Ruairi Quinn is a Labour Party TD (Member of Parliament) for the Dublin South East constituency.
He represents Donnybrook, Sandymount, Ranelagh, Rathmines, Rathgar, Milltown, Terenure, Harold's Cross, the south east Inner City, Ringsend, Irishtown and Ballsbridge. Ruairi has been a public representative for the area since 1973, and lives in Sandymount.
He is a former Minister for Finance, Leader of the Labour Party, Chairman of the European Council of Finance Ministers (ECOFIN) and is currently Vice President and Treasurer of the Party of European Socialists.
On this website, you can see the latest issues Ruairi is dealing with, as well as details of his current campaigns. Why not click on our RSS feed to keep up to date?
Last week saw the McGill summer school take place in Glenties, Co. Donegal.
There was a good Labour presence at the event and speeches by a number of Labour TDs illustrate the reforms Labour would deliver if in government.
Eamon Gilmore’s speech set out his long-term vision for a New Republic, Pat Rabbitte’s talked about meangingful and effective political reform, while Sean Sherlock presented a vision of what geunine public sector reform should be.
Labour has the ideas, the vision and the policy to make Ireland a better place and to generate a recovery in our economy and our society.
The Labour Party proposed the following amendment during the Report Stage of the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill on 30th June 2010. This amendment would require the HSE to maintain St. Luke’s Hospital for the treatment of cancer.
In page 4, lines 29 to 31, to delete all words from and including “may” in line 29 down to and including “section” in line 31 and substitute the following:
“may not dispose of any land (including buildings) vested in it by this section and must continue to use the land (including buildings) vested in it by this section for medical purposes related to the treatment of cancer in public patients in a manner and form determined by the Executive with the consent of the Minister”.
I am sorry to say that Fianna Fail and the Green Party voted it down by 70 votes to 66.
The Bill has now been passed and the HSE will assume control of St. Luke’s Hospital. The Government has said it will implement the closure of St. Luke’s in 2014, but it could happen at any stage.
I am very disappointed that the Minister for Health, Mary Harney TD, has not listened to the many supporters of St. Luke’s hospital.
You can read my Report Stage speech in full below.
Below is the video of my speech made in the Dáil today during the Motion of No Confidence in Táoiseach Brian Cowen. You can read the text of the speech further below.
The purpose of the Bill is to provide for the dissolution of Saint Luke’s Hospital Board in Rathgar, Dublin 6 and the transfer of its employees, assets and liabilities to the Health Service Executive.
I have used St. Luke’s in the past and know first-hand about the excellent service it provides to its patients.
You can read some of the coverage about my speech here.
A report in this week’s Irish Times that universities will have to face further cuts in their budgets is disappointing but unsurprising. The government’s higher education strategy is in complete disarray because of the massive economic crisis Ireland is currently experiencing.
Funding has been repeatedly yet the number of students is still growing, particularly as high unemployment is driving the demand for upskilling and re-training.
The government have decided to either cap numbers attending third level or to allow our universities to decline in their quality of teaching.
Neither choice is ideal. Fianna Fail and the Green Party have inflicted serious damage on our higher education system by destroying the public finances.
Re-introducing third level fees is not a feasible option because they already exist in the form of the registration charge. Any revenues raised by higher fees will not be spent on higher education.
The National Skills Strategy calls for 72% of Leaving Cert Students to go on to third level by 2020. This is a welcome target but ring-fenced funding for education is required if the government wishes to meet this target. I suspect the government has already abandoned its commitment to a knowledge economy.
The Employment Control Framework has led to serious shortages of teaching staff in many Departments and universities have not been given the flexibility to replace staff. In some colleges, there are subjects that are no longer taught as they have lost all their teaching staff through retirement.
This Framework needs to be reviewed by the Minister for Education and Skills so as to allow university management allocate resources as they see fit.
