Archive for September 2010
MEPs move to freeze commissioner salaries welcome
Posted on October 01, 2010 by Bronwen Maher
Labour MEP Nessa Childers welcomed this week’s vote by the European Parliaments powerful Budget Committee to freeze the salaries and allowances of European Commissioners, unless urgent changes are made to their Code of Conduct.
"This vote shows the parliament will not tolerate any repeat of a case like Charlie McCreevy, the recent former Internal Markets Commissioner, who walked straight into lucrative positions after his time in Barroso's cabinet, potentially causing a conflict of interest.
Labour MEPS join 100,000 march for jobs based recovery
Posted on September 30, 2010 by Bronwen Maher
Labour MEPs Nessa Childers and Alan Kelly joined a march of over 100,000 ordinary working people in Brussels today, as part of a Europe-wide day of action calling for a jobs based recovery against the excessive austerity measures being implemented across Europe.
Childers & Kelly joined their colleagues from the Labour group in the European Parliament in attending the march.
Nessa Childers explained, "This morning, my Labour colleague Joan Burton registered once again our anger at the extension of the Cowen government's bank guarantee while the jobs crisis has been allowed to flounder - a view which is shared by the majority of the Irish people. I am here today to express my solidarity with overwhelming majority of European workers who also support our position."
Today's march in Brussels followed the implementation of new austerity measures in Spain, Portugal, Britain, Italy, Holland and France.
She added, "European workers do not believe in the efficacy of the excessive austerity packages that are akin to economic masochism. If the Irish government and their colleagues around Europe continue to plough this line in the face of all the evidence that shows their increasing ineffectiveness, the medicine may eventually kill the patient. Job creation is the only way out of this crisis.
"We must begin to invest in our workers and in our entrepreneurs, and trust that their initiative and commitment will see us through this crisis, instead of continuing to pull the rug from underneath their feet."
Labour MEP Alan Kelly described the march as evidence of the anger of many workers.
"Austerity without a concrete jobs strategy means we will be doing backwards. Given all that has happened to people in terms of pensions, wages and the undermining of personal wealth, people are entitled to be angry and I hope their voice will be heard throughout Europe and in all member states' governments,"
Ireland holds the worst record in EU for air pollutant emissions
Posted on September 29, 2010 by Bronwen Maher
Emissions ceiling to be exceeded by almost 50% in 2010
Labelling system needed to advise women to minimise alcohol consumption during pregnancy
Posted on September 27, 2010 by Bronwen Maher
A labelling system advising women to minimise alcohol consumption during pregnancy should be obligatory, Nessa Childers MEP has said today.
The Irish government will have a chance to make this European law if it proposes such a move at the EU Council of Health Minister’s meeting in December. The meeting will discuss draft EU legislation on food labelling.
She said: “Labelling is long overdue but the government has repeatedly kicked the matter to touch. The Minister for Health should not just revisit the matter but propose to the other EU Member States at the Council of Health Ministers meeting in December that the labelling of alcohol should be introduced under the EU’s proposed new food labelling system in order to inform women of the risks involved with alcohol consumption during pregnancy.”
“A Coombe Women’s Hospital Study carried out in recent years makes stark reading. The research showed that 60% of Irish women continue to drink alcohol during pregnancy despite the well established evidence linking unsafe and excessive levels of alcohol consumption to serious health disorders in infants. ”
“It is even more startling in light of the overwhelming evidence that no action whatsoever has been taken by government to raise awareness of these dangers and to empower women with the information they need to make informed choices.
“Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders are highly preventable and we need to get serious about changing attitudes and behaviour towards the excessive consumption of alcohol.
Possible conflict of interest cases ignored by Barrosso commission
Posted on September 27, 2010 by Bronwen Maher
Only one senior European Commission figure in the last two years has been barred from taking up a top job that may cause a conflict of interest with their former employment at the Commission.
Information secured by Nessa Childers MEP shows that 201 separate requests were made by Commission figures since January 2008 who were seeking permission to take up jobs following their time in the Commission where a potential conflict of interest with their former EU role may arise.
The Labour MEP said, “It could be argued that the Commission, under its own Code of Conduct should not have permitted Charlie McCreevy, a recent former Internal Markets Commissioner to take up a position on the Board of Ryanair not long after he left office in Brussels.
“This Barroso Commission has taken a light-touch regulation approach to the financial markets and it is now doing the same with the lucrative career prospects of its former members and officials. It is stretching credulity to accept that only one case of post-Commission employment out of 201 cases signaled for a possible conflict of interest was refused by the Commission's internal oversight authority.”
