Results 2,561-2,580 of 11,255 for speaker:Colm Burke

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Mar 2018)

Colm Burke: They are paying the staff the same rate as the HSE.

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Mar 2018)

Colm Burke: They are and if the Senator wishes to debate it I have no problem-----

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Mar 2018)

Colm Burke: If the Senator wants the taxpayer to pay €35 per hour-----

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Mar 2018)

Colm Burke: I have no problem with €35 per hour being charged to the taxpayer but it is important that the taxpayer realises-----

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Mar 2018)

Colm Burke: It is important that the taxpayers realise what is happening. It is costing the HSE €35 per hour to provide home care per hour per patient. There is now a policy in the HSE of stopping people from the private sector without any cost analysis of what it is costing the taxpayer to provide that home care. I am seriously concerned about that. I can give another example relating to the...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Home Help Service Expenditure (27 Mar 2018)

Colm Burke: I welcome the Minister and very much appreciate him taking the time to deal with this matter which concerns a cost analysis undertaken in the HSE of the provision of home care services. I raise the issue because, on the one hand, the private sector is being criticised severely for the charges it requires people who need home help to pay and, on the other, is being compared with the HSE in...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Home Help Service Expenditure (27 Mar 2018)

Colm Burke: I accept fully what the Minister of State is telling me but has the HSE or the Department ever sat down and done a detailed cost analysis within the HSE because we should not be comparing like with like in respect of the private sector and the HSE? I believe that the cost of the HSE delivering the same service as that delivered by the private sector could be up to between €30 to...

Seanad: An Bille um an Séú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht 2018: An Dara Céim - Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2018: Second Stage (27 Mar 2018)

Colm Burke: I welcome the Minister and thank him for steering this Bill through Dáil Éireann before introducing it in the Seanad tonight. The legislation proposes to afford the electorate an opportunity to give their decision on whether the eighth amendment to the Constitution should be left in place or removed. The purpose of the debate is to allow Senators to discuss the Bill to facilitate...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals on Health Technology Assessment (28 Mar 2018)

Colm Burke: I thank the witnesses for their presentations. My apologies for being late. I had to be in the Seanad. The problem I am encountering is that the pharmaceutical companies are expressing their frustration to us with the process here. In our report on orphan drugs we referred to what occurred in Scotland. It was having the same problem and it set up a new process for dealing with it. With...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals on Health Technology Assessment (28 Mar 2018)

Colm Burke: On the orphan drug issue, the frustration I am talking about is that on average - therefore sometimes it takes longer than this - it takes 23 months for a decision to be made. This is a process the pharmaceutical companies finds frustrating since an assessment had already been done in other countries yet we are then going through the process again. It takes 23 months before any answer is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals on Health Technology Assessment (28 Mar 2018)

Colm Burke: Is it possible to get information on the number of applications that have gone through in recent years? From the committee's perspective, we are being constantly contacted by the pharmaceutical companies and it would be helpful for us if we had those figures and the length of time it took to process applications.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals on Health Technology Assessment (28 Mar 2018)

Colm Burke: I want to raise the issue of the report on orphan drugs. Has the committee formally written to the Minister sending him that report?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals on Health Technology Assessment (28 Mar 2018)

Colm Burke: Has it been formally sent to the Minster rather than the Department? It is important that we correspond with the Minister.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals on Health Technology Assessment (28 Mar 2018)

Colm Burke: I thank the Chairman.

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (29 Mar 2018)

Colm Burke: In the next few months, Ministers will meet to plan the budget for 2019. It is appropriate that we have a debate here on taxation. Some of the complaints I now receive from employers, particularly with regard to doctors and nurses, are about going into the higher tax bracket once they go over €34,500 in earnings and comparing this with taxation levels in Northern Ireland and the UK....

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Apr 2018)

Colm Burke: Several people referred to the delivery of housing. It is important to note that in the context of the delivery of student apartments, over 2,600 bed units have been provided in the past 18 months. Another 5,000 are under construction and the target is 21,000 units by 2024. This will remove approximately 5,000 houses from student accommodation and make them available to those working or...

Seanad: Fodder Shortage: Motion (18 Apr 2018)

Colm Burke: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Doyle. There has been a change in farming over recent years. We have gone on to a high stocking rate, which poses challenges. I come from a farming background, and although some would say that my own local area is half urban and half rural, the rural area is one where there is very intense farming. There is a lot of dairy farming and it is set at a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Capacity Review: PA Consulting (18 Apr 2018)

Colm Burke: I thank the witnesses for the very comprehensive overview and the report itself. One of the problems I find with the healthcare sector, and I have been following it for ten to 12 years, is the time it takes to get change. On the one hand we have had change in the Irish health system in the past three years with an additional 11,400 people now working in the healthcare sector compared to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Capacity Review: PA Consulting (18 Apr 2018)

Colm Burke: There is an issue about the training of people to provide home care as there has been mention of the huge increase in the provision of that care. Have the witnesses considered how to get the numbers to provide that home care?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Health Service Capacity Review: PA Consulting (18 Apr 2018)

Colm Burke: Let us consider the integration issue. I find a major disengagement between the hospitals and general practitioners and between GPs and public health nurses. The consultants have looked at other systems, including systems in New Zealand. In looking at systems outside Ireland did they find far greater co-ordination between the hospitals, GPs and public health nurses? I was shocked after...