Results 121-140 of 1,352 for speaker:Mary Fitzpatrick

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (27 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I raise the issue of public safety in Dublin, specifically the deployment of gardaí in our public spaces, on our streets, in our parks, our canals, and on our public transportation. A concern is being expressed about where the gardaí are. We are into the summer months, the long evenings and the holiday season. Schools and colleges are out. Visitors are travelling and we want to...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Second Stage (27 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I thank the Minister of State, the departmental officials and everybody who has worked on the enormous task of bringing this Bill before the House. I acknowledge my colleagues and the secretariat of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage, who worked very diligently to complete pre-legislative scrutiny on earlier drafts of the Bill. As we enter this...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Second Stage (27 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: Shall I proceed or wait until the speech has been distributed?

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Second Stage (27 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: There are a number of elements of the Bill I want to talk about. If we can achieve it, the objective of greater clarity, certainty and consistency will go a long way towards making our country and all of the developments that take place within it more sustainable into the future. We will all agree that the restructuring of An Bord Pleanála into a new organisation, an coimisiún...

Committee on Drugs Use: Decriminalisation, Depenalisation, Diversion and Legalisation of Drugs: Discussion (27 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I thank the witnesses for joining us this morning, their opening statements and helping us with our deliberations. As was correctly pointed out, Ireland has the highest rate of drug-related deaths in Europe. It is shameful and unacceptable and we have been tasked with trying to come up with a meaningful response to help to reduce that harm and those deaths. Drugs are literally killing our...

Committee on Drugs Use: Drug Use Policy: HSE, Department of Justice and Department of Health (20 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I thank the witnesses for their opening statements and contributions. I will start with Mr. Ryan and the perspective from the Department of Justice. Speaking from the perspective of my community, over the past 20 or 30 years the consensus would be that there has been an abject failure and the approach taken by the State has utterly failed our communities. It fails the victims of drug...

Committee on Drugs Use: Drug Use Policy: HSE, Department of Justice and Department of Health (20 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I can come back in.

Committee on Drugs Use: Drug Use Policy: HSE, Department of Justice and Department of Health (20 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: Mr. Ryan stated earlier that the community safety partnerships had had excellent results. Could he send us some documentation outlining how the Department concluded that an excellent outcome has been reached on the part of community safety partnerships, particularly in the north inner city, because what I and others described certainly does not sound like excellence and does not appear to be...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (18 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I share in the congratulations to the elected Members to the European Parliament. I congratulate them and commiserate with those candidates who were unsuccessful on this occasion in both the European elections and the local authority elections. Our democracy depends on good people coming forward, putting their name on a ballot paper and contesting elections. Our democracy is indebted to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I thank everyone for being here today. Well done on the work in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. My first contributions will be on housing and maybe we can get to the other two aspects afterwards if time permits. The waiving of the development levies and the refunding of the water connection charges was designed to reduce the cost of homes being built and to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: It was welcome that the Minister extended the timeline, and this was seen in the commencement numbers. There were 12,000 commencements in the first three months and 18,000 alone in the month of April. I do not know when it was last the case that there were 30,000 commencements in one quarter. What is the sector saying now about the expiry of the development levy waiver and the water refund?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: Can I ask one more question? Those questions were around new supply. We all agree that the fastest and most sustainable way to increase housing supply is to reuse vacant and derelict properties. It is indisputable how well received the Croí Cónaithe vacant and derelict property grants have been. It is important that funding was given to the local authorities to appoint vacant...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I agree.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: Excellent.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I absolutely agree. May I remind the Minister of State-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: -----that he did not answer one question, the one on the extension from 13 months to 18 months. If the Minister of State can come back to me with an answer on it, it will be fine. I do not need an answer now.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Housing for All: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: The Government has given discretion to them. Excellent.

Committee on Drugs Use: Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I thank the witnesses for being here today and for all the work they have done to get us this far. The citizens' assembly has done incredible work. This is an incredibly important issue for us as an Oireachtas committee and for society more generally. When you see the statistics that 20% of our young people use drugs, that Ireland has the second highest rate of MDMA use, and when we see...

Committee on Drugs Use: Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: Apologies as I had to attend a vote. I apologise if I ask questions that were asked while I was out, but I ask the delegates to bear with me. I want to return to recommendation 17. I heard very clearly what Mr. Reid said about the citizens' assembly and the advice given by the legal experts. Could he articulate what the assembly wants to achieve? I am not asking him to worry about the...

Committee on Drugs Use: Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use: Discussion (13 Jun 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I am sorry to be pedantic about this. It was not about decriminalising the substance.