Results 1,221-1,240 of 1,253 for speaker:John Crown

Seanad: Medical Practitioners (Amendment) Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Jul 2011)

John Crown: I am trying to compose myself and to wrestle with a dilemma I face in respect of this legislation. The rational side of me accepts it must pass if we are to have doctors in our hospitals next week, but the dreamer in me wonders, after 18 years of screaming about the problems in our health service, whether anybody is listening. This latest example of Ballymagash forward planning, where we...

Seanad: Medical Practitioners (Amendment) Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Jul 2011)

John Crown: -----which hop across the country in "quangaroo" fashion or whatever it is they do.

Seanad: Medical Practitioners (Amendment) Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Jul 2011)

John Crown: That is just flat out wrong. With great respect to HIQA, talk about establishing a huge operation with a multimillion budget and 200 inspectors to state the blindingly obvious, namely, that there are no good hospitals in the country. I accept that there are a number of adequate hospitals. I have a quick chuckle on each occasion I hear people referring to centres of excellence. As someone...

Seanad: Medical Practitioners (Amendment) Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Jul 2011)

John Crown: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2011: Second Stage (7 Jul 2011)

John Crown: This is an issue in which I have a great interest. On a daily basis, practising doctors in Ireland, particularly practising cancer specialists, see the results of the carnage caused by cigarette smoking. A quick, off the top of the head, list of the cancers for which cigarettes are the principle cause makes for frightening reading, beginning with lip, mouth, tongue, throat, oesophagus,...

Seanad: Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2011: Second Stage (7 Jul 2011)

John Crown: I believe we should do that. We should also consider extending the legal limits on where people can smoke. It was a subject of some amusement to me - working as I do in environs where it is illegal to smoke either indoors or outdoors - to discover that within the hallowed campus of Leinster House there are several locations officially or unofficially designated as smoking areas. It would...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Jul 2011)

John Crown: I ask the Leader to ensure that the House is granted an opportunity to engage in a degree of debate and, hopefully, parliamentary oversight in respect of the development of the planned national children's hospital. Everyone in the House and people throughout the country will be aware of the greater than usual level of national scrutiny that has obtained in respect of this specific and...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Jul 2011)

John Crown: Yes, I am asking the Leader to bring to the attention of the Minister our great concern regarding the development of the new children's hospital and also the need for oversight on the part of this House in respect of the plan. There is a concern that, at a time of great financial stringency, we may well have a commitment to construct a new building at some stage while in the short term there...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Jul 2011)

John Crown: In conclusion, I ask everyone to please remember that the total cost of Crumlin hospital is the equivalent of five days of the repayment of the bank bailout. The total cost of the Crumlin hospital overrun, which led to the hospital having its services curtailed, was four hours of what we are paying for the bank bailout. These facts must be borne in mind. I ask the Leader to convey our...

Seanad: Whistleblower Legislation: Motion (29 Jun 2011)

John Crown: The Drogheda story was clearly one of many great tragedies. Many women had their lives terribly altered and ruined as a result of medical bad practise. I was struck by the fact that there was no real debate at that time about the structures in place in that hospital. Why was it that so much could depend on the actions of a single doctor? Was it appropriate that a unit would be so...

Seanad: Whistleblower Legislation: Motion (29 Jun 2011)

John Crown: I am a whistleblower. I had the experience when I first returned to Ireland of being involved in a few whistleblowing events which taught me much about the manner in which this country is run. As a result, I am extraordinarily supportive of all efforts to try to ramp up the level of protection in place for whistleblowers. Over the years, there has been an increasing level of tolerance and...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2011)

John Crown: I welcome the Minister, Deputy Burton. It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to interact professionally with her and I hope we will have many opportunities to do so in the years to come. I wish to make some points which echo those I made to a Minister of State who addressed us in the Chamber several weeks ago, one whom I thought if things had worked out differently might be answering to...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2011: Committee and Remaining Stages (28 Jun 2011)

John Crown: The Acting Chairman will forgive my unfamiliarity and rustiness on points of procedure. I did not realise my comments were confined to section 3 at this stage. I will wait until later to comment.

Seanad: Housing Market: Motion (22 Jun 2011)

John Crown: I apologise to my colleagues for being absent from the Chamber for the last few hours. We were meeting a visiting delegation of cancer researchers from Harvard who are trying to develop collaborations which will be to the advantage of our country. As I mentioned a few nights ago in a different context, I strongly believe one of the most frustrating things being reported to me regularly by...

Seanad: Order of Business (22 Jun 2011)

John Crown: I wish to raise a little "Is féidir linn" success story which the Leader could forward to the Minister for Health and the Minister of State with responsibility for medical research to see how it could be developed. Recently, the All Ireland Co-operative Oncology Research Group, ICORG, celebrated its twelfth anniversary. It was founded at a time when Ireland, uniquely for a western country,...

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Jun 2011)

John Crown: I do not want to sound like a broken record and I am aware that the magnitude of the crisis involving non-consultant hospital doctors has exercised many of my colleagues in this and the other House over the past several weeks. However, I ask the Leader to bring to the attention of the Minister for Health that little debate has taken place in this House or in any other public forum in regard...

Seanad: Order of Business (21 Jun 2011)

John Crown: I am. In July, chickens will be coming home to roost. I ask the Leader to bring this matter to the Minister's attention. The Minister correctly wishes to reform the health system fundamentally. His plan appears to be to introduce minor reforms during his first term and, following a putative second election victory, to make the fundamental reforms that are necessary. He should put that...

Seanad: Finance (No. 2) Bill 2011 (Certified Money Bill): Committee and Remaining Stages (16 Jun 2011)

John Crown: It is fair to say that in the past 20 years careful citizens who wished to make prudent provision for their own future and for that of their families generally followed the careful, conservative advice of serious financial advisers who told them they should invest in two things, namely, their family home and a recognised pension product. Others decided to follow more speculative, casino-like...

Seanad: Fair Deal Nursing Home Scheme: Statements (Resumed) (16 Jun 2011)

John Crown: I will share my time with Senator Cullinane.

Seanad: Fair Deal Nursing Home Scheme: Statements (Resumed) (16 Jun 2011)

John Crown: I welcome the Minister of State. I have a major interest in health policy and hope to contribute to this debate through my membership of this House and, I hope, the health committee. I echo the calls made by some of my colleagues, and outside the House by Professor Des Fitzgerald, for a fundamental long-term strategic evaluation of how we will handle all the health and social issues which...