Results 1,161-1,180 of 1,253 for speaker:John Crown

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Nov 2011)

John Crown: The fundamental reform that is required if our country is to be fixed, if we are to secure proper, competent, technically skilled government which is answerable to the people, is in respect of how we elect people to the more powerful House of Parliament, which is the Dáil. We should invite the Taoiseach to the Chamber to outline his intentions in regard to the future of this House and to...

Seanad: Community and Voluntary Sector: Statements, Questions and Answers (9 Nov 2011)

John Crown: I understand that in respect of charities the primary regulatory function resides with the Department of Finance.

Seanad: Community and Voluntary Sector: Statements, Questions and Answers (9 Nov 2011)

John Crown: I learn something new every day. Are charities not registered with the Department of Finance?

Seanad: Community and Voluntary Sector: Statements, Questions and Answers (9 Nov 2011)

John Crown: The Minister should encourage the culture and philosophy of the charitable sector within his Department, which would have the same aims of most charities. Before making some general points, I would like to make one specific point. It is probably not widely known that virtually all the clinical medical research which takes place in this country is undertaken voluntarily. Almost no doctors...

Seanad: Reform of Junior Certificate: Statements (8 Nov 2011)

John Crown: I will cut down on the formalities because of time constraints. As we are all aware, the opposite of education is ignorance. The educated person lives longer and better, is more prosperous and healthier, eats better, smokes fewer cigarettes and has better control of their fertility. These are well-established international facts and the arguments for a good education are overwhelming. The...

Seanad: Reform of Junior Certificate: Statements (8 Nov 2011)

John Crown: I will allow Senator Mac Conghail to produce my first play. I read approximately 20 non-science books per year and I am interested in this issue. It is not a question of either-or, we must have both. We live in a world of science governed by gravity, temperature, relativity, meteorology and evolution. These are all realities and we should teach people science all the way through school,...

Seanad: Health Services: Statements, Questions and Answers (27 Oct 2011)

John Crown: The Minister need not worry; he is not exactly my type.

Seanad: Health Services: Statements, Questions and Answers (27 Oct 2011)

John Crown: Diabetes.

Seanad: Health Services: Statements, Questions and Answers (27 Oct 2011)

John Crown: I give the Minister, Deputy Reilly, a particularly warm welcome. It is critically important to understand that he has a set of credentials that distinguish him from his three most immediate predecessors. I will not personalise this other than to say that the aggregate work experience, in any part of the workforce, of the Minister's three predecessors in this portfolio was four years. I do...

Seanad: Order of Business (27 Oct 2011)

John Crown: I will ask Senator Noone to pass on the matriculation details for that foreign college of physiotherapy and will have a chat with my daughters about it. I echo the Senator's remarks. We had no concert on the matter but I intended to bring up the issue of the necessity for a debate on a particular aspect of the education system which concerns me. We need fundamental, core curricular reform...

Seanad: Order of Business. (19 Oct 2011)

John Crown: I would be grateful if the Leader could find out from the Minister for Health if it would be possible to clarify the lead up to, the circumstances of, and the implementation of a decision to bring in a firm of private management consultants to run the hospital services in Galway and Limerick. This is a fundamental shift in the way a large part of the acute hospital service will be run and...

Seanad: Order of Business. (18 Oct 2011)

John Crown: Last week, a paper was published in The Lancet, perhaps the world's most prestigious medical journal, outlining the implications for the citizens of Greece of cutbacks in terms of delivery of and access to their health system. For the first time we saw a real verifiable matrix which showed that this is not some vague aphoristic theoretical worry about what might happen if there are health...

Seanad: Order of Business. (18 Oct 2011)

John Crown: -----or any hypothetical oligarchs who may have substantial investments in failed Irish banks, but that it would be used specifically for the purpose of maintaining services within the health services currently constituted. I believe that this would be feasible. If it was appropriately constructed, perhaps - I do not know as I am not an expert in these matters - with some degree of tax...

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Oct 2011)

John Crown: An article was published in The Sunday Times this week which highlighted the issue of apparent parliamentary interference in the appointment of members of the Judiciary. As Members are aware, I attempted several weeks ago, in the context of criminal trials, to introduce legislation which would have attempted to regularise any connections made between Members of Parliament and the Judiciary....

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Oct 2011)

John Crown: I am discussing her positively.

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Oct 2011)

John Crown: I am making the point that the record should reflect that this woman had a heroic role in Irish family law and criminal law. I would like to ensure there is no ambiguity about that.

Seanad: Investment in Science, Technology and Innovation: Statements (11 Oct 2011)

John Crown: I thank the Fine Gael Party and other colleagues for allowing me to break traditional order to speak. It was through no fault of anyone else that I failed to realise the Minister of State was coming before the House. It is important that I should be present and take this opportunity to have a chat with him. By coincidence, the conflicting demand on my time was the visit to the House this...

Seanad: Order of Business. (11 Oct 2011)

John Crown: I preface my remarks by responding to some of my colleagues' comments. If I wished to publicise both sides of the argument on the forthcoming constitutional amendment referenda in a fashion that it would get the maximum penetration into society and provide the greatest educational opportunities, I might not necessarily pick Seanad Éireann with its extensive media coverage as being the best...

Seanad: Order of Business. (11 Oct 2011)

John Crown: The Minister for Health has recently acknowledged the severity and implications of the obesity problem in our society. It is a problem we rate as being second to, and perhaps on a par with, tobacco as a cause of premature ill health. In addition to the well known increasing risk that obesity contributes to heart disease, strokes and diabetes, recent data have strongly suggested it not only...

Seanad: Order of Business. (11 Oct 2011)

John Crown: However, I ask the Leader to bring these to the Minister's attention because there is a specific issue that we should mention. If we are to raise money from this kind of tax, I hope the money is not just being used to pay German bankers. I hate to delve into the type of stereotyping the former German ambassador used about Irish doctors and other members of our society, but German bankers...