Latest news with #MacGillSummerSchool
Irish Independent
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Suzanne Crowe: Level of churn at the top of the HSE is unsettling for all
The most fascinating aspect of the responses to quotes from Stephen Donnelly at the MacGill Summer School last week is that there was a reaction at all.
The Journal
19-07-2025
- Politics
- The Journal
Lucinda Creighton: 'Our national conversation is all around things that are irrelevant'
WE'RE MORE INTERESTED in the 'gossipy aspect of our parliamentary politics, rather than the nuts and bolts of how we're governing our country'. That is according to Lucinda Creighton, former Minister for European Affairs, at a discussion at the MacGill Summer School in the Glenties in Co Donegal today. 'At the moment, our system is not fit for purpose. 'Our national conversation, our news cycle, is all around, frankly things that are irrelevant, like who's going to be in the Áras in November.' She said that this is down to the 'gossipy aspect' of politics. Creighton was speaking as Michael Flatley told RTÉ that he was considering a presidential bid after being 'approached by some very weighted individuals'. 'Everything is, as far as I can see, government is completely strangled by the need to cover our backside and have multiple reviews about every single decision that's ever taken,' said Creighton. This leads to 'little leadership or risk taking', she added. 'We are completely risk averse, and I think that that is not serving us well.' Creighton said this is 'directly feeding into the fact that we have an ongoing housing crisis without any clear, logical solution'. She also mentioned this was contributing to the energy crisis, 'a massive problem' with the electricity grid, which 'is not fit for purpose', and unmet 'renewable energy aspirations'. 'We're not capable of delivering the sort of infrastructure that's required.' Contributing to this is the one-year budget cycle, with Creighton saying that long-term planning is not built into our electoral system. Advertisement 'If we're to get to grips with the sort of radical change that is happening around us right now, we have to think about how we change our politics, our system of governance, to respond to that, to educate our policy makers and to enable them and equip them to be able to deal with these challenges that are coming.' 'Condescending' centre left Later in the talk entitled 'Why is Liberalism Failing?', the former Minister said that 'there is a lot of research now actually showing that politicians and political parties of the center, particularly the center left are very, very condescending'. She said that this condescension is turning people to the far right. 'Take immigration, the elephant in the room. If somebody expresses concern about immigration, they're labeled far right. 'And if you do that to your own voters repeatedly, well then you'll convince them that actually maybe they're better off with the far right.' Creighton said that this 'is an excellent example' of where some politicians, representatives, aspiring candidates, 'listen and try and understand'. 'Instead of referring to voters that you disagree with as deplorables, you actually try to understand what's motivating them. 'And usually it's a sense of insecurity. It's a sense of too much change, too rapidly, not understanding the world around them or just being displaced in the world.' Support to dismantle 'Triple Lock' Creighton also raised the Government's decision to dismantle the 'Triple Lock' for Irish military involvement in operations abroad. Cabinet approved this plan in March . 'I'm very pleased and proud of our government, actually, for taking the decision to try to dismantle the triple lock. 'It's an ineffectual tool, and it is destructive, and it's important that we take that step, and hopefully it makes its way through the Oireachtas.' As it currently stands, Irish troops in groups of more than 12 cannot be deployed abroad without approval from Cabinet, the Dáil and a resolution from the United Nations' Security Council. This three-step approval is known as the 'Triple Lock'. She said that 'it's going to be increasingly difficult in this world of authoritarianism and polarisation to get things done through' multilateral organisations such as the United Nations. 'I hate to take a break the phrase from from the time of the Iraq war, but 'a coalition of the willing' on certain topics is going to be essential.' Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
Irish Independent
19-07-2025
- Health
- Irish Independent
Former Health Minister Stephen Donnelly believes public must become comfortable with use of AI in health service
Stephen Donnelly, who was Minister of Health and is a Health Consultant, was speaking during a panel discussion at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal. During the discussion on 'Taboo Ideas to Transform Ireland?', Mr Donnelly said he believed Ireland could be a global leader in AI related health care. He said for the country to succeed in the field, the public would have to become comfortable sharing their data with AI platforms and algorithms. The host of the panel, Jess Majekodunmi, Design Historian & Innovation Researcher said there is a lot of anxiety and concerns about the use of AI and she questioned if the use of AI is already creeping into the health service. Mr Donnelly said the use of AI and algorithms is increasing and already present in the health service. 'In more and more GP services now, we may not know it, but there is an algorithm listening to the entire conversation, categorising what we say and when we leave, it is saying, Stephen referenced these four things, you never checked them. 