Results 1-17 of 17 for speaker:Mal O'Hara

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: All-Island Economy: Discussion (Resumed) (23 May 2024)

Mal O'Hara: I thank the Chairman and committee members for their warm welcome. I also thank the witnesses for their presentations. I am excited to be a member of the committee Today, we are talking about economic analysis in advance of a potential united Ireland. My first question concerns the research by Professor McGuinness and Dr. Bergin, in particular in respect of early school leavers and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: All-Island Economy: Discussion (Resumed) (23 May 2024)

Mal O'Hara: The witnesses are being clear about some policy solutions, and we have talked quite clearly about the consensus around the 11-plus. We are still in a bit of a mess. We are in an interim. We have not replaced it. We have a series of different systems in the education sector, and I do not know if we will ever get political consensus on that in the North, unfortunately. What are the other...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: All-Island Economy: Discussion (Resumed) (23 May 2024)

Mal O'Hara: Those levers are available to the Northern Executive and have been for 26 years.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: All-Island Economy: Discussion (Resumed) (23 May 2024)

Mal O'Hara: I will go back to the question on childcare. We do not have childcare as such. I know the Executive is making moves on that. Professor McGuinness said there was not a differential impact in terms of the North and the South. Will he elaborate on that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: All-Island Economy: Discussion (Resumed) (23 May 2024)

Mal O'Hara: It is really interesting that Professor Doyle has said that the economies were at a similar place in 1998. Obviously, the Republic has transformed and the North really has not over that period. The promise of the Good Friday Agreement was peace, prosperity, reconciliation and equality. We have the absence of violence, broadly, but those other things have not really happened to the scale...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement: All-Island Economy: Discussion (Resumed) (23 May 2024)

Mal O'Hara: My final question is both timely and a strong riposte to the other report. There is cognisance of some difficulties in protecting some of the figures of the subvention. Is there an opportunity to get clearer data from the UK Government around that?

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (21 May 2024)

Mal O'Hara: I wish to raise a matter of deep disappointment. A news story has broken in the North that the Sinn Féin finance Minister, Caoimhe Archibald, MLA, has rejected all climate change funding bids from her ministerial colleagues - every single one of them. We await the detail of those bids from freedom of information, and we know about the perilous state of finances in the North and, of...

Seanad: Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2024: Second Stage (21 May 2024)

Mal O'Hara: I thank the Minister, Deputy McGrath. I support this Bill, which I am delighted to see coming before the House. The old adage of fixing the roof while the sun shines comes to mind, but we are not just doing that. We are also putting the money away so that we can buy the tools if there is a leak in a roof that we are unable to fix in the future. People often make the accusation that...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Report and Final Stages (1 May 2024)

Mal O'Hara: I thank the Cathaoirleach. I am minded that we are speaking to some specific amendments. What I heard a great deal today, and in previous debates I listened to around these issues, is that this feels like a rehash of almost a decade ago. I will be clear on the record that I trust women and pregnant people every time to make their own decisions. What is interesting about Senator Mullen's...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Report and Final Stages (1 May 2024)

Mal O'Hara: I propose a change to the Order of Business. I wish to request that we delay by 50 minutes. I am not sure if the Standing Orders allow us to do that with Private Members' business.

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Report and Final Stages (1 May 2024)

Mal O'Hara: I will keep it short. I am delighted to see this Bill pass the Report and Final Stages. I am very proud the Green Party played its part in securing the programme for Government commitment so that on the entire island of Ireland we will now end the campaign of harassment and intimidation against women and pregnant people who wish to seek reproductive and sexual healthcare services. I am...

Seanad: Loneliness: Motion (1 May 2024)

Mal O'Hara: I second the motion.

Seanad: Loneliness: Motion (1 May 2024)

Mal O'Hara: I thank my colleagues for sharing time. I am delighted to take a few moments to speak to the motion. Our specifics asks are clearly articulated in it. I will touch on some of them in a few minutes. A Chamber just up the road had a very similar debate on Monday. If that is not all-island synergy then I do not know what is. It is great to hear. The lead proposer of that motion was Robbie...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó (Atógáil) - Order of Business (Resumed) (24 Apr 2024)

Mal O'Hara: I welcome the ambassador and our esteemed guests from Estonia. In my inauguration speech, I said that I wish to be a Senator for all and that I want to amplify voices in the North. The voices I will talk about today are those of people who have experienced drug deaths and of their families. Yesterday, the Northern Ireland Assembly debated a motion on drug deaths, but it was poor and...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Give Travellers the Floor: Discussion (18 Apr 2024)

Mal O'Hara: Yes, be nice. This is the end of my second week. I thank the groups and thank the Cathaoirleach for her continued leadership on these issues. I am here to listen and I have listened a lot. I need to go to Belfast and I did say so. This is not a Dublin accent. There are a couple of points I wish to pick up on. Somebody said about politics that you cannot be what you cannot see or...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (11 Apr 2024)

Mal O'Hara: Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. Dia daoibh, Seanad Éireann. I thank everybody, the staff, the Senators, the elected Members and their staff, who have made me feel exceptionally welcome over the last few days. I am delighted to be here. I thank my Green Party colleagues for the nomination and other parties that, as Senator Boyhan noted, did not contest the election. I believe...