Colm Burke
Cork North-Central · Fine Gael · Ireland
“That is not the Department's fault but the FAI was not asked any questions about bringing this land back into use for sporting activities in Glanmire. There are 30 acres lying idle. Not a sod has been turned and no planning application has been made. We are now getting mixed messages about what is actually going on.”
“The Department is still giving out money to the FAI and not calling it to account for getting the land from a Government agency, the local authority, and leaving it to sit idle, while clubs are now refusing to take in new members because they do not have capacity for them. It is time for the Department to step in.”
“It is ten years later and not a sod has been turned. I got then Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, to come to Glanmire in 2023 where we met 18 of the sports clubs. As a result of that meeting, the FAI started negotiations again with the county council.”
“The Department of Culture, Communications and Sport provides funding to the FAI on an annual basis. I understand it is more than €6 million. Can the Minister of State ascertain why 30 acres of land in Glanmire, Cork, which was leased to the FAI by Cork County Council in 2017, has remained idle?”
“I am absolutely astonished at that reply. The county council told councillors that it was leasing 12.5 acres to Riverstown FC rather than the full site. What the FAI is telling the Minister is totally different.”
“There has been a substantial delay in issuing Irish residency permit, IRP, cards. Quite a number of my constituents have been let go from employment because they did not get their cards within the 12-week period.”
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“In fairness to the Irish College of General Practitioners, it has done a huge amount of work as regards having more GPs trained and putting in place a programme for people who have worked abroad and now want to work in Ireland. It has a two year programme whereas for the normal training, people would have to produce evidence of having worked abroad. One of the things we need to fast-track in a lot of areas, especially growing urban areas, is the provision of primary care centres so a whole range of services are available. One of the things that is happening with GPs is that they are specialising. Therefore, it is important that a primary care centre is in place to provide a whole range of services and it allows GPs to deliver a far more comprehensive service in an area.”
“It further highlights the reason we need to be self-sufficient in the generation of electricity, whereas we are currently reliant on resources from abroad. We need to give priority to this.”
“Some of these centres may not be able to progress because the infrastructure is not there to supply the electricity to them. We therefore need to see how we can fast-track it but also how we can fast-track the whole issue of licensing to allow the building of wind turbines at sea and make sure that can be done in a timely manner. It is interesting how other countries in Europe have been able to do that, and have done it over a very short period because they saw the demand was there. Another issue has occurred in the past two to three weeks. The issues in relation to the conflict in the Middle East show that there was a threat for a period that we might have a sudden shortage or that there would be restrictions on the supply of oil.”
“I note the Department has progressed this matter. However, I am concerned about the time period with regard to developing this policy further. We are under pressure with increasing demand for electricity. Therefore, we need more facilities in place to generate that electricity, whether it is through solar farms, wind turbines or new forms of generating electricity. We need to fast-track it now because the economy is growing at a far faster rate now than anytime before, and data centres are making a huge contribution to the economy as well. As I set out earlier, there are 14 data centres currently under construction and another 40 have planning permission. Therefore, the demand for electricity will increase, and we need to respond to that demand.”
“Any surplus electricity would be fed back into the grid. This issue needs to be given priority. We have a growing population. Recent figures show that 5.45 million people are now resident in Ireland. It is a growing population. We need to generate electricity and cater for the companies that want to develop data centres in future.”
“We probably have the best potential in Europe but compared to Norway or Sweden we are very much at least ten, if not 15, years behind with regard to generating electricity from wind turbines at sea. There is also the challenge that when wind turbines are put on land there are concerns because no matter where we put them they are within a very short distance from existing dwellings. This can cause its own problems for the residents of the houses. We need to fast-track the legislation to deal with this. We need to encourage, and provide licences for, wind turbines to be put in place at sea. We need to go through the planning process and get them up and running. We also need to legislate so that data centres, which have the resources and finances to do so, can lay the cable directly from the source of electricity to the data centre.”
“The data centres would then have their own power lines and would not be reliant on supply from the main electricity suppliers in Ireland. There would be the added advantage that any surplus electricity they have would be fed back into the national grid. The advantage in Ireland with regard to data centres is that Ireland has 10% of all of the European data centres. For a country of this size it is a phenomenal percentage to have. With the generation of AI and everything else, we will have even more demand for data centres. Therefore, we must respond appropriately with regard to how we plan forward. We also need to plan for the provision of electricity and the generation of electricity, and we need to fast-track the issue of wind turbines at sea.”
