Results 1,001-1,020 of 11,255 for speaker:Colm Burke

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Update on Health Issues: Minister for Health and HSE (16 Jan 2014)

Colm Burke: In respect of the figure of over €50 million for agency costs and general doctors and the ratio of 175 whole-time equivalents, is my calculation of €280,000 correct? Could I get some clarification on that? If the information is not available today, could the Minister come back to me on it?

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Jan 2014)

Colm Burke: There is a need for a debate on the issue of section 38 and section 39 organisations. I appreciate that it is being considered by the Committee of Public Accounts. It is important that information is out there. When I first raised this matter last September at the Joint Committee on Health and Children - I raised it again in October - I suggested that some €3.48 billion was being...

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Jan 2014)

Colm Burke: The Department and the HSE wrote to all the section 39 organisations on 10 December last to advise them that under the service level agreements for 2014, the salaries of management and CEOs must be disclosed in full before funding is paid. It is a little late, but it is welcome. We should have a debate because there could be other cases in which we are paying a substantial sum of money to...

Seanad: European Parliament Elections (Amendment) Bill 2013: Second Stage (23 Jan 2014)

Colm Burke: I welcome the Minister. I agree with speakers who said we need to look at the long-term composition of the European Parliament constituencies. I contested the European Parliament election and am still paying off some of the loans for that election. I make no apologies for saying that and have no regrets about the decision I took in contesting it. If I was asked, I would do so all over...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Public Health (Standardised Packaging of Tobacco) Bill 2013: Discussion (23 Jan 2014)

Colm Burke: All of the questions that need to be asked have been asked. I refer to the drop in the number of cigarettes seized, from 178 million to 41 million. Does this mean that there is an ongoing trade but at a smaller scale such that the 41 million cigarettes seized is a small figure in real terms? Perhaps the smaller number makes the problem more difficult to identify. Are these figures an...

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Jan 2014)

Colm Burke: I welcome the major job announcements for the Cork area in the past three to four days. Yesterday, we heard that Tyco would employ 500 additional people. A project involving the Tyndall Institute in Cork is taking on additional people in its research facility. BioMarin is also taking on additional people. I hope that numbers there will grow from 40 to more than 200 in the next 12 months....

Seanad: Order of Business (29 Jan 2014)

Colm Burke: I welcome this morning's job announcement in the Cork region, the fourth such announcement in the past seven days. It indicates that the way we are running the economy is having a positive effect on investors who now have the confidence to invest in this country again. While I always welcome Senator Rónán Mullen's contributions in the House, I advise him that issues such as the...

Seanad: Order of Business (29 Jan 2014)

Colm Burke: The Senator will become very familiar with these issues in the next few months. As someone who comes from an area where an entire valley was flooded to provide electricity-----

Seanad: Order of Business (29 Jan 2014)

Colm Burke: I do and it is very relevant. I come from an area where an entire valley was flooded in the building of a hydroelectric power station. While my own family was directly affected by that development, benefits accrued to the entire community and country in that the State was able to provide electricity for every household and business. That was 50 years ago and today we must look at new ways...

Seanad: Health Identifiers Bill 2013: Order for Second Stage (29 Jan 2014)

Colm Burke: I move: "That Second Stage be taken now."

Seanad: Health Identifiers Bill 2013: Second Stage (29 Jan 2014)

Colm Burke: I welcome the Minister to the House and I welcome this Bill. It is an issue I have spoken about a good deal in the past five years, particularly because I have examined the Danish, Finnish and Swedish systems, which are way ahead of ours, and other systems internationally, including the United States, on the issue of e-health. The Danes started developing their system as far back as 1994;...

Seanad: Health Identifiers Bill 2013: Second Stage (29 Jan 2014)

Colm Burke: Next Tuesday.

Seanad: Humanitarian Situation in Syria, South Sudan and Central African Republic: Statements (30 Jan 2014)

Colm Burke: I thank the Minister of State and his separtmental staff for the contribution that they have made to all of these complex issues which are not easy to resolve. I have sat on the foreign affairs committee and human rights committee in the European Parliament and in 2008 I spent six days in Chad. I visited the refugee camps which included Goz Beïda and Abéché that had 500,000...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Public Health (Standardised Packaging of Tobacco) Bill 2013: Discussion (Resumed) (30 Jan 2014)

Colm Burke: I thank all the witnesses for their comprehensive presentations and the work they are doing. I am concerned that it is 50 years since the first major report was published in the United States setting out the real risks of smoking and the health difficulties is was causing. While we have moved on somewhat in 50 years, we have not really got the message across to a large percentage of the...

Seanad: Charities Sector: Statements (4 Feb 2014)

Colm Burke: I welcome the Minister to the House and I welcome his decision to commence the provisions of the Charities Act by appointing a board and an interim CEO, and having staff in place by Easter, which is an important step in this area. When we came back here in August 2013, for some reason I started getting phone calls from people complaining about moneys being paid to a number of different...

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Feb 2014)

Colm Burke: On the failure to appoint hospital consultants, when the rules applying to consultant contracts were changed in 2012 I stated the new structure would not work. I have been proved correct as a number of vacancies for hospital consultants remain unfilled, including a consultant post in paediatric urology in Dublin, specifically to deal with children with spina bifida. This post has been...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Public Health (Standardised Packaging of Tobacco) Bill 2013: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Feb 2014)

Colm Burke: I welcome the witnesses and thank them for all the work they have done and are doing in this area. It is very valuable and they are making a huge contribution in this regard. One point on which I wish to touch is the high level of smoking within the poorest socioeconomic areas. How do the witnesses think this issue can be tackled? While legislators can make all the changes in legislation...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Public Health (Standardised Packaging of Tobacco) Bill 2013: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Feb 2014)

Colm Burke: I thank all the contributors for taking the time and effort in preparing their contributions. Some constructive proposals have been made this morning. As we sit here today, 14 people per day in real terms will die either at home or in hospital as a direct result of smoking and smoking-related illnesses. That is a conservative estimate and that is where we are coming from as a health...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Public Health (Standardised Packaging of Tobacco) Bill 2013: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Feb 2014)

Colm Burke: It would be easy to amend the proposed legislation in order that we deal with that issue. We should take a proactive approach to it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Public Health (Standardised Packaging of Tobacco) Bill 2013: Discussion (Resumed) (6 Feb 2014)

Colm Burke: I inquired earlier as to whether any progress had been made on the issue relating to smartphone apps.