Results 7,541-7,560 of 12,009 for speaker:Colm Burke

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Rare Diseases: Discussion (26 May 2021)

Colm Burke: I thank our guests very much for their presentations. An issue that I have had a concern about for a great number of years and which is still ongoing is the time it takes to assess orphan drugs. While the EMA is in place, it is still taking us on average more than 1,000 days before we are signing off on it here. My understanding is a report was commissioned and made available back in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Rare Diseases: Discussion (26 May 2021)

Colm Burke: On that point, I mentioned that it is now taking 1,000 days on average to sign off on quite a large number of drugs, which are for a small number of people. How do the witnesses recommend dealing with that issue? I have been a member of the committee for several years and I recall discussing this issue with Ms Daly previously. It seems that no progress has been made on it in the past five...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Rare Diseases: Discussion (26 May 2021)

Colm Burke: From a European point of view, what does Ms Daly consider should be done differently on this issue?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Rare Diseases: Discussion (26 May 2021)

Colm Burke: I referred to the Mazars report that was furnished to the Department in January 2020. Perhaps we should write to the Department to find out whether that report can be made available to the committee.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Rare Diseases: Discussion (26 May 2021)

Colm Burke: The State has spent money on the report and it is wrong that it has been left sitting in the Department, with no action taken on it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Rare Diseases: Discussion (26 May 2021)

Colm Burke: I fully accept that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Rare Diseases: Discussion (26 May 2021)

Colm Burke: It was €86,000.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 May 2021)

Colm Burke: CIT has been amalgamated with the Institute of Technology Tralee. There is very much a new team in place. The person who headed CIT has retired and the new institution has a new president and board of management. I have no problem with bringing in representatives but I wonder whether we will be able to get all of the information we require in that scenario.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 May 2021)

Colm Burke: It went through on 1 January. The new president is in place, although she has not taken up her position yet. I believe there is an acting president. The new board of management has also more or less been in place since 1 January. The previous head of the college retired at the end of November. There has been a fairly substantial changeover in management but that does not necessarily mean...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (25 May 2021)

Colm Burke: I apologise. I should have taken down my hand from the last time. I am sorry about that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Impact of Covid-19 on Human Rights and Mental Health: Discussion (25 May 2021)

Colm Burke: I thank the witnesses for their presentations. Looking back over the past 14 months, are there any regulations the witnesses would not have put in place or that they feel were totally unnecessary? My second question concerns the announcement of changes. When new regulations came into place was sufficient time given for people to become aware of the change that would occur, such as, for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Impact of Covid-19 on Human Rights and Mental Health: Discussion (25 May 2021)

Colm Burke: Could I get a response on the issue of mental health because it is important?

Situation in Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel: Statements (20 May 2021)

Colm Burke: I thank the Minister for all the work he has done on the UN Security Council over the past weeks. It is also important to acknowledge the work done by Ireland's UN permanent representative, Ms Geraldine Byrne Nason, for her work and the work of her staff. Gaza is a stretch of land the same size as a stretch of land from Cork to Youghal. Gaza is 41 km long and 10 km wide, with 2 million...

Public Accounts Committee: Housing Schemes Expenditure: Think-tank for Action on Social Change (20 May 2021)

Colm Burke: I thank Dr. Sweeney for his presentation. Dr. Sweeney made a point about 2012 and 2013. Obviously the big problem around that period was access to funding but at the same time there was a huge demand to deal with the housing issue. There was not a huge amount of choice at that stage. If one had put funding into capital one then would not have had Ministry funding to support people who...

Public Accounts Committee: Housing Schemes Expenditure: Think-tank for Action on Social Change (20 May 2021)

Colm Burke: The graph contained in Dr. Sweeney's presentation has a figure of 17,025 given for HAP. What is that? Turning to social housing output from 2005 to 2019, a figure is given for local authority completions and acquisitions of 4,479, while the figure given for completions and acquisitions by approved housing bodies is 3,041. Yet, the HAP figure is listed as 17,025. Is that-----

Public Accounts Committee: Housing Schemes Expenditure: Think-tank for Action on Social Change (20 May 2021)

Colm Burke: Therefore, the total number of people availing of HAP in 2019 was 17,025.

Public Accounts Committee: Housing Schemes Expenditure: Think-tank for Action on Social Change (20 May 2021)

Colm Burke: This figure, then, is the total number of people availing of HAP for the entire country, which is 17,025 households.

Public Accounts Committee: Housing Schemes Expenditure: Think-tank for Action on Social Change (20 May 2021)

Colm Burke: Would it not be appropriate for us to have the figures for those availing of HAP each year, rather than simply a figure for new applicants? I state that because what is being presented distorts the figures. On the one hand, the total number of local authority and approved housing body completions are included, but on the other hand, we do not see total numbers of those availing of the HAP...

Public Accounts Committee: Housing Schemes Expenditure: Think-tank for Action on Social Change (20 May 2021)

Colm Burke: That is fine.

Public Accounts Committee: Housing Schemes Expenditure: Think-tank for Action on Social Change (20 May 2021)

Colm Burke: Regarding the approved housing body and local authority completions and acquisitions, has a comparison been done of the average cost per unit? Are the approved housing bodies getting better value for money or are the local authorities? Has a detailed comparison been done in that regard?