“At present there are 82 data centres in Ireland. They use up 6 TWh of electricity, which is 21% of all electricity produced. There are 14 data centres under construction, and a further 40 centres have planning permission. By 2030 there is potential for 100 additional data centres in Ireland. It is now a major challenge. There is concern that the fact they use 21% of the electricity will put pressure on the electricity suppliers with regard to being able to cope with the demand. The companies involved in data centres have represented to me that the best way to deal with this is for them to be able to lay cables from the power source. What they propose is wind turbines at sea. Cables brought from these would go directly to the data centres.”
“The average time from when a medicine is approved by the European Medicines Agency to it being available in Ireland is 617 days. Between 2004 and 2025, 402 new medicines were approved by the European Medicines Agency, of which 71% had applications made in Ireland. In other words, for 117 medicines approved by the EMA, no licence or approval has been applied for here. It is the whole delay in the process. I fully accept additional staff are being taken on, but the period the process takes is far too long, especially for new cancer drugs, which are available at European level but not in Ireland. We need to fast-track them. What action will be taken, especially to make cancer drugs available in an early timeframe?”
“It is an absolute disgrace that Irish leaving certificate students who are competent and want to go into this area have to go abroad while 44% of all dental students in Irish colleges are from outside the European Union. That has to be addressed.”
“Engaging in a process may take two years. This is a priority. The figures are clear. Some 110,000 fewer people are being seen under the public scheme for dental care. In addition, there are 30,000 fewer students in our primary schools being reviewed by dentists. That figure is from 2017. The other issue that has come to my attention is training for dental hygienists. For instance, I understand that in Trinity last year, there were 12 people taken in on the dental hygienists' programme. There were more than 200 applicants. Again, dental practices are not able to recruit people because there are not enough people available. People are going abroad to train in that area. Likewise, students who cannot get into the Irish system for dental training are going to places like Poland for training.”
“I fully accept that the Minister of State and her Department are working very hard on this issue, but there is a crisis here. We have got to deal with it before the college places are awarded in UCC and Trinity. That is the reason I am asking the Department to engage with them. The other issue that needs to be dealt with - and this is a case where both the Department of Health and the Department of higher education need to work - is that there needs to be a clear plan put in place to deal with the number of dentists retiring over the next five years. Even if we increase the number of student places, we will still not deal with that issue. There are figures available. I am surprised that the Department of Health did not look at this far earlier. I am concerned by what the Minister of State said about its engagement in a process.”
“It is a case of reducing the number of non-European students taken in and increasing the number of Irish students taken in. This will really help. Even if we do that in the morning, we are still five years off having those qualified dentists available. This now needs to be given priority by the Department. It has to be done in the next three or four weeks before the universities make final decisions about admissions of students for 2025. That is why I am raising it a second time in a very short period.”
“I fully accept that the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland intends to start a new training programme, which will involve at least 20 Irish students. I do not think that is sufficient for the demand that exists. For instance, within a mile radius of my constituency office in Cork, two dental practices have closed because the owners could not get anyone to take them over. They wanted to retire. We will have a huge number of dentists retiring out over the next five years. We have got to deal with this challenge now. The other figure given to me by the Irish Dental Association is that 75% of dental practices that wanted to recruit someone in 2023 failed to fill the vacancies that were there. We have got to deal with this as a matter of urgency. It is not a case that universities have to take on extra staff.”
“That is a decrease of 110,000. There is also a substantial problem with regard to people who have intellectual disabilities in that access to care is not there for them. I had one case recently where the family involved had to pay out for private care that cost more than €10,000. Care is available but there is a substantial waiting time of anything up to 12 months, even for the most urgent case. This issue needs to be dealt with, first in the context of engagement with the Irish Dental Association and trying to get more dentists to take on public patients or people with medical cards. The second issue is training. We have got to dramatically increase the number of students who qualify each year who are more likely to stay in Ireland.”
“The issue I wish to raise, which I am aware was raised in the House recently, relates to the number of places for dental students in Ireland. In UCC in 2023, 61 students qualified as dentists. Of these, 25 were European, including Irish, and 36 were from outside Europe. In Trinity the same year, 41 students qualified. Of these, 25 were Irish or European and 21 were non-Europeans. We have a huge shortage of dentists who are prepared to provide a service for public patients, yet they are providing treatment if you attend as a private patient. The number providing public care has dropped from 1,450 to 810. The latter is the most recent figure available and relates to 2023. The number has, in fact, fallen below 810 at this stage. The number receiving treatment who are public patients dropped from 393,000 in 2012 to 283,000 in 2023.”
