Results 21-40 of 1,013 for speaker:Colette Kelleher

Select Committee on the Future of Healthcare: Citizen-Centred Health Care: Civil Engagement (5 Oct 2016)

Colette Kelleher: Unfortunately, it is both. The organisation and culture issues cannot be underestimated and neither can the inflexibility of the systems. Expenditure on social care services for people with disabilities is €1.5 billion but it is very tied up. If people say they want services delivered differently, it is extraordinarily difficult to do that in response to them. We might have the...

Select Committee on the Future of Healthcare: Citizen-Centred Health Care: Civil Engagement (5 Oct 2016)

Colette Kelleher: The local health forums suggested in my submission are a way into that. As well as the commissioners, which are the HSE, and citizens, one has the organisations that are concerned or involved. They could be advocacy or service delivery organisations and sometimes they are both. The Cork city homeless forum was a brilliant example of that in the noughties. The HSE, Cork City Council and...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Neuro-Rehabilitation Services (12 Oct 2016)

Colette Kelleher: I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Finian McGrath. I also welcome the increased health spending announced in yesterday's budget, particularly provisions for home-care services and people with disabilities. With more money, the major challenge now is to ensure that the announcement translates into the much-needed services and supports for people who need...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Neuro-Rehabilitation Services (12 Oct 2016)

Colette Kelleher: I take the point. It is a great policy but it was meant to run to 2015 and we are now in 2016. There is an implementation plan, a framework, a steering group and reconfiguration. When will all these translate into inpatient beds and community teams, and when will the developments in the hospital be completed? Is there enough in the budget this year to do all of this? Should we see it...

Seanad: Rent Certainty (No. 2) Bill 2016: Second Stage (12 Oct 2016)

Colette Kelleher: I am delighted to support this Bill. I believe the proposal to link any increase or decrease in rent, arising from a rent review, to the consumer price index as set by the Central Statistics Office to be a modest and sensible proposal that will go some way to providing stability in a very volatile and often broken housing market. This call for full rent certainty is supported by a range of...

Seanad: Rent Certainty (No. 2) Bill 2016: Second Stage (12 Oct 2016)

Colette Kelleher: Just as one sets rules for young children about the number of sweets they can eat on a Sunday, unstable markets require regulations to operate properly. This includes regulations on quality and standards in people's homes, which the previous Senator mentioned. Standards and expectations rightly rise. For the first year of my life, I lived in a house with an outside toilet. Nobody would...

Seanad: Rent Certainty (No. 2) Bill 2016: Second Stage (12 Oct 2016)

Colette Kelleher: The rent stability measures introduced in 2015 have not had the desired effect of slowing down the market and off-setting rising rents. The Simon Communities' report "Locked Out Of The Market V: The Gap between Rent Supplement/HAP Limits and Market Rents", published last week, showed that in the year to the second quarter of 2016, rents increased by 18.2% in Cork city; 10% in Dublin city...

Seanad: Children and Youth Affairs: Statements (18 Oct 2016)

Colette Kelleher: In a previous life, I worked in the UK for ten years as a child care campaigner turned politician and, therefore, the Minister and I may share common ground. The budget breakthrough in 2017 was phenomenal and only somebody who has worked in the sector and who has seen what happens behind the scenes could judge that. I commend the breakthrough because, as Senator Higgins said, child care is...

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Oct 2016)

Colette Kelleher: I call for a debate in the House on Ireland's response to the Syrian crisis and in particular our plans to help the child refugees who are fleeing Syria alone. This issue has been raised by other Members of the House, including by Senator Ray Butler last week. Night after night on television we watch helplessly the heartache of ordinary people. These people are like us and we wonder what...

Seanad: Fire Safety in Traveller Accommodation: Statements (19 Oct 2016)

Colette Kelleher: I thank the Leader for arranging this debate and the Minister for taking time to come to the House for this debate. I extend a warm welcome to the visitors in the Gallery who have travelled especially to be present. Some of them live with the daily reality of what we are discussing. On 27 September, on the Order of Business, I read out the names of the ten people who tragically died in the...

Seanad: Corporate Manslaughter (No. 2) Bill 2016: Second Stage (26 Oct 2016)

Colette Kelleher: She has put it up to me now.

Seanad: Corporate Manslaughter (No. 2) Bill 2016: Second Stage (26 Oct 2016)

Colette Kelleher: I support Senator Mark Daly's Corporate Manslaughter (No. 2) Bill. Eleven years later, it will close a serious legal gap identified by the Law Reform Commission in its 2005 report on corporate killing. Above all, it will act in a preventive way. I speak as a recently stepped down senior manager for an organisation which employed 1,000 staff. I was responsible for providing services and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Recognition of Traveller Ethnicity: Discussion (26 Oct 2016)

Colette Kelleher: I am not known to be.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Recognition of Traveller Ethnicity: Discussion (26 Oct 2016)

Colette Kelleher: I thank the Chairman. I thank the witnesses for their wonderful presentation and kind words. I went to the Traveller Counselling Service conference in Dublin Castle last week, which was really well attended and included two Ministers. I was struck by the positivity of the conference even in the face of adversity. There were people there who in recent weeks had lost young men to suicide,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Children with Special Educational Needs: Discussion (27 Oct 2016)

Colette Kelleher: I am a visitor - a gatecrasher.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Children with Special Educational Needs: Discussion (27 Oct 2016)

Colette Kelleher: There is a big reorganisation of local therapy services called "Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People". What links has the Department of Education and Skills made with that health service reorganisation? It would probably not be wise to split the education therapies from the health-related therapies because it is being done on a geographical basis. How soon will...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Children with Special Educational Needs: Discussion (27 Oct 2016)

Colette Kelleher: I apologise but I have to leave It is rude to have asked a question and not to wait for the answer, but I will tune in to the Oireachtas television service to hear the answers. I thank the witnesses.

Seanad: Heritage Bill 2016: Committee Stage (9 Nov 2016)

Colette Kelleher: Today, the Minister is asking the Seanad to sign a blank cheque, particularly with regard to section 8(3), which I know does not relate to the amendment at hand. As a result, I am opposing this Bill for the sake of our beautiful countryside. I will address the amendment at hand. This Bill is poorly structured and does nothing to address road safety issues. Road safety has been raised as...

Seanad: Health (Amendment) (Professional Home Care) Bill 2016: Second Stage (9 Nov 2016)

Colette Kelleher: I strongly support the Health (Amendment) (Professional Home Care) Bill 2016, as presented by my fellow Senators, Senators Hopkins, Richmond and Colm Burke, during Private Members' time. Home care enables people who have a disability, people living with a chronic condition, people with dementia, people who are frail or elderly. Home care enables people to live well with their disability,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Recognition of Traveller Ethnicity: Discussion (9 Nov 2016)

Colette Kelleher: The case is so strong and has been so clearly made that it is terrible that the witnesses have to go to the trouble of making it again but we will push on. If the Taoiseach or Minister stood up today in the Dáil and recognised Travellers, as this committee recommended two years ago in 2014, what would be the impact on the morale and mental health of Travellers, particularly in the wake...