Results 10,901-10,920 of 11,292 for speaker:Colm Burke

Seanad: Youth Unemployment and Public Policy: Address by Professor Christopher Pissarides (Resumed) (8 Nov 2012)

Colm Burke: I thank Professor Pissarides for taking the time to be with us today. There are two categories of young unemployed person. We have highly qualified young people who feel frustrated because there are no jobs, but there is also a set of young people who have grown up in the tradition of unemployment. I was involved in a project that helped young people who had dropped out of school. We...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion with Community and Voluntary Groups (8 Nov 2012)

Colm Burke: I thank the Chair and apologise for missing the presentations, although I have read them and found them very comprehensive. I know we are facing into very difficult times financially, but I wish to move away slightly from that issue. The Chairman and I attended a meeting with a voluntary organisation recently to discuss the upcoming budget. Approximately 85% of the budget of the...

Seanad: Order of Business (8 Nov 2012)

Colm Burke: I support the call for people to come out in large numbers on Saturday to vote "Yes" in the referendum. It is responsible to make such a call. I have seen a number of e-mails and Twitter messages calling on people to vote "No" in order to settle scores with the Government on other issues. It is irresponsible of people to look for a "No" vote for reasons which are not in any way connected...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Pre-Budget Submissions: Discussion with Community and Voluntary Groups (8 Nov 2012)

Colm Burke: I thank all the organisations for coming before us and giving a very comprehensive submission. I am concerned about the way the adjustments were made to home care packages in the past few months. One of the problems arising is that because people doing home help or care are not permanent and pensionable, it is an easy element to cut. I raise the idea of getting the Department to ring-fence...

Seanad: Order of Business (7 Nov 2012)

Colm Burke: I welcome the decision by the generic drug manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals to reduce the cost of drugs on the market by over 23%. By contrast, the branded producers have agreed to a reduction of only 7%. The Minister for Health has held negotiations to reduce the cost of pharmaceuticals. It is the first step but there are several others we need to take in this area to ensure we can bring...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Insurance Sector: Discussion (25 Oct 2012)

Colm Burke: The occupancy figures we received were different.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Insurance Sector: Discussion (25 Oct 2012)

Colm Burke: In fairness to the insurance companies and for clarification, in many cases there is no proper structure in the HSE. I will give a simple example. The Chairman spoke about consultants signing off. In some hospitals staff refuse to pull files for people to sign off on them. There are no proper procedures in place. This has not just happened this year and last year. It has been going on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Insurance Sector: Discussion (25 Oct 2012)

Colm Burke: This was the first new facility in Cork in 60 years. I do not understand the logic.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Insurance Sector: Discussion (25 Oct 2012)

Colm Burke: I will return to a point I raised earlier about competition among health care providers as opposed to health care insurers. If one restricts the number of health care providers, one will automatically keep up the level of costs they can charge. I make no apologies for filing a complaint with the Competition Authority on this matter because I certainly thought the case was anti-competitive....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Insurance Sector: Discussion (25 Oct 2012)

Colm Burke: I know there is competition among insurance companies but if there is no competition among the health care providers and if the authority considers it has no role in that, insurance will continue to increase. It is an issue which needs to be dealt with. I saw this in one area where there was one dominant player which did everything possible to ensure no competition was introduced. It was...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Insurance Sector: Discussion (25 Oct 2012)

Colm Burke: I am not sure of the issues I raised were outside the remit of the witnesses. They were not dealt with and I wonder whether the witnesses could refer to my questions on competition within the health care sector.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Insurance Sector: Discussion (25 Oct 2012)

Colm Burke: The issue about competition in the health care sector concerns a situation where an insurer decides to limit the number of beds it would cover. This creates a false market in that it prevents competition from arising.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Insurance Sector: Discussion (25 Oct 2012)

Colm Burke: They are competing with other insurers but it is a problem if we do not have enough people providing health care.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Insurance Sector: Discussion (25 Oct 2012)

Colm Burke: I may be going into an area which is slightly outside the witnesses' remit. It concerns competition within the health care sector.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children: Health Insurance Sector: Discussion (25 Oct 2012)

Colm Burke: I am talking about the private health care sector. On the one hand, if the number of beds is increased, the level of competition increases, which could assist in reducing price. On the other hand, if the number of beds is increased, we are then creating a cashflow problem for the insurers in the sense that the more services provided, the more demand is placed on those services. It is about...

Seanad: National Dementia Strategy: Motion (24 Oct 2012)

Colm Burke: The Minister of State is welcome to the House. While listening to this debate it occurred to me that approximately one third of all debates in the House are directly related to health care. This emphasises the importance of the issue and I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this extremely important motion. It is an area on which we need to focus and bring about the necessary...

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Garda Vetting (24 Oct 2012)

Colm Burke: My concern is where the HSE employs a company, which may be tax resident in Ireland. Does the amendment confuse the matter where the worker, while employed by the company, may not be resident for tax purposes in Ireland? It could cause complications.

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Garda Vetting (24 Oct 2012)

Colm Burke: I agree with my colleague, Senator Gilroy. Courts have given interpretations to the words "conduct" and "practice". They have two different interpretations. The Minister's amendment is being put forward because we have interpretations. The reason this amendment is being tabled is to ensure there is no misinterpretation in court proceedings at a future date or in any kind of hearing in...

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Garda Vetting (24 Oct 2012)

Colm Burke: The proposal is that the words "such opinion being corroborated by independent written medical advice," be inserted. I am a little concerned as the proposal does not make any provision, for example, if a person refuses to turn up to get independent medical advice. The legislation would not provide for any requirement for the person to turn up and the Minister could therefore be caught in a...

Seanad: Adjournment Matters: Garda Vetting (24 Oct 2012)

Colm Burke: I support what Senator Gilroy said. The amendment is well intentioned As explained earlier by Senator Gilroy and the Minister, we are setting up a transitionary structure and to go through the process of advertising every position that will have to be filled would take too long and would slow down the whole process. When an entity is being restructured, the Minister has to have a fair...