánaiste says...

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

Eamon Gilmore: I thank every Member of the House who has contributed to this debate. It has been a long time since we had a Private Members' debate that attracted such a full house——

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

Eamon Gilmore: ——and in which every party leader participated. The Minister, Deputy Harney, made a very eloquent speech last night. She set out what she wanted to do and called on us all to rally in support. It would have been a credible speech if she had made it as she started her term as Minister for Health and Children. The Minister and her colleagues have been in government — responsible for...

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

Eamon Gilmore: In her speech, the Minister, Deputy Harney, called for a bipartisan approach to the issue of cancer care. The Minister, Deputy Gormley, called for consensus. The Minister, Deputy Cowen, called for more debate. I do not disagree with any of that. When the legislation that established the Health Service Executive was being debated in this House in 2004, Deputies on this side of the House...

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

Eamon Gilmore: The Government, which is now calling for a bipartisan approach, guillotined the debate on the Health Bill 2004 to force it through the House.

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

Eamon Gilmore: There was no bipartisanship when the Minister reneged on her promise to give 200,000 additional medical cards to people in this country.

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

Eamon Gilmore: There has been no bipartisanship on the issue of co-location.

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

Eamon Gilmore: If anything, a majority of the Members of this House opposed the co-location policy over the course of the last general election.

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

Eamon Gilmore: It is not merely the case that the Minister has failed to secure a bipartisan approach for the policy she is pursuing — she does not even have a mandate for it. One can only have genuine bipartisanship when one has an agreement on policy. It is quite rich of the Minister to ask the Opposition to support her policy when the Minister of State who was sitting beside her when she made that...

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

Eamon Gilmore: I would like to be clear on cancer policy . Despite what some people are saying, this is not about politics. Deputy O'Sullivan has stated publicly, as Deputy McManus did when she was our health spokesperson, that the Labour Party supports the cancer strategy and the centres of excellence. The provision of an additional centre in the north west should be debated and discussed. The problem...

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

Eamon Gilmore: ——he makes the fair point that while promises of world-class centres of excellence, best practice and the messiah from Vancouver sound great, they cannot disguise the lack of capacity in existing hospitals, which is the single biggest contributor to the current crisis.

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

Eamon Gilmore: The most pathetic part of the speech made last night by the Minister for Health and Children was when she described the lonely position she found herself in last Wednesday, when she struggled to get her own officials and officials from the Health Service Executive to explain why the 97 women in Portlaoise had not been notified and why an additional crisis had developed. The Minister, Deputy...

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

Eamon Gilmore: She has all these powers under the Health Act 2004. She is the ultimate authority for the health service under the Ministers and Secretaries Acts. The people with whom she was struggling are well-paid officers of the State for whom she approved bonuses in addition to the salaries they are already paid, presumably on the basis that they were doing a good job. However, she was unable to get...

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

Eamon Gilmore: Where is the report? Where is the explanation? What action has been taken? We know there is a report in draft form somewhere, but the Minister has said she is not allowed to see it. It is buried somewhere beneath a pile of lawyers and is likely to stay there for a long time.

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

Eamon Gilmore: All of this was not entirely new. The Minister's attention was drawn to the problems in Portlaoise in this regard when Dr. Peter Naughton wrote a letter to the Department two years ago. The Minister passed the letter on for answer by the HSE as if it were a routine parliamentary question. We are not talking about accountability for administrative issues. In the past, we have debated...

Written Answers — Illegal Immigrants: Illegal Immigrants (28 Nov 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: Question 72: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the steps he plans to take to establish the number of people from other countries working illegally here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31136/07]

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

Eamon Gilmore: We do not know that because the report has not been published yet.

Departmental Bodies. (28 Nov 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: Ireland.com.

Departmental Bodies. (28 Nov 2007)

Eamon Gilmore: The Minister for Health and Children stated that, until last Wednesday, she did not know of the review of ultrasounds in Portlaoise. Sometime beforehand, newspapers had reported that such a review was being carried out. Did the communications unit miss that story as well or was it communicated to the Department of Health and Children? My difficulty in this regard and with the Taoiseach's...