Today I’m addressing the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s annual Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians in Hanoi, Viet Nam. The theme of the Conference is “The role of youth in accelerating the achievement of the SDGs through digital transformation and innovation”. I will be speaking on measures that can be taken by Members of Parliament to improve policies in the promotion of …
Long COVID has potential to place significant burden on our healthcare services
I asked my colleagues in the Oireachtas Library & Research Service to update a previous research paper that I received on long COVID to get an updated understanding of the definition, incidence, and healthcare issues surrounding long COVID. The sad reality is that the symptoms of long COVID can not only last for months but even years and can include …
Artificial Intelligence or AI seldom gets good press
Artificial Intelligence or AI seldom gets good press; take the examples of ChatGPT which has been banned in many Universities across the world due to the potential for student plagiarism or the controversy surrounding the Hollywood writers’ strike calling it a “plagiarism machine”. There has also been concerns about the potential of Deepfakes to misrepresent reality by manipulating media by …
Today is World Environment Day 2023
How does plastic pollution affect us? An estimated 19 to 23 million tonnes of plastic leak into aquatic ecosystems annually. Plastic pollution has devastating effects on a wide array of organisms in our seas, rivers, and on land. Marine litter harms more than 800 species. More than 90 per cent of all birds and fish are believed to have plastic particles in their stomachs. The effects …
May is Myalgic Encephalomyelitis M.E. Awareness Month
M.E. has been described as “an often-debilitating disease” that has a prevalence close to one percent worldwide which would equate to around 52,000 people in Ireland or roughly the population of the county of Waterford (Bonilla, H. et al., 2023) With the number of people with M.E. / CFS on the rise following long-COVID, it is estimated that around 45% …
Dept of Health fails to establish vaccine damage compensation unit despite assurances– Naughten
The Department of Health has failed to establish a separate unit to deal with a vaccine damage compensation scheme, three years after the Minister received a report on the current system for managing claims and four years after the Health Research Board (HRB) carried out an evidence review on such schemes in other jurisdictions, Denis Naughten TD has revealed. Denis …
Up to Health Minister to designate long Covid as occupational illness – Naughten
International Workers’ Memorial Day must be used to ensure income support provided to all frontline workers The decision to designate long Covid as an occupational illness lies with the Department of Health and Minister Donnelly, Denis Naughten TD has stated. “The Secretary General of the Department of Social Protection made it clear to the Oireachtas Committee that the decision on …
Long COVID rates have increased by 4% in four months
Speech by Denis Naughten TD to the Policy Forum for Ireland keynote seminar: Tackling long COVID in Ireland – priorities for services, strategy development, and research On 19th March 2020, I stood up in Dáil Éireann, pointing out that we would have to deal with the public health challenges associated with the SARS-CoV-2 virus for at least 12 months. …
5 months on Health Dept still in talks on designating long COVID as occupational illness – Naughten
Frontline health workers to be left without income support in coming weeks Officials from the Department of Social Protection have admitted they are still engaged in a “back & forth with colleagues in health, teasing out issues” with regard to the designation of long COVID as an occupational illness. This is despite the fact that frontline healthcare workers suffering with …
Second national poll on long COVID
The most recent survey of the incidents of long COVID in Ireland now shows that one in every ten adults in Ireland have experienced the symptoms of long COVID. You can access the data behind this poll of adults in Ireland on self-reported symptoms of long COVID by leading polling company, Ireland Thinks, which I commissioned. This self-declaration by survey …
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