Results 121-140 of 1,253 for speaker:John Crown

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Dec 2011)

John Crown: Yes.

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Jan 2012)

John Crown: I also welcome all my colleagues back. I want to start by briefly paying a personal tribute to the late Ms Mary Raftery, who I have known, off and on, since I was a teenage student in University College Dublin. Her body of work speaks for itself and all I can say is if all lives were lived so well, the world would be a better place. I want to follow up briefly on the reference to Archbishop...

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Jan 2012)

John Crown: Yes. I ask the Leader to ask the Minister for Health to clarify the situation. I believe he was honestly misinformed. We now know that the 20% versus 5% figure is wholly unsafe. Dr. Jennifer Martin of the Department of Health, at the Joint Committee on Health and Children on 8 December, stated that they had originally, while looking at HIPE data - which are not data designed to assess the...

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Jan 2012)

John Crown: -----to close 24 hour services in Roscommon, but it is not right to make a promise before an election and not to keep it, and certainly not right to do it using figures which are not safe. Dr. Paddy McHugh, the nurses and the doctors of Roscommon hospital-----

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Jan 2012)

John Crown: I ask that the Minister, who, I believe, was honestly misinformed, would clarify this for the sake of the reputation of the good staff of Roscommon hospital.

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Jan 2012)

John Crown: On a point of order. The record needs to be corrected, however. Something was stated in the other House which is incorrect.

Seanad: Suicide Prevention: Statements (12 Jan 2012)

John Crown: I thank the Minister of State for turning her attention and considerable skills to this troubling area. I am 54 years old and have personally known 14 people who committed suicide, including nine health care professionals and people who in some cases were known to suffer from mental illness. This is clearly a major problem and anybody who does this sad calculation will realise a...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Jan 2012)

John Crown: I ask the Leader to consider the holding of a formal debate in this House, with appropriate ministerial presence, on the critical importance, future and threat to the biopharmaceutical manufacturing sector in this country, which is an extraordinarily important part of our economy that gives us a set of international comparators which are in the superlative range in terms of where we are in...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Jan 2012)

John Crown: My question was posed at the outset of my contribution. I ask that we schedule a debate on the future of the biopharmaceutical sector and its industrial base. We will discuss the issue in more detail on Thursday when we have a debate on job creation, but this specific sector is of critical importance.

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Jan 2012)

John Crown: I also welcome the news that Ms Louise Bayliss was reinstated. I speak with some personal authority on the issue of whistleblowing in the health service. This is a major problem at a time the service faces constraint. There will be problems and if we cannot depend on people who know what they are talking about, such as my old friend and colleague Dr. Gerry Burke who spoke out earlier,...

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Jan 2012)

John Crown: Will the Leader bring to the Minister's attention my extreme concern that he makes right decision? Apparently, the decision has been handed to him regarding the approval of the use of this drug in the treatment of patients with malignant melanoma. A recent expert committee, comprising four oncologists and three bureaucrats, convened on this and the oncologists all said the drug needed to be...

Seanad: Water Services: Statements (25 Jan 2012)

John Crown: I wish to address the broad philosophy of how we are addressing the water problem. There is a certain consistency across the public service that the way to solve real world, practical problems is to develop another bureaucracy. I am not saying that we do not need to have officialdom and regulatory oversight. The health service had the lowest number of specialists per head of population in...

Seanad: Order of Business (26 Jan 2012)

John Crown: Dublin will be the European City of Science for 2012, with a major symposium in July with a focus on scientific achievement in this country. I was pleased to note recently that Ireland has now been ranked third in the world for immunology, which is a burgeoning and critically important area of human biomedical science. It is also ranked eighth in the world for field of material science. We...

Seanad: Renewable Energy: Motion (1 Feb 2012)

John Crown: I thank Senator Quinn, first for sharing his time with me, and second for making such a sensible, well-informed, non-hysterical, non-headline seeking, non-populism tickling set of recommendations for what we need to do. I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, when I say I regret that the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, has left. I know the Minister of State will convey our...

Seanad: EU Fiscal Compact Treaty: Statements, Questions and Answers (7 Feb 2012)

John Crown: I welcome the Minister of State to the House. To say that the pact is not an austerity budget reminds me of Big Vinny, the debt collector. When Big Vinny comes to one's house, he just wants his money. He does not tell one how to get it, or whether the kids should go hungry or not have health care. He just wants his money. To be honest, we are now being told to get the money. I am not an...

Seanad: Health (Provision of General Practitioner Services) Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Feb 2012)

John Crown: I welcome the Minister to the House. I also welcome his presence in the Department as he brings to it the zeal of a reformer, something sadly overdue in the health service. We look forward to supporting him in his efforts to forge real reform. I welcome this important Bill because there was a problem with the structures for entrance into general practice which was having negative downstream...

Seanad: Health (Provision of General Practitioner Services) Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Feb 2012)

John Crown: Yes. General practice in Ireland answers to the principles of social democracy but is not intensely bureaucratised. General practitioners run their own practices, get paid by the Government for their public patients and answer to the various agencies of the Government and their profession for the standards which they bring. This is vastly different from the way we run the hospital system....

Seanad: Energy (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2011: Second Stage (8 Feb 2012)

John Crown: The paths of the Minister and I crossed slightly on the last occasion he was before the House. I will take a slight liberty in bringing up another issue we discussed when the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, was substituting for the Minister. As I have stated, strategically the Minister's Department is perhaps the most important of Government because he has executive control over a branch...

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Feb 2012)

John Crown: I bring to the attention of the House and note the sad passing of Professor Gerry O'Sullivan, the founder of the Cork Cancer Research Centre, who was a true visionary, not only in the world of cancer research but also in terms of having the ambition to set up something where nothing had been in place before, in the process earning a huge international reputation for his native county and...

Seanad: HSE National Service Plan: Statements, Questions and Answers (14 Feb 2012)

John Crown: I thank the Minister. That means I have about three minutes to think of what I am going to say for the other two minutes. I am sorry but I did not realise I had such generous speaking time. I compliment the Minister on his vision for reform of the health service and I wish him well with its implementation. The challenge of implementation will be very difficult and, as I have said to him on...