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Results 10,241-10,260 of 11,255 for speaker:Colm Burke

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

Colm Burke: Next Tuesday.

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: Order for Second Stage (29 Jan 2014)

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

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: 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: 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 (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...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs: EU Presidency Priorities of Greece: Ambassador of Greece (16 Jan 2014)

Colm Burke: I apologise to the ambassador as I was not present to hear her presentation. My colleague, Senator Healy Eames has referred to the issue of the border areas and refugees from Syria and other countries. Turkey is not part of the EU but it is has 600,000 refugees from Syria and there has been a movement of refugees into Greece. Is Europe doing enough to deal with the Syrian crisis and to...

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?

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

Colm Burke: I thank the witnesses for their presentation. I wish to focus on Questions Nos. 3 and 5. Question 5 related to NCHDs. I based my question on the figures made available to me at the time. The agency cost for NCHDs was approximately €50 million. I am open to correction but I note that in the reply the hours contracted out to agencies is equivalent to 175 whole-time equivalents. If...

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Jan 2014)

Colm Burke: I wish everyone a happy new year and a productive 2014. I raise the issue of surrogacy and the number of people travelling abroad, which was debated on television recently. With no legal provision in this country, children born abroad and coming into this country are not entitled to be adopted and citizenship is an issue. We are leaving a series of medical and legal issues sitting there....

Seanad: Order of Business (15 Jan 2014)

Colm Burke: Not true.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Service Plan 2014: Minister for Health and HSE (14 Jan 2014)

Colm Burke: No. My question concerned the readmission of elderly people into hospital within a six-week time period and the need for step-down facilities. I do not think enough work is being done in that area and it needs to be looked at. There is also a need to engage nursing homes in that process.

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