Colm Burke

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 …

May I just mention-----

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 p…

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. T…

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 D…

I appreciate that.

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 …

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 Mi…

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 de…

On the issue of increase in numbers, that is because there are dentists coming in from abroad.

70. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the funding available for community groups seeking to construct capital facilities, such as community centres, pavilions, and so on; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26263/25]

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…

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 welcom…

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 …

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,…

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 Eu…

It is extremely frightening to see a 36% increase in the number of herds restricted over a two-year period and the whole increase over the past five years. It is important that we do everything possible in the shortest time to reduce the numbers as well as the reasons they have increased so dramatically in such a short period. I know officials in the Department, the veterinary profession and farme…

125. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to provide an update on his Department's recent discussions with the TB forum to address the increase in the incidence of tuberculosis on Irish farms; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25612/25]

Will the Minister give an update on the Department's recent discussions with the TB forum to address the increase in the incidence of tuberculosis on farms, and will he make a statement on the matter?

I thank the Minister. As I outlined and as the Minister said, between 2022 and 2024, there was a 36% increase in herds restricted. That is a huge increase. More than 6,000 farmers have lost 40,000 productive animals within a short period. The breakout of TB has a huge effect, especially in my area, a lot of which is urban but is also rural, where there are large dairy farms. When TB hits a dairy f…

The Minister outlined the challenges for families. The big problem is when a large number of stock animals has to be disposed of. Farmers then have the problem of trying to build back up that herd, especially in dairy farming. The time and cost of that are huge. The important issue is how to bring down the numbers affected and how to deal with this in real terms. We have had the TB testing scheme …

I am raising again the Blackpool flood relief scheme. We had three major floods there in 2010, 2012 and 2013. A decision was taken that a flood relief scheme would be put in place to make sure that the buildings in the area would not be adversely affected by a future increase in rainfall. Some 293 properties were previously adversely affected - 206 of them residential and 87 commercial. The announ…

I very much appreciate the work being done by officials in both the OPW and the Department of public expenditure, but there is frustration. As someone who comes from a legal background, I fully understand the dangers of rushing any decision and taking short cuts. Therefore, it is important in this case that the t's are crossed and the i's are dotted. I urge that the public consultation process pro…

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.

One of the problems with derelict sites relates to title difficulties. Local authorities have a power to resolve this by using CPOs to assist developers. We do not seem to have been successful in getting local authorities to engage with people. If they did engage, I am of the view that many of the issues that obtain could be resolved. The other issue that needs to be resolved in the constituency …