“We need to develop that to give support to the nursing homes as well to make sure we have proper and comprehensive healthcare available in nursing homes rather than transferring people into hospitals. I will mention one last example of a 97-year-old man who was transferred to a hospital from a nursing home. He died four hours later. I do not think that is acceptable. Care should have been provided in the nursing home and the supports need to be given to the nursing homes so that they can provide that care.”
“Older people want to make sure they are being listened to. It is important we have the people with the necessary skills in relation to all the people they are caring for. It is also important we ensure there is adequate review of their medical needs and it is not a case of prescribing the same thing months after month without a proper review. We need to make sure that is happening in our nursing homes and that the necessary support is provided. During Covid we were able to develop supports. It is an easy option for a nursing home to transfer someone into a hospital and take the burden off the nursing home. We set up teams from hospitals that would visit nursing homes. In one case of more than 350 people in nursing homes, there was a review by a medical team from the hospital. Only 20 of the 350 had to be transferred into hospital.”
“In fact, the public nursing home receives €1,969 per bed per week where a private nursing home gets €1,206. Public is €1,969 and private is €1,206. That is a difference of €763. As well as the cost of staff and electricity that private nursing homes have to pay, they also pay commercial rates to local authorities as well as interest on loans that were taken out to build those nursing homes. Those are the costs they have. If we want to have an adequate system, we must provide adequate funding and make sure the staff employed in the private nursing homes are there in sufficient numbers and that they have adequate training and communication skills. It is so important for communicating with anyone who needs care, whether they are in a nursing home or hospital. They also need time to listen to those people they are caring for.”
“This is not the way to treat them in their final years. Management and owners have the prime responsibility. What we saw here was not the necessary care. Even care supports required for individuals were being rationed. This is not acceptable practice. We all have a part to play in the care of those who have gone before us in relation to how they and previous generations have built up this country and have contributed to our education system, to our local authorities and all the services we enjoy. They all played a part in that and it is important we give them their support when they need it. It is important we look at the whole issue of funding. For instance, at the moment, 80% of people in nursing homes are in private homes but they only get 60% of the funding whereas 20% are in public nursing homes which get 40% of the funding.”
“I can go back to 21 years ago when my legal office and another legal office identified a major discrepancy where over 80% of people’s pensions were being deducted in public nursing homes. We identified that the health boards and the Department of Health did not have legislative powers to do that. As a result of that challenge, over in excess of €450 million had to be refunded to 20,000 families. That challenge subsequently led to the creation of the fair deal scheme. The whole idea of the fair deal scheme was that everyone would be treated equally first in regard to the financial payment and second in regards the care and support they would receive. What we saw on “Prime Time Investigates” is not acceptable and must not be tolerated. All these are people who have worked, paid taxes and reared families.”
“It is a project in the Taoiseach's constituency, but a number of other projects in a similar vein have been approved by the Department of housing but then have to go through the Department of public expenditure for final approval. Can we set a process in place that is faster than one that takes from September to June or July? There are challenges as regards meeting timeframes with builders.”
“I raise the process of approving housing whereby we have to go through voluntary housing agencies, then through the Department of housing and finally through the Department of public expenditure. I am dealing with one project with 217 apartments for which the process started in September last year. It has gone through Clúid, the housing agency, through the Department of housing and is now in the Department of public expenditure. I fully understand Departments have to make sure taxpayers are getting value for money, but can we put a process in place that can expedite approvals for projects like this? This is 217 apartments.”
“The family ended up having to pay €10,000 because, to get the extractions done, he has to have an anaesthetic and a consultant anaesthetist has to be in place. It will cost €10,000 because he could not get access to the public service. That cannot go on and, even if we start in the morning, it will be five years before the people are available.”
“There is an easy way to deal with this, and I have set it out already: reduce the number of training places for non-EU students in our colleges and increase the number of Irish students. It is easy to do. No extra funding is needed except additional money to be provided to the colleges to provide those training places. If the number in UCC is reduced from 38 to 18, for example, the money for the 18 then being taken in as Irish students needs to be made up. It has to be looked at. I love these expressions that a scoping exercise will be done or something is being examined. The figures are there. There is no need for any examination. We are short of dentists. I met a young person recently who has a disability and needed extractions. The earliest he can get an appointment in the public service is in 12 months' time.”
