Results 861-880 of 1,253 for speaker:John Crown

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Fertility Issues: National Infertility Support and Information Group (3 Jul 2014)

John Crown: There is no IVF.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: The Cost of Blindness in Ireland: National Vision Coalition (3 Jul 2014)

John Crown: I apologise for not being here earlier. Today's parliamentary schedule required me to be in the Seanad Chamber to advance a piece of legislation. I wish to ask Mr. Keegan a question that he may have answered already. My colleagues on the committee will think I sound like a broken record because I ask a similar question of every expert we have in. The answer is always pretty much the same....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: The Cost of Blindness in Ireland: National Vision Coalition (3 Jul 2014)

John Crown: May I ask one question? While this is a crude indicator across jurisdictions, Ireland tends to be under-provided compared with western Europe in that we have perhaps one fifth of what we need. The British tend to have approximately one quarter of what they need and they actually constitute a very low bar for comparison. Consequently, if we have approximately two thirds of what the Scots...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: The Cost of Blindness in Ireland: National Vision Coalition (3 Jul 2014)

John Crown: One to two years.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: The Cost of Blindness in Ireland: National Vision Coalition (3 Jul 2014)

John Crown: The witness asked me a question, which I wish to answer.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: The Cost of Blindness in Ireland: National Vision Coalition (3 Jul 2014)

John Crown: On my question, there is an eerie resonance with other areas, whereby, for example, although the waiting list for a colonoscopy is ten months, if it is urgent, it is not. How does one know in advance which symptom is urgent and which is not? How does a general practitioner know which candidate ophthalmology patient going to a clinic has an urgent problem and which does not? That is why the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: The Cost of Blindness in Ireland: National Vision Coalition (3 Jul 2014)

John Crown: Having an ophthalmologist in place would also help in the first instance too.

Seanad: Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (9 Jul 2014)

John Crown: What is the ruling on amendment No. 8?

Seanad: Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (9 Jul 2014)

John Crown: I appreciate that I am putting the Leas-Chathaoirleach on the spot. I received correspondence this morning to the effect that amendment No. 8 had been inexplicably ruled out of order.

Seanad: Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (9 Jul 2014)

John Crown: I must say I do not accept the suggestion that it would impose an extra financial burden on the Exchequer.

Seanad: Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (9 Jul 2014)

John Crown: I move amendment No. 1: In page 7, between lines 10 and 11, to insert the following: “6. To amend section 58C of the Act of 1970 by inserting the following new subsection:“(13) Notwithstanding any other part of this section, the agreement, referred to in subsection (1) shall not:(a) include any provision to restrict the criticism of the Health Service Executive, or the...

Seanad: Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (9 Jul 2014)

John Crown: This is a busy few days in the lives of the Minister of State and all the other Ministers, and I am not anxious to delay the proceedings any further. I would be delighted to hear the Minister of State's replies to my amendments.

Seanad: Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (9 Jul 2014)

John Crown: I thank the Minister of State for his thoughtful and considered reply to my amendments. I understand the broad thrust of his not wishing to bind the hands of negotiators with legislation when circumstances can change. The negotiator in this case, however, is the HSE, an organisation of which there is a general feeling there needs to be enhanced political scrutiny. That is all we are trying...

Seanad: Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (9 Jul 2014)

John Crown: If I may offer some friendly advice to the Minister relatively early in his ministerial career, a career which I am sure will be a long and a distinguished one.

Seanad: Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (9 Jul 2014)

John Crown: He should not fall into the prevalent trap in history of misidentifying the public interest with the interest of a public body. Public bodies still behave in a corporate fashion for their own self-interest in all kinds of ways. The notion that uniquely in the whole tapestry of forces which shape our society that the only body of people capable of self-disinterest is the Civil Service is naive.

Seanad: Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill 2014: Committee Stage (9 Jul 2014)

John Crown: To spare my colleagues across the aisle from the embarrassment of being bound and whipped on a Bill which has to do with gagging, I ask for a walk-through vote.

Seanad: Environmental Protection Agency: Motion (9 Jul 2014)

John Crown: Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I support Senator Whelan and his colleagues on this motion. When I read the documentation he provided it sowed a seed of doubt in my mind about the adequacy of the current oversight arrangements. The Minister’s commitment to an investigation is appropriate. This should be an opportunity for concerned citizens and their public representatives to...

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Jul 2014)

John Crown: I have a very specific and technical parliamentary request to make of the Leader. I seek clarification in the aftermath of the vote yesterday that resulted in the insertion of a fairly harmless amendment in the Health (General Practitioner Service) Bill. It is nevertheless an amendment which many of us see as critical in enshrining the principle of whistleblower protection. Let us be...

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Jul 2014)

John Crown: I am making a point. There was substantial misinformation last night arising from a practical and technical aspect of parliamentary procedure. The suggestion was made in multiple news organs last night that our successful insertion of a socially constructive amendment to this Bill would result in a delay in the implementation of free GP care by six months. I have looked into this and there...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Quarterly Update on Health Issues: Minister for Health (10 Jul 2014)

John Crown: I welcome the Minister, the Minister of State and the various officials. I hope this is not the joint committee's last meeting with the Minister in his current job, because he has been a reforming Minister with a radical agenda. He was, however, dealt a lousy hand on assuming office given the economic context at that time and the ferocious pressure the Government was under from...