Results 15,661-15,680 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: The current contract was finalised in the mid-1990s and I was not around for it.
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: Deputy McManus raised the issue of medical cards. For the Deputy to compare the number of medical cards in terms of a percentage of the population given the situation in 1997 does not stand up. In 1997 there was 11% unemployment and 6% long-term unemployment and take-home pay was 45% lower. There is no comparison.
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: I understand the Labour Party used to have a policy to provide medical cards and universal insurance to the whole population.
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: I am not using a script.
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: I want to answer the points made by the Deputy. Any target set must be for X% of the population, regardless of prosperity or income. These are not appropriate to target setting. With regard to children under five, the Government has often been criticised by the Opposition for universal coverage for the over-70s on the basis that well-off people ââ
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: Deputy Twomey said to me that well-off people were getting medical cards, but now he suggests that children under five, regardless of the circumstances of their parents, should be covered. What should happen when the child is six, seven or eight?
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: There are 900,000 young people under the age of 16, 400,000 of whom are covered by health insurance taken out by their parents, but Deputy Twomey now proposes that taxpayers should pay for that.
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: Will those young people be able to access private hospitals or what hospitals and services will they be able to access? What will happen when they are 17? Will Deputy Twomey's proposal be compulsory and will the service be provided free to all of them? These are significant issues. I must be honest about this. Twenty years ago, it was Progressive Democrats policy to ensure universal...
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: It is.
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: Let the Deputy look at what insurers are doing all over the world with regard to closing hospitals.
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: I am dealing with that.
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: On the issue of nurses, they make up the largest number in the health care system at 35% of the workforce. We have the highest ratio of nurses in the health system, not just registered nurses, with 15.5 per 1,000, the highest in the OECD. In the workforce there are 12.2 nurses per 1,000. In Canada that figure is seven, across the EU it is approximately 8.5 and in the UK it is eight. We...
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: Within the health system I meet well motivated individuals from different specialties and each one tells me we need so many beds for each specialty. If I added them all up, we would need to double the number of beds we have in the system. We cannot adopt a piecemeal approach. We must work on the basis that everybody works together to deliver the service and that the system responds to...
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: I was not. That is not correct, as the HIA has confirmed.
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: The Deputy is welcome to attend the conference.
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: The Deputy, with Deputy McManus, could listen to the health debate.
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: To which hospital is the Deputy referring?
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: Is it a public hospital?
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: The figure is 60,000.
- Health Service Reform: Motion (6 Feb 2007)
Mary Harney: I am pleased to note the figure has increased rapidly. The publicity campaign is working.