Results 641-660 of 1,467 for speaker:Geraldine Feeney

Seanad: Pharmacy Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (22 Mar 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: In that case I would agree with the provisions of the Bill.

Seanad: Pharmacy Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (22 Mar 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: On the point made by Senator Browne, I am such a person in so far as I was not a Senator when I was appointed to the Medical Council in 1999. I was elected to the Seanad in 2002. My position was unique in that I was on the fitness to practise inquiry hearing into Dr. Michael Neary. This was an ongoing inquiry which had been running for 18 months. For practical and financial reasons and to...

Seanad: Pharmacy Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (22 Mar 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: I agree with Senator Ryan. However, it was normally the non-professional person on the board of which I was a member who insisted on maintaining confidentiality. The tendency to leak information always gives rise to problems. It is normally the professionals on boards, rather than lay members or those representing particular interest groups, who are most guilty of leaking information. I...

Seanad: Pharmacy Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (22 Mar 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: I do not know how workable Senator Browne's proposal would be. From the Medical Council's point of view, every time there was a query over something, the 27 year old legislation concerned would be taken out and read, and one was working continually on the legislation in place. It would be almost negative to provide in the Bill for a review in three years' time because one would not have...

Seanad: Pharmacy Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (22 Mar 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: I share Senator Henry's concerns on that and especially her last point. They are in a position where they are housing drugs and cash. We live in a security conscious era. Even from a lesser point of view, Senators Henry, Browne and I have been receiving mail over the past two weeks from a certain Irish lobby group regarding the Medical Practitioners Bill 2007. I am glad the mail is being...

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Mar 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: The Senator should not rake over old coals. The Senator should ask Pat Kenny. He explained all that the other day.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Mar 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: There is no problem about them.

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Mar 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: I support Senator Quinn's call concerning the issue raised in the research carried out by a doctor in Trinity College into children going to school hungry. The only way to approach the issue is to keep highlighting it. I was surprised on reading the research to learn that children presenting themselves at school without having had a breakfast experience slow physical, intellectual and...

Seanad: Health Bill 2006: Report and Final Stages (29 Mar 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: I support the call by my fellow-spokesperson on health and children, Senator Glynn, for the setting up of a committee of inquiry. He and I met the Minister for Health and Children the night before last when she was as accommodating as possible on the issue. She suggested she would consider setting up a group, including her officials, to examine it. All Senators feel very strongly that local...

Seanad: Health Bill 2006: Report and Final Stages (29 Mar 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: I feel from experience that I was put in positions that involved a conflict of interest. I would like to hear further debate on this before we apply a measure across the board. I support Senator Glynn's call for a group to be established to examine the matter.

Seanad: Health Bill 2006: Report and Final Stages (29 Mar 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: It is not doing the Senator any harm; she is still getting elected.

Seanad: Health Bill 2006: Report and Final Stages (29 Mar 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: Those on the Government side did not interrupt speakers on the Opposition.

Seanad: Medical Practitioners Bill 2007: Second Stage (3 Apr 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: I welcome the Minister for the debate on this groundbreaking legislation. I am delighted this Bill is being taken. I am unusual in that I am a former member of the Medical Council. I sat on the council from 1999 to 2004 and on each occasion I entered Lynn House in Rathmines during that period I was greeted by people screaming and wanting to know when the Medical Practitioners Bill would be...

Seanad: Medical Practitioners Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (4 Apr 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: I support Senators Browne and Glynn on this matter in so far as it relates to members of local authorities. I thought there was a conflict of interest when I was a Member of the Oireachtas while I was a member of the Medical Council. On a couple of occasions, I could not be paired to facilitate my absence from the House. I was needed here for votes and also needed for council duties....

Seanad: Medical Practitioners Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (4 Apr 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: I want to refer to what Senator Henry said regarding only two people representing both undergraduate and postgraduate training. I could not hear what the Senator said because of the noise at the door. However, I share her view. The five medical schools were represented by the deans of medicine on the last council. In my experience they concerned themselves solely with education and...

Seanad: Medical Practitioners Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (4 Apr 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: I support Senator Henry on that point. It is difficult to find a balance in such cases because we are moving from a position where this process was surrounded by a cloak of secrecy to one where we are trying to introduce a degree of transparency. I know of cases where the complainant was devastated because he or she was not allowed in to hear the case that was made against him or her or...

Seanad: Medical Practitioners Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (4 Apr 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: I am aware from experience that if no records were made available, the committee would find itself in a awkward, vulnerable position. It would either make a direction to obtain the records and, if the patient was agreeable, the committee's position would be outlined to the complainant. Not many such circumstances have arisen, but in one case consent was given to have the records made available.

Seanad: Medical Practitioners Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (4 Apr 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: No, by the patient; the patient gave consent. We did not have the patient's consent initially.

Seanad: Medical Practitioners Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (4 Apr 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: That is what happens.

Seanad: Medical Practitioners Bill 2007: Committee and Remaining Stages (4 Apr 2007)

Geraldine Feeney: The only time a doctor's name is ever recorded is where a fitness to practise inquiry finds against him or her. His or her name would go out to the medical media around the world and to the High Court. Where no professional misconduct has been found and where the doctor has proved he or she has no case to answer, his or her name is not mentioned, the papers are destroyed and the matter is...