“I thank the Minister of State for the reply. I would like clarity on the RCSI. Will those students be fee-paying students or is will they come under the education system and be the same as any other students? I always thought that RCSI was full of fee-paying students. Second, an extra 20 places is not sufficient and the figures show that. The number of dentists now offering public services has decreased from slightly more than 1,400 down to 810. We have lost 600 and we will lose another 200 to 300 in the coming months with the way things are going. The other issue is that there are now fewer dentists working with the HSE compared with four years ago. There are 30 fewer dentists working with the HSE. This is not a situation that will be resolved by 20 new places.”
“The Irish Dental Association has suggested that we decrease the number of non-EU students to 20%. It did not say to cut them out completely but to reduce the number. We have to give more funding. I do not care what answer the Department gives tonight. This has been put on the back burner for far too long. We were to build a new dental school in Cork, we had identified a site, we got the planning permission, funding was not available and the whole project was abandoned. Now we are in a scenario where we have population growth, people are living longer and we do not have the dentists to look after them. Now is the time to take action and we need to take it before 1 September.”
“That is 47 dentists per 100,000 people or one dentist per 2,125 people. We need to forward plan. Even if, in the morning, we decided to increase the number of places, it would still take five years before the students would be out there. There is an easy way to deal with this and the Irish Dental Association has already set it out quite clearly. The places are there but we are giving them to non-EU students. We need to decrease the number of non-EU students and increase the number of Irish and other EU students. We do not have to put extra money into it, except to replace the money the colleges are getting from non-EU students with money from the Department so we can improve and increase the number of training places available. It is not that we have to build new structures or provide more equipment. We do not. It is already there.”
“They are the figures for final year in our colleges. We have a huge increase in population and we have not responded. To give an idea about treatment, in 2012, 394,399 availed of it under the public health service. In 2023, the figure was 283,000. That is down more than 100,000. In 2012, there were 1,432 dentists offering to provide dental care under the public scheme. In 2024, it was down to 810, yet our population had increased dramatically. There is also an additional issue in that we now have an older population. Going back 30 or 40 years, most older people tended to have dentures. That has now totally changed so there are now more older people who require dental treatment as well. The Department of Health has acknowledged that there are 2,420 dentists in the country.”
“I thank the Minister of State and I am sorry that we are dealing with this so late in the evening. What action is the Department of higher education taking to increase the number of dental training places in our universities? This is in view of the fact that no increase has occurred in the past 25 years while the population of the country has increased by 1.6 million people. Moreover, will the Minister of State explain why 44% of training places in our universities are made available to non-EU students? I will give the figures for final year students in Trinity College Dublin: 46 students, of which 25 are Irish or EU students and 21 are non-EU students. In University College Cork, there are 61 students of which 25 are EU students, which includes Irish students, and 36 are non-EU students.”
“We need to set up a proper system right across the board in all of our hospitals in all of the different areas of medicine to make sure that reviews are carried out on a regular basis - not every year but at least once in every five years. That is something we need to look at.”
“While I am talking about Caesarean sections and the need for checks and balances, this is what I do not understand. I had understood that in all of our hospitals, regardless of the area of medicine, whether it is orthopaedics, maternity or paediatrics, there are checks and balances. Reviews are carried out in hospitals on a regular basis. That does not appear to be so in this case because these procedures were being carried out since 2010. On maternity, the figures for one hospital in Ireland for February show that 73.5% of deliveries for first-time mothers were by way of Caesarean section. I would question the need for 73.5% of women to have Caesarean sections. It raises questions as to whether we are now taking decisions in order to fast-track what needs to be done.”
“The difficulty with this is the lack of trust that has been created as a result of what happened in this instance. It will take a huge amount of time and effort to build that trust back up. As a result, it is important that we do everything possible to make sure that there is full disclosure and that the families whose children have gone through unnecessary operations are given the necessary support. We should have learned from history. A number of years ago, a consultant was doing unnecessary hysterectomies. That was identified in the past 15 years. We also had the whole issue with symphysiotomy, about which one person said, "He was sawing me in half." That was a grotesque way to carry out a medical procedure. It was in place of doing Caesarean sections.”
