Results 601-620 of 3,336 for speaker:Kate O'Connell

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Kate O'Connell: The product is highly addictive. It has been formulated to penetrate the lungs and blood system to a greater extent than cigarettes do. The raw material is nicotine, which tobacco companies have plenty of and want a market for. Somewhat like the Minister's thinking on vaccination, I am instinctively inclined to ban vaping altogether but I realise that is not possible. Will achievable...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Does the Minister have plans in that regard?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Kate O'Connell: As the Minister knows, and I made it very clear that I feel strongly about the issue of vaping. Large tobacco and cigarette companies are mooching, so to speak, into vaping. To bring it back to another issue, the rise of the global cannabis market is predicted to be €123 billion by 2028. It seems very clear that big tobacco is involved in this market as well. It is similar in ways...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Kate O'Connell: I understand, but there are no trial data.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Kate O'Connell: The Minister knows that I am fully aware of that. The next project being advertised is medicinal mushrooms, farcical as that sounds. Will the HPRA authorise those also? Will we continue to erode institutions and knowledge and bend facts? I understand consultants will have to prescribe the cannabis. However, the limited legislation that preceded the statutory instrument stipulated that it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Kate O'Connell: There is more flexibility in that regard.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Kate O'Connell: I know all of this.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Kate O'Connell: I understand that and the Minister knows how I feel about it. It is important that I outline my views. I refer to biosimilar products and the legislation needed to allow community and hospital pharmacists to substitute them, as was done in the case of generic products ten years ago. Is there any proposal from the Department to allow pharmacists to substitute biosimilar products? The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Kate O'Connell: The substitution of generics did not work until pharmacists could do it. It was clear 15 years ago. Substitution of biosimilars cannot be achieved if the legislation is not there for pharmacists.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Can I ask one brief question?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Kate O'Connell: I have five minutes, not one question. Pulling all the stuff together than I have been talking about in the previous two rounds, has the Department plans for a massive public health campaign in terms of identifying what we can learn from where we failed before? I refer to the vaccination rate with HPV vaccination dropping to 52%, which was not on the Minister's watch but it did happen, and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Kate O'Connell: No, I am at 2 minutes 52 seconds. The Minister recently mentioned a flag system for news and I welcome that. I discussed this before at a Facebook event. I am not sure how we would do it in terms of the Internet but I like where the Minister is going with it. It is very important. As we saw with the HPV vaccine, it is really hard to roll back. The lie has got around the world before the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion (2 Oct 2019)

Kate O'Connell: If it is of help to Dr. Henry, I think Deputy Durkan meant the word "valent" not "series" when it came to the vaccine. There is a bit of correspondence coming in to us. If it saves Dr. Henry and allows him to answer now, a few people are telling us it is not the most up-to-date vaccine that is being administered. I do not think that is right, because I checked it last night. My...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (26 Sep 2019)

Kate O'Connell: May I ask a question, Chairman?

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (26 Sep 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Thank you, Chairman. I will be brief.

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (26 Sep 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Why was the report we have discussed published without the enforcement order being ready? Was the timeframe not known to the 20 or so legal staff working for the commission? Ms Dixon might indicate whether there was a breakdown in this regard. Is it routine to outline the findings of a report without an enforcement order being ready? Perhaps Ms Dixon can give some examples of where the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (26 Sep 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Was there an understanding that the Department might comply voluntarily, which would negate the need for an enforcement?

Public Accounts Committee: 2018 Financial Statements of the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (26 Sep 2019)

Kate O'Connell: I thank Ms Dixon for clarifying that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Brexit Preparations Update: Discussion (25 Sep 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Mr. O'Connor has said we are much better prepared now than we were in March. It is good that we had an extension or we would be goosed. I am assuming from the opening statements that everything will stay the same and that we will have ten to 12 weeks’ headroom in the case of medical supplies. For perishable, short-life products, insulin is not one of them. It can be used after...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Brexit Preparations Update: Discussion (25 Sep 2019)

Kate O'Connell: I know from experience that if the bespoke bag of feed for a premature baby goes missing, the baby will have to be maintained on basic fluids. It is essentially a case of keeping them alive, rather than fixing them. I am not trying to create panic, but this is serious in this part of the medicine supply chain.