She continued, “In the wake of the revelations regarding Charlie McCreevy’s generous parachute payments and concerns in relation to the nature of employment enjoyed by some former officials the rules of the game need to be changed.
“The Commission’s own Code of Conduct must be reviewed urgently. The Code needs to act more as a brake on the future activities of former Commissioners and not merely a set of guidelines routinely interpreted to ensure the best deal possible for former senior figures.”
“I am demanding a review of the Code of Conduct for Commissioners for post-office employment; the introduction of a 'cooling-off' or 'quarantine' period of at least two years after their exit from the Commission and a much more transparent procedure to assess whether or not post-office employment is compatible with previous areas of responsibility and spheres of influence on the Commission,” Nessa Childers concluded.
New EU alzheimers initiative must focus on specific needs needs of women
Posted on September 22, 2010 by Bronwen Maher
The proposed new EU Initiative on Alzheimers must focus on the specific needs of women. Twice as many women as men in Europe are affected by the illness, according to Nessa Childers MEP with the burden of care often falling on women who neglect their own health, quit jobs and risk poverty as a result of caring for an ill relative.
New EU-wide medicine monitoring system will save lives
Posted on September 21, 2010 by Bronwen Maher
With almost 200,000 deaths per year in the EU caused by adverse reactions to prescribed drugs, Nessa Childers has today welcomed moves to bring in a new EU system to monitor the safety of medicines which have already been approved for use by doctors. Adverse reactions, she said, are the fifth most common cause of hospital death in the EU.
The so-called pharmacovigilance legislation sets out the rules and procedures for monitoring the safety profile of medicinal products once they have been authorised and placed on the market.
World Alzheimer's day - 13 years in government and still no national strategy on dementia
Posted on September 20, 2010 by Bronwen Maher
The government has more interest in bailing out failed banks than taking a planned and co-ordinated approach to meeting the current and future needs of people with Alzheimer’s and related dementia, Nessa Childers MEP said today.
The Leinster MEP, who is currently working on a European Parliament Report with the aim of better co-ordinating services and research into Alzheimers and dementia across the EU said: “Tomorrow (21st September), another World Alzheimer’s Day will pass. This marks yet another year with no concrete plan and no firm future strategy to target the limited resources we have available at the 44,000 people and 50,000 carers in Ireland who are impacted by Alzheimer's disease or a related dementia.
“The Minister for Health, Mary Harney informed me last August that the government will commence the preparation of a policy on dementia in 2011. Nothing less than a fully resourced national strategy will suffice.
“In light of our changing demographics we know that the numbers of people worldwide living with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia is predicted to double every twenty years. The time for a simple policy response has long passed.
“A detailed, comprehensive and multi-agency national strategy is demanded to meet the needs of the current generation of those living with the disease, their carers and their families and to enable the State to plan properly for the future delivery of services and supports.
“To guarantee quality of life for Alzheimer's patients and to drastically diminish the number of patients must be the major objective of decision-makers. Better cooperation at European level too, must be one of our key objectives also. At present 85% of European research takes place without EU coordination leading to fragmented and overlapping results. In these pressing economic times a convincing case exists for an EU wide approach to research into Alzheimer’s and dementia.”
Patients with rare cancers will benefit from cross border healthcare directive
Posted on September 15, 2010 by Bronwen Maher
“Access to cross border healthcare will be considerably easier and more patient-friendly if a proposed new EU Cross Border Healthcare Directive is adopted,” Labour MEP Nessa Childers told a seminar in Brussels today.
Hosting the Second Forum Against Cancer in Europe (FACE) which was addressed by the EU Health Commissioner John Dalli, the Leinster Labour MEP said: “Patients with diseases such as rare cancers, and residents of Border Counties from Louth to Donegal will see considerable benefits from the proposed EU Cross Border Healthcare Directive.”
Childers to hold EU seminar on cancer patients and proposed cross-border healthcare directive
Posted on September 13, 2010 by Bronwen Maher
Event: Cross-Border Healthcare – A Necessity for Cancer Patients
Date & Time: Wednesday, 15 September, 12.15 to 3.30pm
Venue: European Parliament, Paul-Henri Spaak Building, Room P1A002
On Wednesday, EU Health & Consumer Affairs Commissioner John Dalli will address a seminar hosted by Labour MEP Nessa Childers where the needs of European cancer patients will be discussed in the context of the EU’s proposed Cross-Border Health Directive.
The second ‘Forum Against Cancer in Europe’ (FACE) which will take place in the European Parliament in Brussels will hear from patients and patients’ groups about the practical difficulties faced by cancer patients in accessing treatment and care on a cross-border basis.