“The audit was carried out on pelvic osteotomy between January 2021 and December 2023. Paragraph 2.3 of the report states: In many of the TSH [Temple Street] and NOHC [Cappagh] cases sampled, there was no record of closed or open hip reduction after delayed diagnosis, no record of either hip ever having been dislocated and often no history of treatment soon after birth by splint or brace for hip instability. However, based on the surveys carried out, the evidence for the need for these surgeries did not appear to be there. It is accepted here in this House that the vast majority of consultants, junior doctors, nurses, care assistants and all the people who work in hospitals want to put their best foot forward and look after patients in the best possible way.”
“I thank the Minister for coming to the House to deal with this issue. This is a really difficult time for children but, in particular, for parents because children place their trust in their parents. The parents in this case placed their trust in the consultants and took their advice in coming to a decision about the best way of managing the medical care required. Simon Thomas, who has been with the British Royal Hospital since 2007, carried out the review of operations performed in Crumlin, Temple Street and Cappagh. He found that Temple Street and Cappagh were doing something totally different from Crumlin. Crumlin seemed to have been doing far fewer operations, was not involved to the same extent and was following all the proper procedures in coming to decisions before performing these operations.”
“Another place the Minister should visit the next time he is in Cork is the Glen Resource Centre. I was involved a long time ago in getting funding from Europe to start the centre. There are now more than 80 organisations using it. This is because of the contribution of the local community in developing and growing it. It is an important facility in an area where there was a lot of local authority housing and we would not have been able to raise funding. We got the funding from Europe under a capital programme to develop the centre. We need to look at inner-city areas as well because they do not necessarily have the funding. It is about making sure that they are not left behind. The Minister should visit the Glen Resource Centre to see how a community working with the local authority and the Government can develop a very good facility.”
“The GAA club in Glammire does not have the capacity to take the huge number of young people who want to join the club. The club is finding it very challenging to cater for everyone because of the growth in the area. The issue of 30 acres lying idle needs to be resolved.”
“I acknowledge that Department officials work really hard and are getting good value for the money that is allocated. When money is allocated to a community group, it will raise a whole lot more money itself to develop and grow the facilities. My big concerns centres around the areas where there is a huge increase in housing. The Minister talked about the allocation in Blarney, which is very welcome. The money has been well looked after and well spent there in developing the facilities. In the future, 2,500 more houses will built there. It is about making sure we have clearly marked out where we are going to put additional community facilities. Likewise in Glanmire, 30 acres was given to the FAI more than 12 years ago and it is still lying idle. We need to bring that into use and do major development for the town.”
“In my home parish of Innishcarra, there are 50 acres of community facilities. The GAA, the camogie club and the rugby club all have their own grounds in the centre of the community, all in one piece. The Minister should visit to see how a community can work. I am concerned that in areas where there is huge growth in population we are not planning for it. The Department needs to look at this issue very carefully.”
“As the Minister knows, Ballincollig, which is in my constituency, won the Tidy Towns competition in 2024. It involved a huge contribution from the community over many years. A really strong community spirit has been created. The problem I now have in my constituency in places like Blarney and Glanmire which have had huge population increases is that we have not set aside facilities to be developed for the community. Glanmire, which has a population of more than 20,000, has no real community facility. I know we will work with the local authority on it but this is something that needs to be prioritised in growing areas. In Blarney, the proposal is for 2,500 more houses to be built. Planning was granted for the first tranche of 270 houses in the past two weeks. The planning for community facilities also needs to be put in place.”
“She returned to Berlin in 2010 and spent much of the last years of her life informing and educating young Germans about the Holocaust. She kept repeating a powerful message: There is no Christian, Jewish or Muslim blood, just human blood. People killed millions of people because they didn’t see their victims as people. It is your task to make sure, in future, that nothing ever happens like what we experienced. My message is simple: be human. The future she talked about is now. The Palestinian people of Gaza are human too. We have a moral obligation to come to their assistance to stop the killing, starvation and genocide.”
“The section on human rights violations states that the EU will continue its work to end and prevent human rights violations globally, including those related to Russia's war in Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East, particularly Gaza. The challenge for EU leaders is to live up to their stated values when confronted by the situation in Gaza. Gaza is a political emergency and a moral crisis. The world is watching. The time for talk is over. Decisive action is now required. In The Irish Times last Saturday, Berlin correspondent, Derek Scally, wrote a beautiful article about the life of a German Holocaust survivor who died at the age of 103. Her parents and brother were murdered in Auschwitz. She survived the war and emigrated to the US in 1946.”
