Results 381-400 of 1,253 for speaker:John Crown

Seanad: Medical Practitioners (Amendment) Bill 2012: Second Stage (20 Feb 2013)

John Crown: We have to be careful to ensure we do not leave a ticking timebomb for retired individuals who might think the burden has been lifted. There has to be a means of ensuring the insurance provision they responsibly made during their careers gives them adequate coverage after retirement. They should not be asked to pay premiums which are simply not sustainable for people at pension level. This...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Insurance Levy: Discussion (21 Feb 2013)

John Crown: I have a brief question and another more provocative question. Is is considered to be in breach in the principle of community rating to charge a differential rate based on whether a person currently smokes? It strikes me that it should not be, in the sense that everyone has the right at every age to be a smoker or a non-smoker so there is no breach of community rating in doing that. It...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Pay and Conditions of Non-Consultant Hospital Doctors: Discussion (5 Mar 2013)

John Crown: Go raibh maith agat. I warmly welcome my colleagues. I remember my own days as a trainee doctor, as an NCHD, with a mixture of the odd sleepless night and what it was like to be on call for three or four consecutive nights. I also recall it with a degree of nostalgia about the excitement of first being involved in our wonderful specialty. A couple of weeks ago we had the vote on the Irish...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Pay and Conditions of Non-Consultant Hospital Doctors: Discussion (5 Mar 2013)

John Crown: I was here as well. What is more I went to the hospital where I was working until 10 p.m.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Pay and Conditions of Non-Consultant Hospital Doctors: Discussion (5 Mar 2013)

John Crown: We can compare views later. We are not in a competition right now.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Pay and Conditions of Non-Consultant Hospital Doctors: Discussion (5 Mar 2013)

John Crown: The issue is that this is the every day and every night experience of junior doctors all around the country where they are expected to work like that. They do something far more complicated than doing what a Whip tells them in terms of voting "Yes" or "No". They actually have to make life and death decisions. Deputy Ó Caoláin correctly pointed out the oddity of referring to them...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Pay and Conditions of Non-Consultant Hospital Doctors: Discussion (5 Mar 2013)

John Crown: I would like to put a brief supplemental question. Over 50% of non-consultant doctors working in Ireland now are not Irish graduates but come from abroad, yet we have the largest number of medical schools per head of population of any country in the world. Why is this? Recently, I heard of an extraordinarily well-trained colleague, with 18 years international experience, multiple...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Pay and Conditions of Non-Consultant Hospital Doctors: Discussion (5 Mar 2013)

John Crown: It was always the way in Ireland.

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Mar 2013)

John Crown: I would like to echo Senator Keane's comments. One of the saddest things I deal with in my day job other than the obvious health consequences of cancer in terms of mortality and morbidity is the possibility of premature infertility. I have seen over the years a large number of patients who, because they were diagnosed with curable cancers that required treatments which would compromise...

Seanad: Seanad Electoral Reform Bill 2013: Order for Second Stage (6 Mar 2013)

John Crown: I move: "That Second Stage be taken now."

Seanad: Seanad Electoral Reform Bill 2013: Second Stage (6 Mar 2013)

John Crown: I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am not advancing this Bill because I wish to preserve the Seanad in the face of extinction by way of referendum; rather, I advance it because I wish to offer something better and something we have never had, namely, a truly democratic Chamber that would draw the citizens of the Republic closer to the heart of the parliamentary process....

Seanad: Seanad Electoral Reform Bill 2013: Second Stage (6 Mar 2013)

John Crown: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Seanad Electoral Reform Bill 2013: Second Stage (6 Mar 2013)

John Crown: On a point of information, a graduate would have the option either to vote on the relevant university panel or another vocational panel but not to vote on the two.

Seanad: Seanad Electoral Reform Bill 2013: Second Stage (6 Mar 2013)

John Crown: I thank my colleagues who have been so generous in their praise for the Bill. I thank them for sharing the credit for this legislation with Mr. Shane Conneely, Ms Aoife Casey and the rest of the team. When the Taoiseach came here some months ago for the first time and the issue of the future of the Seanad arose, I remember thinking he had the demeanour of a vegetarian butcher coming up to...

Seanad: Seanad Electoral Reform Bill 2013: Second Stage (6 Mar 2013)

John Crown: Not one of our arguments was addressed.

Seanad: Seanad Electoral Reform Bill 2013: Second Stage (6 Mar 2013)

John Crown: He went as far as to say, "I do not propose to conduct a forensic analysis." He would have been unable to do so. There was no analysis of the contents of the legislation. Not one of the charges I made was countered.

Seanad: Seanad Electoral Reform Bill 2013: Second Stage (6 Mar 2013)

John Crown: I am not here because I am trying to save the Seanad. I am here because I want to reform the entire process of Parliament - this is one wedge in that process - and because I want the people to have a choice when they vote in the referendum. I am pro-choice on this issue. I was very surprised to hear that many were not pro-choice on this issue. It is hard for me to escape the conclusion...

Seanad: Seanad Electoral Reform Bill 2013: Second Stage (6 Mar 2013)

John Crown: It very hard for me to escape the conclusion that in opposing this legislation so single-mindedly, with such tunnel vision and without allowing any discussion of alternatives, the Taoiseach is thinking of this as a pre-election promise he can actually keep. I have been asked to wait until some other Bill comes through and gently rapped on the knuckles for not collaborating with certain...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Service Executive Service Plan 2013: Discussion with HSE (7 Mar 2013)

John Crown: I welcome the guests. I also welcome Dr. Carroll and congratulate her on her new role as national clinical director of strategy and programmes. It is timely to have the delegation here. Last year a matter about the health service was brought to my attention. I apologise to Deputy Maloney if I sound like one of the politicians who is always criticising but I am.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Service Executive Service Plan 2013: Discussion with HSE (7 Mar 2013)

John Crown: As it used to be said in military circles, the HSE is a target-rich environment. The situation with respect to rehabilitation services, in particular, is appalling. The figures I have indicate that we have approximately 60% of the number of rehabilitation consultants per head of population as the United Kingdom. If it was not for Ireland, the United Kingdom would be at the bottom of every...