'In more hospitals in Ireland now, there is a machine beside the bed and the patient is wired up to it and it is monitoring all sorts of stuff at a level of complexity that doctors and nurses will struggle to maintain consistently and flagging saying this person is going to crash in half an hour, you need to intervene. 'AI is coming in to help clinicians anyway. 'If you go into your hospital today or your GP, there is a decent chance it will already be involved in some way,' said Mr Donnelly. However, Mr Donnelly said all advances must link back to a human being and there must be transparency for it to be a success. 'Within healthcare there has to be accountability. ADVERTISEMENT 'There has to be security of data, and we probably need to have a complex conversation by being very respectful of people's anxieties, very respectful of the fact it is new and people are trying to get their head around it,' said Mr Donnelly. When asked by Ms Majekodunmi about his predictions for the timescale of the developments, Mr Donnelly said it is moving so quickly it is difficult to say. 'I would be very surprised if healthcare does not look quite different 10 years from now,' said he said. However, he said in order for the development to be introduced on a wider scale, people must get more comfortable with the use of AI. 'Most of us would have to be comfortable sharing our data and I mean data right down to the genetic level. 'In order for these things to work you have to have a big pool of data and it is much better if it is national data rather than international data. 'If we could get our heads around becoming comfortable with AI and the idea that this is a public good and our data is a public good with the right protections around it, we could become one of the handful of countries in the world that does something truly mind blowing and extraordinary and flips our entire concept of what a public health service is, into one that keeps us well. 'It is very important to me anyway that it is a public service. It cannot be something that only wealthy people can afford.' Mr Donnelly. He said the introduction of AI and new technologies would see a major move towards preventative healthcare. Mr Donnelly used the example of who fells unwell and visits their GP who carries out a number of tests. The patient is then diagnosed with Type Two Diabetes. However, with the new technology, the patient would get an alert notifying the patient of changes in their cells which if left untreated, could result in Type 2 Diabetes in five years. 'All over the world, the health service says if you get sick, we will fix you. 'There is a wave off innovation coming. 'AI is the glue that holds a lot of it together, but it is geo typing, robotics, genetics, bio printing, printing replacement organs in hospitals rather than having to use donors. 'There is a vast wave coming. 'The entire purpose of a health service shifts from one that tries to fix you when you get sick to one that keeps you well for as long as possible. 'And then inevitably, if something bad happens, can fix you,' said Mr Donnelly. Mr Donnelly said he believes Ireland is 'incredibly placed' to be a world leader in innovative healthcare. 'I would love to see us make a stand on this and say look we have a healthcare service that is getting better at an incredible rate. 'We are rolling out a new health strategy, so we are going to have the digital infrastructure in place soon enough. 'We have a pharma hub, a health tech hub, a digital hub so we have brains to burn around the country in terms of some of the things that can happen. 'We have a very attractive country for these things. 'It is big enough that you can really roll these things out but small and integrated enough that you can get your head around doing it at the population level,' said Mr Donnelly.
The Journal
18-07-2025
- Health
- The Journal
Stephen Donnelly claims Irish negativity is holding back health service from taking risks
IF INNOVATION AND new technology is embraced, Ireland has the potential to have one of the best health services in the world, former Health Minister Stephen Donnelly claimed today. While acknowledging there continued to be immense challenges, he said that the HSE is not failing and 'is improving rapidly', while speaking at the MacGill Summer School in the Glenties in Co Donegal today. But he said 'the level of negativity we see [in Ireland] is not normal'. It is this focus on negativity that is holding risk-taking and innovation back in the health service, Donnelly said. 'If we're going to adapt and innovate and do new things, we have to take risks.' Donnelly said that when he was Minister for Health and he said this to civil servants or people in the HSE, that they would say that 'the game is set'. He said that they would say: 'If we do anything well, there will be no acknowledgement, there will be no reward. There will be no recognition ever for anything good we do. The second we make a mistake, we'll be all over social media, we'll be dragged in front of Oireachtas and we'll be in for it.' Because of that, he said, they told him: 'We're not going to take risks, we're not going to innovate.' The focus on negativity, has a 'constraining effect on the people who we need to innovate and take risks on our behalf', he continued. The Journal / YouTube Get comfortable with getting AI's health advice Donnelly was speaking as part of a panel on taboo ideas to transform Ireland. In addition to 'Ireland being a great country' with a very negative attitude, Donnelly's second 'taboo' idea was that 'we all need to start getting comfortable with getting medical advice from an algorithm'. And that 'most of us would have to be comfortable sharing our data… down to the genetic level, anonymised, but still sharing'. Advertisement If the health service adopts this new technology, he said: 'We could be one of a handful of countries in the world that does something truly mind blowing and extraordinary, and flips our entire concept of a public health service.' He said that 'AI is coming to help clinicians' and used the example of a potential AI tool listening to a conversation between a patient and a GP, picking up on what was said, and what was potentially missed by the doctor. But he added: 'There has to be accountability… there has to be transparency, there has to be security of data.' Legislation may be needed for this, he said, referencing 'very clever people' working at EU and member-state level on principles for AI within healthcare. 