Speeches by McDonagh.

“Could you address the point about the Irish tax increase? Do you disagree with what Mr Kenny said: that the money going to the Treasury has doubled, with no downturn in participation?”

“In the Secretary of State’s list of what has happened since his last oral questions, he failed to mention the appointment of our hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow South West (Dr Ahmed) as a Minister. He is particularly looking at life sciences. Without life sciences and drug trials, we will not see an improvement in o…”

“If you are about to die.”

“Order. I remind Members that they should bob if they wish to be called in the debate. I can see they are doing so, which is good.”

“Not to mention Wagon Wheels.”

“Does my hon. Friend agree that the Bill’s mechanism relating to orphan drugs is essential? Unless we can get the pharmaceutical industry to find it in its financial interest to start trials, we will not make any progress.”

“I do not want to detain the House too long. I just want to put on record my admiration for my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur) in guiding the Bill to this point and now hopefully forward—with a former Member of this House, Julie Elliott, now Baroness Elliott, in the House of Lords. When I met…”

“It is a matter of delight that the hon. Lady’s brother-in-law is still well and that the tumour has shrunk. But I should say to the House and all Members that that machine, which my late sister campaigned and raised funding for, is currently situated in a private hospital in London because it would get nowhere near an …”

“When we talk about children’s health, we often think about the start of life—safe births, vaccinations and early years support—but we also need to talk about those children whose lives will be short, those with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions. Across the country, families caring for a seriously ill child …”

“We are coming up to the third anniversary of a gas explosion in Galpin’s Road in my constituency, in which four‑year-old Sahara Salman died and a number of properties had to be demolished. Hundreds of people had to be temporarily rehoused in hotels. The vast majority of those people were owner-occupiers with hou…”

“Mr Walker, I want to be clear that I have understood what you said. Does AXA make any profit at all out of monthly instalment payers?”

“I was really helped by the ABI, because I contacted it. I am not picking on any insurance company in particular. That was an almost universal experience for constituents.”

“So you make money out of the fact that they pay in instalments. You referred to it as a service. Until relatively recently, I did not understand that people did pay their insurance all in one lump sum. I thought that, like council tax, it was quite normal to pay on a monthly basis, because most people do not have that …”

“Does the Minister agree that keeping a list of people with rare cancers is only any use as long as there are some drug trials? Last night we launched a first trial, in my sister’s memory, for glioblastoma, with every penny raised by people donating, holding bake sales and running marathons. Is that any way to tackle ra…”

“I think the hon. Member has finished speaking. The hon. Member for Winchester might want to intervene on the Minister at an appropriate time.”

“I respectfully say to Members that, while I do not have the power to stop interventions from people who turn up 45 minutes, an hour, or an hour and three quarters into a debate, speaking on a personal level—I am not the most formal of Chairs—I think it very impolite to make an intervention when you have not had the opp…”

“Order. I remind Members to bob if they wish to be called. I ask for some self-restraint, with speeches restricted to six or seven minutes, so that we can get everybody in.”

“Will my hon. Friend give way?”

“Will my hon. Friend give way?”

“Next Tuesday will be the second anniversary of my sister’s death. Three weeks prior to her death, we took her to hospital because she had a blood infection. Despite agreeing to allow her into intensive care to sort out that blood infection, the consultant then decided that she should not go, because she had a brain tum…”