Results 9,381-9,400 of 11,246 for speaker:Colm Burke

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Feb 2016)

Colm Burke: I pay tribute to those Senators who are retiring. None of us has any guarantee that we will return, but I thank those who will definitely not be back for their contribution over the past five years or even longer, in particular Jim Walsh and Feargal Quinn. The latter is self-employed and has his own business. There is a lack of people from the business community in the Oireachtas. When...

Seanad: Order of Business (2 Feb 2016)

Colm Burke: One of the important things from the last five years, which was referred to by Senator Mullins already, was the growth in the number of people at work. It was one of the challenges faced by this Cabinet and the Government. It is a huge achievement to now have unemployment rates down to 8.6% and a huge growth in the number of people at work. It will not be too long before we have over 2...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Drugs Payment Scheme (28 Jan 2016)

Colm Burke: I welcome the Minister of State. Sativex is a new add-on treatment option indicated for multiple sclerosis, MS, patients with moderate to severe resistant spasticity symptoms, that is muscle rigidity spasms. Sativex contains the active substances THC and CVD, extracted from herbal cannabis cloned plants at a 1:1 ratio. Sativex was issued a licence by the Health Products Regulatory...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Drugs Payment Scheme (28 Jan 2016)

Colm Burke: I thank the Minister of State for his response and I fully accept his comments, as pricing is an issue that must be dealt with carefully. I am one of the people who highlighted how the cost of drugs increased from €570 million in 2000 to €2 billion in 2008 or 2009. Nevertheless, this medication may assist people with MS. The Minister of State knows that a person must live...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Housing Adaptation Grant (21 Jan 2016)

Colm Burke: I welcome the Minister of State. The issue I am raising relates to the allocation of funding to local authorities for house adaptation work. One local authority with which I am dealing was allocated something in the region of €1.9 million last year and that money was allocated to people who owned their own houses to do adaptation work on them. The same local authority received only...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Housing Adaptation Grant (21 Jan 2016)

Colm Burke: The answer is what I expected but the problem is that both Cork city and county councils have waiting lists of seven years duration in respect of adaptation works. The reply I have received is not going to do anything about that.For instance, in two cases the family has gone to the Ombudsman for Children. I have one family which has been waiting more than six years. The child has Canavan...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Housing Adaptation Grant (21 Jan 2016)

Colm Burke: I appreciate that and I thank the Minister of State.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Products Regulatory Authority: Chairman Designate (21 Jan 2016)

Colm Burke: I thank Ms Horan for the work she has done to date and wish her well in her new appointment. The big question I have to ask relates to research and development and her view on it in this country. There is a lack of co-ordination. The HSE, for example, does not have any person in charge of research. It is an organisation with 100,000 people that is providing medical care for the entire...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Medicinal Products Expenditure (14 Jan 2016)

Colm Burke: I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I am raising the issue of Xolair - I hope I have pronounced it right - which is a drug for people with severe asthma. I am raising it as severe asthma is associated with a significant morbidity and health care resource. Some 10% of patients with asthma have severe asthma and these patients have a disproportionate economic burden. The main cost...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Medicinal Products Expenditure (14 Jan 2016)

Colm Burke: I did not get a copy of the written reply and am wondering if it could be made available to me. If I could go back to what I said, the research shows that there would be a 67% reduction in hospitalisations, a 68% reduction in bed days, a 61% reduction in exacerbations, a 62% reduction in courses of oral corticosteroids and a 90% reduction in workdays lost. Economically, it shows that the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Acute Hospital Services: Discussion (17 Dec 2015)

Colm Burke: I thank all the witnesses for the work they have done in this regard. It has not been an easy job because all sorts of power games go on all the time in the medical profession and within the entire hospital structure. Consequently, it is a great achievement to have effected the change that has come about. The position in Cork always intrigued me in that there were a number of different...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Acute Hospital Services: Discussion (17 Dec 2015)

Colm Burke: My apologies. I refer to the role of the voluntary hospitals and, in particular, the value of their sites. If the voluntary hospitals no longer will be part of the structure, what will be their attitude about the structures they own and the funding that could be realised from those sites? The second issue I wish to raise concerns the roll-out of the modular building. My understanding is...

Seanad: Public Health (Alcohol) Bill 2015: Second Stage (17 Dec 2015)

Colm Burke: I welcome the Minister and thank him for publishing the Bill. I am a member of the Joint Committee on Health and Children which examined the heads of the Bill. We engaged in a consultation process and a number of groups made submissions on the legislation. Members of the medical profession, the drinks industry and advertising and sport bodies made their views known. This Bill is the best...

Seanad: Mental Health (Amendment) Bill 2008: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (17 Dec 2015)

Colm Burke: I thank the Minister of State for bringing forward this Bill and for all the legislation that has been passed over the past three weeks. Of all the Ministers, she has been here more often than any other. I thank her for the time she has devoted to all the Bills that have passed through this House in the past three to four weeks, in particular, and also over the past four years. Much of the...

Seanad: Order of Business (16 Dec 2015)

Colm Burke: In the past 18 months, I have dealt with cases involving local authority housing tenants who have a family member with a severe physical and intellectual disability and have been waiting for adaptation works to be done to their homes. In one case, a family has been waiting more than seven and a half years for this work to be done. In two cases, the parents involved are providing full-time...

Seanad: Prison Bill 2015: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (16 Dec 2015)

Colm Burke: I thank the Minister for bringing forward this legislation and for the change relating to St. Patrick's Institution. I have visited Oberstown and have seen young people coming into the criminal justice system. We need a more comprehensive co-ordination of services at local level involving education, health and justice to keep the maximum number of people out of the system. I am concerned...

Seanad: Prison Bill 2015: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (16 Dec 2015)

Colm Burke: On that matter, I saw the figures and they are quite frightening. Between 2008 and 2010, the number of people arrested for non-payment of fines increased from 2,500 to 6,500, even in that short timeframe. In fact, over 50% of all arrests for committal to prison, where people are going into the prison system, are for non-payment of fines. That will all stop, and rightly so. It has been a...

Seanad: Harbours Bill 2015: Committee Stage (16 Dec 2015)

Colm Burke: It is €200 million.

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Dec 2015)

Colm Burke: Sinn Féin will lower the salaries.

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Dec 2015)

Colm Burke: Sinn Féin will lower the salaries.