Results 9,541-9,560 of 11,348 for speaker:Colm Burke

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Financial Statements 2022: Sustainability Energy Authority of Ireland
2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 8: Performance of Certain Residential Retrofit Schemes (9 Nov 2023)

Colm Burke: Then we still have over 400,000 to achieve, so are we talking about trying to get 100,000 done per year if we want to reach our target by 2030?

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 29 - Environment, Climate and Communications
Financial Statements 2022: Sustainability Energy Authority of Ireland
2022 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 8: Performance of Certain Residential Retrofit Schemes (9 Nov 2023)

Colm Burke: There are challenges with regard to getting contractors. Where are we in that regard at this stage? It is a challenge and if we want to progress further, how do we deal with that?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (9 Nov 2023)

Colm Burke: RTÉ gets substantial State funding. It also collects funding under the licence fee process. It is important that there is full accountability and the decision we have made here today is the correct decision. We want the note to be available to be made public. I refer to the summary but also to our entitlement to see the actual original note as well. While people can say there are...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Tax Code (9 Nov 2023)

Colm Burke: A large number of GPs have contacted me on this issue and I have met some of them. What normally happens with GPs in the general medical scheme, GMS, who are in a partnership practice is that the money comes into the practice, it is lodged into the practice account and GPs pay tax on the basis of the salary drawn from the practice. That is under strict guidance of the accountancy practice...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Tax Code (9 Nov 2023)

Colm Burke: I welcome the second-last paragraph of the Minister of State's reply, which states that the Minister intends to bring forward an amendment on Report Stage of the Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023. The problem is that all the GPs who signed the contract understood that when they got income under the GMS scheme, it could go into the partnership account. The practitioners are not looking for such...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (9 Nov 2023)

Colm Burke: 262. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to arrange for jobseeker’s allowance to be restored to a person (details supplied) who is currently unemployed, has applied for carer’s allowance and as a result the jobseeker’s allowance was immediately removed, even though 4.5 months later no decision has been made on their carer’s allowance...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Discussion (8 Nov 2023)

Colm Burke: I thank the witnesses for their presentation and for their work in this area. I will return to the issue of the medical card because I know the income limit not increasing was mentioned. I have dealt with the medical card division and have found it to be extremely approachable as regards dealing with difficult circumstances. Can we get an idea of the number of discretionary cards that have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Discussion (8 Nov 2023)

Colm Burke: Am I correct about there being 1.8 million medical cards in existence or is the number higher?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Discussion (8 Nov 2023)

Colm Burke: So we are really talking about nearly 15%. I have not done a quick calculation of it but roughly around 15% are discretionary cards.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Discussion (8 Nov 2023)

Colm Burke: One of the issues that comes up with regard to medical cards is where someone has a medical condition and is over the threshold but, the only unit providing the kind of care that person requires is with the HSE and he or she cannot get access to it without a medical card. Has this come up quite a bit with regard to particular types of illnesses, where the person needs medical care, but that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Discussion (8 Nov 2023)

Colm Burke: The person has an illness and needs ongoing care but does not qualify for a medical card because of his or her income levels, whereas the level of care that person requires involves access to public clinics to which he or she would not have an entitlement without a medical card.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Discussion (8 Nov 2023)

Colm Burke: I met a young man with multiple sclerosis whose wife was working so he was totally over the income limit. Initially, he could not get access to particular treatment unless he had a medical card. We got it over the line. He was refused initially. In fairness to the medical card division, it reviewed it and gave him a card, but this is the kind of thing I am talking about, where someone...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Discussion (8 Nov 2023)

Colm Burke: Yes, but he was turned down initially. Many people would have walked away once they were turned down but in fairness to him and through my office, we did fight the issue and, in fairness to the HSE, it came on board. I am concerned there might be others with a similar medical condition who may decide, after being turned down, not to deal with it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Discussion (8 Nov 2023)

Colm Burke: I will move on to the second part of the Bill, which is about pharmacists being able to provide medicines without a prescription. Are we not behind the times regarding the way we deal with this? I have a bank card and can go anywhere in the world with it and get access to my bank account. If I go into three different hospitals in Cork, there is a paper file for me in each of them. When...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Discussion (8 Nov 2023)

Colm Burke: I know that but say I go into ten different pharmacies and get the same medication from each of them, there is no way the pharmacist can check where I have purchased them.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Discussion (8 Nov 2023)

Colm Burke: I am just asking. That is the position.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Discussion (8 Nov 2023)

Colm Burke: When are we going to get there? Having one central file for each person has been proved to have produced a significant saving in Denmark. Remember that 1.6 million people are already on the system so why has it been long fingered for the past ten, 15 or 20 years? When are we going to move forward on this issue?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Discussion (8 Nov 2023)

Colm Burke: We introduced it in five maternity hospitals so that all of the files of any patient admitted to any of those hospitals were computerised, but we have not done anything with any of the other 14 maternity hospitals. That is a good place to start off with. When can we put it into the other 14 hospitals?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: General Scheme of the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2023: Discussion (8 Nov 2023)

Colm Burke: I know, but it comes back to the issue about pharmacists being able to manage this area. If we had a central card system, we could devolve a significant amount of work to pharmacists in the morning because we would then have checks and balances. There are no checks and balances at the moment. Pharmacists will do their best. However, that does not prevent the situation arising where the...