Results 421-440 of 1,253 for speaker:John Crown

Seanad: Order of Business (9 May 2013)

John Crown: I have an unusual request for the Leader. I would like him to ask the Taoiseach if the Government would consider the wisdom of introducing an oath of allegiance to the Constitution for all Members of the Oireachtas. We must be one of the few parliaments in the world that does not have such an oath. We have a tradition of having large numbers of people in this country who did not respect...

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2013: Second Stage (15 May 2013)

John Crown: I lend my support to the Bill and commend Senators Katherine Zappone and Feargal Quinn and their background staff for contributing to the debate. I also thank Senators for their kind words on the other Bill on the Order Paper. The legislation advances the call for a mature debate on the future of the Seanad before the referendum is held in October. At least we will have theoretical...

Seanad: Seanad Bill 2013: Second Stage (15 May 2013)

John Crown: I am happy to bring this Bill to the next Stage.

Seanad: Order of Business (16 May 2013)

John Crown: Obviously, substantial attention has been paid to the issue of breast cancer genetics in recent days. I would like the Leader to bring to the attention of the Minister for Health the current circumstances that pertain with respect to genetic testing for patients in Ireland. Most breast cancers are not genetic. A small minority of breast cancer cases are caused by well recognised genes...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Heads of Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013: Public Hearings (17 May 2013)

John Crown: In the legally ambiguous landscape of Irish abortion law, where our Constitution, as interpreted by our Supreme Court at least once and by our people five times in referendums, is in direct conflict with our Statute Book, we have heard testimony here in the January hearings that Irish doctors will perform abortions where the life of the mother is threatened and where the only safeguard for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Heads of Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013: Public Hearings (17 May 2013)

John Crown: Hearing politicians lecturing specialist doctors about following evidence-based guidelines was one of the most eye-rubbing, incomprehensible moments I have experienced since I came to Leinster House.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Heads of Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013: Public Hearings (17 May 2013)

John Crown: I am sorry about that. Let me point to a little bit of evidence to which, I am glad, my friend and colleague, Dr. Boylan, has already alluded. The figures are that Ireland has 2.4 obstetricians per hundred thousand members of the population while the figure for the second lowest-rated country in Europe, the Netherlands, is four, which is twice as high. The Netherlands has a birth rate of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Heads of Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013: Public Hearings (17 May 2013)

John Crown: I have been very careful about not interrupting. I am desperately fond of Senator Walsh as a person but his behaviour today has not been edifying. I am sorry to have to say that. He has been repeatedly rude today.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Heads of Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013: Public Hearings (17 May 2013)

John Crown: I ask Dr. Coulter-Smith and my other colleagues to clarify that they are satisfied that in the very rare and probably never-to-arise event of an abortion being recommended on grounds of suicidality, it would be done by people who are actually aware of the evidence base of medicine and who would assess the matter and reach a unanimous consensus.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Heads of Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013: Public Hearings (17 May 2013)

John Crown: I welcome our colleagues. It has been a long, gruelling day. We have a couple more ahead of us and it is great that we have heard such a spectrum of opinions. I must give a slight preamble before the question.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Heads of Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013: Public Hearings (17 May 2013)

John Crown: I must. Sometimes my colleagues here miss one point, which is that in western countries maternal mortality is an extraordinarily rare event. In Ireland in recent decades we have had entire years with no maternal mortality. The occurrence of one maternal mortality is a disaster. If we have to legislate to prevent one maternal mortality, we should do it. This is not like cancer or heart...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Heads of Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013: Public Hearings (17 May 2013)

John Crown: One second, Chairman. I have not interrupted anybody today and I have tried to stay within my time, so just hear me out. My understanding is that in the great majority of cases there will be warning, so the scenario of this type of occurrence occurring in one of the smaller hospitals is very unlikely because the hospitals will generally refer the patients to one of the larger, specialist...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Heads of Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013: Public Hearings (17 May 2013)

John Crown: On a point of order, what about me?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Heads of Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013: Public Hearings (Resumed) (20 May 2013)

John Crown: In formulating the decision as to whether suicidality will be in the Bill, the five witnesses have the same rights as any five citizens of our country in a popular referendum. The decision has been made by the Supreme Court, which according to Article 34.4.6° of the Constitution states that the decision of the Supreme Court shall in all cases be final and definitive. That can be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Heads of Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013: Public Hearings (Resumed) (20 May 2013)

John Crown: I apologise for leaving the meeting for a while; I had to attend at the hospital. With great respect to my professional colleagues, I also live and work daily in the world of evidence-based medicine.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Heads of Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013: Public Hearings (Resumed) (20 May 2013)

John Crown: If I have a patient in front of me - there are sometimes two patients in front of me in one person - I will never make a decision that it is not the right decision for the patient. No one is ever going to ask physicians to do that. However, we are constitutionally bound as a result of Professor Binchy's interventions 30 years. The ambiguous constitutional position in which we have found...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Heads of Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013: Public Hearings (Resumed) (20 May 2013)

John Crown: On a point of information, the evidence base in medicine is available for all doctors who can all see the same evidence. There is not different evidence for different doctors.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Heads of Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013: Public Hearings (Resumed) (20 May 2013)

John Crown: I welcome my colleagues and thank them for their particularly learned, focused and well-informed presentations. My first question is for Dr. Kevin Walsh. One of the issues which has exercised the committee in recent days relates to the quantification of risk, namely, the percentage chance an individual has of dying. It is clear that this becomes very nebulous and contentious in the area...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Heads of Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013: Public Hearings (Resumed) (21 May 2013)

John Crown: I beg your pardon, a Chathaoirligh, I have some ocular infirmity.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Heads of Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013: Public Hearings (Resumed) (21 May 2013)

John Crown: I will be as brief as I can, so I will have to speak quickly. Article 34.4.6o of the Constitution states that: "The decision of the Supreme Court shall in all cases be final and conclusive." Our gardaí, soldiers, judges and our Uachtarán all swear oaths to uphold that Constitution. Many of our gardaí have died defending it against people who did not recognise the...