'I'd be surprised that healthcare doesn't look quite different in 10 years from now.' Donnelly was part of a panel hosted by design historian Jess Majekodunmi. Both here with event organiser Vincent McCarthy. Johnny Bambury 2025 Johnny Bambury 2025 Social media should be regulated Donnelly also called on social media companies to be regulated like media organisations. 'Social media has just gone completely off the reservation. 'When I went into politics, actually, it was fairly benign. People use it to provide their ideas and have chats. 'Now it's just poison, its lies and misinformation and hatred and racism and poison, but it's been consumed all the time.' Calling for its greater regulation he said that 'mainstream media… would be shut down in a day if they if they engaged in all the social media platforms do'. The panel which included Donnelly was criticised by audience member Maria Sweeney, a 'very proud Donegal person', who said 'we are completely forgotten by Dublin'. She was not the only person who made a comment about the talk being 'Dublin-centric'. She cited people having to travel from Malin Head or Bloody Foreland for healthcare in Dublin or Galway. 'I don't know if they know we're here at all.' Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
Irish Independent
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Independent
New Irish Constitution would be required for a United Ireland, professor says
Speaking today at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Donegal, at an event focused on the Constitution, Ruadhan Mac Cormaic, editor of the Irish Times questioned a panel if a United Ireland would require 'tearing the thing up and starting again'. Professor David Kenny, Professor in Law and Fellow and Head of the Law School at Trinity, said former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar previously suggested that unification would require a new Constitution. The Professor said he could not see 'a way around that'. 'I wrote a paper hypothesising that you could radically change the constitution in so many ways, you would keep some structure of the current one and swap out of the planks; but I think even that would have so much baggage about it being the Constitution of this state that would be continuing,' he said. 'I think the continuity there would present symbolic issues. 'I think the idea of a new start and a new state in the event of unification would be crucial.' He added from a practical perspective, there are so many 'unanswered questions' about what the structure of that state might be or what kind of political system it would have. 'Is it federal, con-federal, unitary, what level of delegation down to provincial level would you see in various powers?,' he asked. 'There is very little in the Constitution 1937 that provides for that and the idea of unification that is in that document that the preamble aspires to the unity of the country was quite naïve. 'It was the idea that at some point Northern Ireland would just join in this state and things would continue. 'Really, the Constitution does not provide for a great deal beyond the fact that the territory of the state could encompass the whole island at some stage. 'It does not really think about unification like that, certainly not in any serious way. 'So, I think yes it would require a new constitution.' Professor Kenny said the challenge of this would be if there is a blank page with nothing agreed, then 'every single issue' in the Constitution becomes a possible point of disagreement. 'That is the benefit of trying to retain some document as a baseline so you don't have to put every single point on the structure of the state up for discussion in what will already be a very difficult process,' he said. 'I think the scale of the changes are so significant, that if you try to do an amended job on Bunreacht na hÉireann, you would be left with almost nothing left of that original document and you would wonder if there would be a great advantage to doing it that way.' Ivana Bacik TD, Leader of the Labour Party and Party Spokesperson on the Northern Ireland, said there is need for groundwork. She said a joint Oireachtas community on the Constitution established should be established now with the key part of its function to prepare the ground for what rewriting would be necessary. 'I think you would have to approach it on the basis of lets keep the framework and see where we need to change things to ensure unification could proceed as smoothly as possible,' she said. 'There is an interesting thing about the 1937 Constitution that it is still a transitional constitution. 'There is reference in it to Saorstát Éireann and the Irish Free State so it acknowledges that need for transitional and incremental change. 'I think it could build into a rewrite. 'A joint Oireachtas committee with careful groundwork, green paper, white paper, in advance of the holding of any referendum. 'I think that is essential if we are to avoid the mistake of Brexit to ensure the people go into it, both North and South, fully informed, fully engaged in the process.'
