Results 1,301-1,320 of 5,732 for speaker:Fidelma Healy Eames

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: IBRC Mortgage Loan Book (26 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: I am just asking the Minister of State to answer those questions.

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: IBRC Mortgage Loan Book (26 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: I welcome the Minister of State. I have just spent the past two and half hours discussing the sale of the Irish Nationwide loan book via the IBRC at the meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform. We are talking about 13,000 mortgages. We need to step back from the issue and say, as the Minister of State and I know, that property rights are deeply...

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: Come on. Enforce it on the North too.

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: We have learnt that there will be a voluntary sign-up to the CCMA by the foreign bidders for the Irish Nationwide Building Society loan book, which is progress, but to have this on a voluntary basis is not adequate. It must be mandatory. The second highest right in the Constitution is to property. That is how high that right is. There must be mandatory protection for homeowners. The...

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: It needs to be put on the record at this time as well. This is apt.

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: I certainly will. I agree with Senator Colm Burke. I met the GPs this morning. The contract for free GP care for those under six is flawed and unworkable. All of the GPs I met this morning are not signing up to it. Is that what we want? It could take six weeks or two months for one's child under six to be seen because there will be a clustering of GPs in certain locations who may sign up...

Seanad: Community Courts: Motion (25 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: I am delighted to support this proposal, which is sound educationally and socially. Its intention is positive and it could have a profound impact on society. I am supporting this for a few reasons. First, young people can be vulnerable and if they get on the wrong side of the law early, it can start a dangerous pattern. I am encouraged by the model of a community because it may not turn...

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: I would like the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, to come to the House for a broad-ranging debate on mortgage and debt solutions. Last night I hosted a public meeting in Oranmore. There was a public element, as well as private one-to-one consultations with personal insolvency practitioners. Mr. David Hall, whom we all know, was present and approximately 90 people attended. It...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: Will it be debated in the House?

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: That makes sense.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: Following on from Senator Crown's words, I am concerned as the plot thickens around the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission review. Only one question now counts - has the public confidence in this review? It does not. To achieve confidence, it is becoming clear that on this issue alone, the Minister, Deputy Shatter, must step aside. He is a fine Minister with an incredible work...

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: The legal protection for whistleblowers must continue. Given everything that has emerged, we do not know for sure whether that protection ever existed. I look forward to the Deputy Leader's response.

Seanad: Order of Business (20 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Mental Health Services Provision: Motion (19 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: On a point of order, I want to clarify a point for the Minister. I am not in any way denigrating the good service offered by Galway University Hospital. The problem is the time is not right and it is unfair to Ballinasloe and Galway. It should not be done until the unit is built.

Seanad: Mental Health Services Provision: Motion (19 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: That is what this motion is about.

Seanad: Mental Health Services Provision: Motion (19 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: I welcome the Minister of State. I ask her seriously to consider putting the brakes on and offering an independent review of the marking scheme that is taking beds away from Ballinasloe. I have looked at the facts. The unit for Galway is not due to be in place until March 2015. I serve Galway city. University College Hospital Galway is overcrowded. It is our centre of excellence for...

Seanad: Mental Health Services Provision: Motion (19 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: I am putting this on the record. I want to see University College Hospital Galway maintained as a centre of excellence. I do not want to see people under so much pressure all for the swipe of a pen. Meanwhile, Ballinasloe is almost written off the map. Senators such as Senator Michael Mullins and others have tried for many years to put Ballinasloe on the map. Now we learn there is an...

Seanad: Teaching Council of Ireland: Statements (19 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: I thank Seanadóir Ó Domhnaill and the Acting Chairman. I also welcome the Minister to the House. We know that the key to a nation's future is the quality of its education and key to that is the quality of its teachers. I very much welcome this dimension within the new Teaching Council Act and the fact that 87,000 teachers have now registered is critical. I did speak to Thomas...

Seanad: Teaching Council of Ireland: Statements (19 Feb 2014)

Fidelma Healy Eames: The matter is critical. I know about the culture, having gone into schools. I have seen individual teachers being enthusiastic yet when I saw them in a classroom they had been flattened. The culture in a school is very powerful.