Results 201-220 of 1,253 for speaker:John Crown

Seanad: Access to Cancer Treatment Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Jul 2012)

John Crown: I am sorry. I could not hear Senator Gilroy.

Seanad: Access to Cancer Treatment Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Jul 2012)

John Crown: We will be pleased to accept that amendment.

Seanad: Access to Cancer Treatment Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Jul 2012)

John Crown: On a point of information, has it been confirmed, officially and on the record, that Dr. O'Reilly was responsible for the script?

Seanad: Access to Cancer Treatment Bill 2012: Second Stage (11 Jul 2012)

John Crown: It is a cause for grave concern. If Dr. O'Reilly really believes that the European Medicines Agency approved drugs without due concern for health and safety, there is something very wrong with our democracy.

Seanad: Developments in the European Union and Ireland's Presidency of the European Council: Statements with An Taoiseach (18 Jul 2012)

John Crown: This son of a Leitrim emigrant who became a taxi driver in New York is honoured to have the opportunity to address the Taoiseach in this House. I ask him to put one big picture item on his agenda for the Presidency, namely, a more fundamental investigation of the real nature of the current economic crisis. It is frequently billed as a purely fiscal or financial crisis involving debt,...

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Sep 2012)

John Crown: I seek, through the Leader, clarification from the Minister for Health on a number of events in the health sector in the past week or two. I am not referring to the widely publicised spat between the Minister for Health and one of his ministerial colleagues. To anyone looking at it objectively, it is wholly predictable when we cobble together coalitions between parties of widely diverse...

Seanad: Health Service Executive (Governance) Bill 2012: Second Stage (26 Sep 2012)

John Crown: I was asked in public last week whether I would have voted to express confidence in the Minister last weekend had I had the opportunity to do so; I state unambiguously that I would have done so.

Seanad: Health Service Executive (Governance) Bill 2012: Second Stage (26 Sep 2012)

John Crown: The Minister inherited a very difficult job in very difficult circumstances. He set his face into the wind with the reform agenda, which will be difficult to implement. He has and continues to enjoy my confidence. It is appropriate to point out at this stage that the Minister is the fifth, or possibly sixth, Minister under whom I have worked as a doctor in Ireland since 1996. Of the last...

Seanad: Health Service Executive (Governance) Bill 2012: Second Stage (26 Sep 2012)

John Crown: I thank the Minister for his attention and wish him well in the rest of this work. If I have referred to deckchairs on Titanic, this has not been a speech on maritime safety. My remarks last week about a ten-month waiting list for abortions seemed to make people believe that I was actually discussing abortion.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Role and Functions: Discussion with Irish Medicines Board (27 Sep 2012)

John Crown: I would have to say that the IMB has a very good reputation internationally for this aspect of its work in terms of dealing with clinical trials applications expeditiously and efficiently. Ireland is perceived by international academic organisations as being a user-friendly place to do high-quality clinical trials.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Role and Functions: Discussion with Irish Medicines Board (27 Sep 2012)

John Crown: I will make a brief point, more for the information of the committee members than for the IMB witnesses. There are two separate issues I would not like to see get blurred. We as a nation have to look critically at the issue of drug pricing. I am committed, wearing both this hat and my day job hat, to our moving wholesale to generic prescribing. I am very comfortable with generic...

Seanad: Radical Seanad Reform Through Legislative Change: Statements (3 Oct 2012)

John Crown: I must declare an interest. When I ran for what has been my one and I suspect only election for Seanad Éireann last year I stated near the beginning of my campaign leaflet that one of my agenda items was the reform or abolition of the currently undemocratic Seanad. That is why I welcome the debate and, unlike Senator Paul Coghlan, I do not think it is premature. The prematurity is, if one...

Seanad: Radical Seanad Reform Through Legislative Change: Statements (3 Oct 2012)

John Crown: The prematurity is predicated on the assumption that we are having a debate because of an imminent referendum that could lead to its abolition. That is the wrong way to look at it. The debate is not premature but post-mature and overdue. We have had a ten-month pregnancy. The discussion should have taken place on many occasions and now that it is, we are left vulnerable to the accusation...

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Oct 2012)

John Crown: Last night the US State Department expressed its concern to the Government of Bahrain regarding the fact that the appeal of the Bahraini medical staff had been rejected and that these individuals, some of whom have been given very lengthy sentences, had been reincarcerated. As Members will be aware - I am grateful to them for this - last year the House unanimously passed a resolution asking...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Childhood Obesity: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Oct 2012)

John Crown: I thank the delegates. I am sorry I was not present for the entire presentation. I am a doctor and practise cancer medicine. In our field in the past decade there has been a greatly increased focus on diet and obesity. It is now appreciated that it is one of the great unappreciated risk factors for a number of cancers. Statistics have emerged which show that if there was a substantial...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Childhood Obesity: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Oct 2012)

John Crown: I understand that. However, part of me thinks that if someone is responsible, not terribly well off and likes to take their kids out once a week for a meal at McDonalds, that is not so bad. The problem is with people who are doing it on a daily basis or three times a week and are not giving their kids a balanced diet. Why should we punish the person who has an occasional hamburger by...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Childhood Obesity: Discussion (Resumed) (4 Oct 2012)

John Crown: I have to be careful how I ask this question, especially with the media present, because I am conscious of public health issues. Does Dr. Foley-Nolan have any concern that the possibility of causing eating disorders through being conscious of weight made people shy away from the issue of addressing children's weight? I have a personal professional perspective on this. I think we became...

Seanad: Primary Care Centres: Motion (10 Oct 2012)

John Crown: I will not say too much this evening other than that I would share some interest in seeing a little clarification on the decision-making process that was involved in the primary care centres, but I will not be supporting this motion. I am not a party member. I was a fairly vocal critic of aspects of policy of the outgoing Government. Since coming into this House I have worked very closely...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Childhood Obesity: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Oct 2012)

John Crown: I would like the record to reflect the fact that the joke Deputy Robert Dowds and I were sharing was in response to Deputy Mary Mitchell O'Connor's remarks about traffic lights, etc. It was a joke about driving and had nothing to do with anything we were discussing at this meeting.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Childhood Obesity: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Oct 2012)

John Crown: Yes, I should stop digging. The issue of diet has become a much larger consideration in my professional life during the past decade. At our previous meeting I indicated that I had undergone a road-to-Damascus like conversion on the dietary front approximately 12 years ago, which resulted in my losing in the region of 25 kg. I have largely managed to keep that weight off in the intervening...