“More forceful action must be taken against Israel. The time has also come for a complete boycott of Israel - military, economic, social and cultural. Any person or country giving support to Israel as it pursues a campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing is complicit in these crimes. This is especially so for countries supplying military aid to Israel. The United States and Germany have the capacity to stop this genocide if they wish. To their shame, they refuse to do so. The bombs being dropped in Gaza are made in America. The powerful Arab states in the Middle East appear to have abandoned their fellow Arabs and Muslims in Palestine. Shame on them. The EU published its 2025 values document earlier this year.”
“Extremist politicians in Israel are advocating for a greater Israel stretching from the Nile to Euphrates. While the genocide unfolds in Gaza, the world stands idly by and issues calls for restraint. The time for talk has passed. The need for action is urgent. The time for action is now. What is happening in Gaza has been described as a medieval starvation siege. Israel must be forced to stop. Europe is Israel’s most important trading partner. It has a privileged association agreement with the EU. Israel is in gross violation of international law and therefore in breach of article 2 of the association agreement. Reviewing the agreement is welcome but genocide is already under way. The association agreement should be immediately suspended. There should be no trade with Israel while the blockade continues.”
“Speaking this week, Yair Golan, a former senior Israeli general and now leader of the Democrats political party, said: This government is full of people who have no connection whatsoever to Judaism. Vengeful types who are bereft of any intelligence, morality or ability to run a country in a time of emergency. Israel is on the way to becoming a pariah state ... [like] the South Africa of yore, unless it reverts to acting like a sane country. All the while, settler terror gangs are marauding across the West Bank, fully supported by Israeli security forces. Israel also embarked on a major bombing campaign in Lebanon and Syria and used the opportunity during the collapse of the Assad regime to grab more Syrian territory in the Mount Hebron region.”
“If anyone doubts what kind of person Benjamin Netanyahu is, Alon Pinkas, former senior Israeli Government adviser, described him last September as a “vile messiah leading a cult of lies and death”. Another former head of the Israel Defense Forces and former Israeli minister for defence referred to Israel becoming a “messianic dictatorship that is racist, fascist, homophobic, misogynist”. There is no doubt the Prime Minister and his criminal crew have embraced what Sigmund Freud called the death drive. They are now motivated by the manic forces of death and destruction. Their final solution for the Gaza ghetto is the total destruction of the ghetto and the killing and ethnic cleansing of its people.”
“Article III states that complicity in genocide is also a punishable crime. As we speak, genocide is being committed in Gaza. On Monday of this week, the Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said, "We are conquering, cleansing, and remaining in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed ... We are disassembling Gaza, and leaving it as piles of rubble, with total destruction with no precedent globally”. In February, Nissim Vaturi, deputy speaker of the Israeli Parliament, referred to Palestinians as "scum" and "subhuman". He called for the killing of all adult men in Gaza. The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, speaks of total victory, which echoes the Nazi Second World War slogan of the final victory. Israel is now doing to the Gaza ghetto what the Nazis did in the Warsaw ghetto during the Second World War.”
“In 2009, I was in Gaza after Israel went in, following the changeover of the US President. It went in on 27 December 2008 and kept bombing until 18 January 2009. On 20 January, the new US President was sworn in. I was there in February 2009 and saw the devastation of less than 28 days of bombing, where 1,400 people were killed, of whom 400 were children. I was reporting to a subcommittee of the European Parliament on the atrocity that had occurred. Now, that has been multiplied by 100, with over 45,000 people dead, although the figure is probably far higher than that. Article II of the Genocide Convention defines the acts of genocide as including “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”.”
“As I understand it, a total of nine diseases are included in the heel prick test for newborns in Ireland, with approximately 120 babies identified each year as having rare diseases. However, Ireland is falling significantly behind the rest of Europe. For instance, Italy tests for a total of 48 diseases. Countries such as Austria test for 31 diseases, while Poland and Portugal test for 29. In 2023, the national screening advisory committee, NSAC, recommended that severe combined immunodeficiency, SCID, and spinal muscular atrophy be added to the programme. This was accepted by the then Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly. More than €1.4 million has been allocated to expand the screening programme, yet, two years on, no progress has been made. In Italy, 48 diseases are tested for in newborns. We are doing nine at present.”
“The Government is getting €14 billion from Apple computers in my constituency. I would like it if some of that were spent in my constituency and not all of it outside of the constituency. The Blackpool flood relief scheme is one of the priorities that I want dealt with.”