Results 21-40 of 309 for speaker:Keith Swanick

Seanad: Order of Business (9 Nov 2016)

Keith Swanick: On this day in 1989 all of us were alive and probably watched the evening news as the Berlin Wall came crashing down, a moment we will never forget. We have just had a bitterly divisive US presidential election where one candidate, now the President-elect, decided to whip up anti-migrant sentiment and anger with the suggestion of building a wall on the Mexican frontier. Here, on our island,...

Seanad: Health (Amendment) (Professional Home Care) Bill 2016: Second Stage (9 Nov 2016)

Keith Swanick: Fianna Fáil is happy to support this legislation, which stems from a Law Reform Commission report published five years ago. The legislation provides for a regulatory framework and legal standards to be put in place for professional home carers engaged in the provision of care to people in their own homes. Similar legislation based on the Law Reform Commission report was published by...

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Nov 2016)

Keith Swanick: In July and August my office sent out more than 940 confidential mental health questionnaires to all local authority members throughout the country, from all parties and none. This was the first comprehensive anonymous mental health questionnaire to be circulated to councillors. To tell the truth, the findings, which I presented at an AILG conference in Gorey recently, were stark and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Quarterly Update On Health Issues: Discussion (10 Nov 2016)

Keith Swanick: I have been liaising with my party colleagues, Deputy Butler and Councillor Murphy, on Waterford hospital. Dr. Heraty recommended that the hospital should be funded for an additional two angiography sessions per week, which would deliver approximately 3,000 more appointments. What is the timeframe for this to be implemented? Will it be later this year or early next year? I welcome the...

Seanad: Order of Business (16 Nov 2016)

Keith Swanick: As a health professional, I am concerned about a disturbing and unregulated trend that has emerged in the health care sector of late. I refer to so-called health specialists with no formal medical or nursing training who rent rooms in hotels around the country. They provide cardiovascular health assessments to vulnerable patients using simple probes that can be bought on eBay yet they...

Seanad: Order of Business (23 Nov 2016)

Keith Swanick: I recently read that, following a year-long campaign, Trinity College Dublin is set to divest the €6.1 million it has indirectly invested in fossil fuel companies. Fossil Free TCD has been lobbying and campaigning very diligently on this issue for many months, with the culmination this week of a commitment to divest. I believe the students should be applauded on their resilience and...

Seanad: Order of Business (30 Nov 2016)

Keith Swanick: The recent barbaric actions of ISIS have horrified and shocked the world. I am certain every Member of Seanad Éireann agrees that its actions are a stain on humanity. We have been disgusted by the barbarism displayed in the filming and photographing of victims and the subsequent publication of executions for propaganda purposes. There is no place in a civil society for this inhumane...

Seanad: Order of Business (30 Nov 2016)

Keith Swanick: On a point of principle, the statement by the President horrified me and I struggled to understand how he could, on behalf of the Irish people, express such glowing tributes to a tyrant and dictator.

Seanad: Order of Business (30 Nov 2016)

Keith Swanick: The glaring omission of the human rights atrocities by the Castro regime was disgusting. The remarks do not speak on my behalf. Words are important and I want to distance myself from the comments of President Higgins.

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Campaign (6 Dec 2016)

Keith Swanick: I thank the Cathaoirleach and welcome the Minister. In this morning's headlines, there is an unfortunate and heart-breaking story of an elderly man in County Armagh who has passed away as a result of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning. This devastation has been made all the more tragic by the fact that this was another utterly preventable death. At the end of September, during carbon...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Campaign (6 Dec 2016)

Keith Swanick: I look forward to working with the Minister, initially on the carbon monoxide situation. The State is the largest landlord in the country. There is a lack of consistency across counties so we need some uniformity. With regard to the radon situation, I implore the Minister to take on board some of the recommendations from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which advised that a...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 Dec 2016)

Keith Swanick: I propose an amendment to the Order of Business, that No. 29, motion 9, be taken without debate before No. 1. This motion pertains to the investment by the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, and the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund in equity holdings in three separate tobacco companies. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths in this country. As Professor Luke Clancy...

Seanad: National Treasury Management Agency Operations: Motion (6 Dec 2016)

Keith Swanick: I move:That Seanad Éireann calls on the Minister for Finance to bring to an immediate end the investment of taxpayers' money by the National Treasury Management Agency and Ireland Strategic Investment Fund in the three separate tobacco companies in which they have equity holdings.

Seanad: Order of Business (8 Dec 2016)

Keith Swanick: I have received correspondence about the Irish Coast Guard and the lack of legislation which covers it. As a medic working on the west coast I regularly liaise closely with our coast guard service and experience first-hand its members' bravery and commitment to serving the public while putting their own lives in danger. They face peril on every call out. Yesterday, family members of...

Seanad: Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2016: Second Stage (8 Dec 2016)

Keith Swanick: I welcome the opportunity to speak to this Bill and welcome the Minister of State to the House. Fianna Fáil will be supporting this Bill, although it is disappointing that risk equalisation levies are set to increase in 2017. The Health Insurance Authority, which regulates health insurance, states the increases are designed to support risk equalisation and sustain community rating in...

Seanad: Cystic Fibrosis Treatment: Statements (8 Dec 2016)

Keith Swanick: I welcome the Minister to the House to discuss this important issue. On Tuesday, many of us listened in the AV room as Ms Jillian McNulty gave a heart-wrenching account of what her life is like living with cystic fibrosis. In Jillian's words, without Orkambi, she would not be here. Her lung function has improved by almost 10% and she has spent up to a year less in hospital....

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Community Nursing (25 Jan 2017)

Keith Swanick: I thank the Minister for attending the House today to address my concerns regarding the Institute of Community Health Nursing. One thing we can be sure of is that all of us wish to be healthy, live long and have a family with few medical concerns but at one stage or another everyone here will use our health service, in some cases in an emergency and in others for longer term care....

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Community Nursing (25 Jan 2017)

Keith Swanick: I thank the Minister for his response and I welcome the fact there may be a review of funding for the organisation which does invaluable work. It receives a very small amount of money for the work it does. I thank the Minister for coming to the House to explain it.

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Jan 2017)

Keith Swanick: Last week, I formally submitted proposed legislation, namely, a declaration of independence day Bill. It would formally recognise the crucial and historic events that were the meeting of the First Dáil and the declaration of independence, made on 21 January 1919, and ensure the designation of 21 January as our declaration of independence day. Given that its 98th anniversary has just...

Seanad: Health Service: Statements (25 Jan 2017)

Keith Swanick: I thank the Minister for coming to the House today to facilitate this debate. We all know the pressures the health service is under. The Minister is aware of my belief that the problems we see in secondary care will never be rectified until primary care is adequately resourced. To that end, we need to re-invest our efforts in training more young GPs, practice nurses and community health...