Results 161-180 of 2,105 for speaker:Sharon Keogan

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: I thank the Cathaoirleach. Last week we had the Children's Rights Alliance before us and I highlighted the 8,500 Tusla referrals in April of this year alone that appears in the Tusla report. It is absolutely shocking. We are all talking about foster families and residential care. For me it is about how we can support families to be better parents, because that is the key. Obviously there...

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: On those children who are in special care and who might be in Oberstown or whatever, they have a multidisciplinary team around them. When a child is in care after the age of 18 he or she may go off to college and may reside in Tusla accommodation. The safety net of that child is completely taken away and that person is now his or her own advocate. Some of the children, when they are in...

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: If they are lucky.

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: We have some time left. There is a report today in the newspaper that security guards will be hired to restrain children in State care during violent episodes. Tusla confirmed it will be spending €1 million on close-protection personnel to work with staff in violent situations. Do the witnesses find that worrying?

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: It says they are going to be assigned to other residential care units as well as off-site locations. That is really worrying. It is hard being a foster parent and having a child who may have violent episodes and may present violently in your home. To move that child into a residential care setting where he or she is cared by individuals who are coming in who have no real link to that child...

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: Does Dr. Muldoon believe that children can change their sex?

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: He is the Ombudsman for Children.

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: It is a question I am asking the Ombudsman for Children.

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: As the Ombudsman for Children, can Dr. Muldoon tell me what his position is in relation to children changing their sex?

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: Reach their potential. So Dr. Muldoon believes that every pathway should be given to that child. If a child says, at five years of age, "I do not want to be a girl, I want to be a boy," Dr. Muldoon believes that the State should intervene and go along with it.

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: That says it all.

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: That is fine. Thank you.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: Today I rise to speak for the voiceless, those 200,000 Irish citizens, many of them in their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, who were sold out by their own Government and financial institutions. These are not reckless borrowers; these are neighbours, pensioners and parents trapped in a nightmare of missold mortgages and are now preyed upon by vulture funds operating in the shadows of our financial...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: We have to wait for the Minister of State.

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Children's Rights Alliance (19 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: I thank Dr. Feely and Dr. Corbett for coming here this morning to our committee. The role of the civic organisation is to act as a voice of conscience that forces the Government into action. The alliance represents more than 160 organisations. The Children's Health Alliance is before the health committee. Some of the groups come from the disability sector and the inclusion sector and the...

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Children's Rights Alliance (19 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: I thank Ms Ward for joining us today. On online age verification, there is a Bill before the Dáil and Seanad at this moment, the Protection of Children (Online Age Verification) Bill, which was brought in last July by a number of us Independent Senators. That legislation is there and I hope it will see the light of day. It puts the obligation on the Internet providers and app store...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (18 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: As a member of the industrial and commercial panel, I wish to speak about a total farce and affront to democracy and the business community that took place earlier this week. I am speaking about the national economic dialogue. I do not need to remind anyone that our country is currently trapped in a state of total policy inertia. It is not the inertia of a broken down car stuck on the road...

Seanad: Enterprise Matters and Business Supports for SMEs: Motion (18 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: I second the amendment.

Seanad: Enterprise Matters and Business Supports for SMEs: Motion (Resumed) (18 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: I rise today in support of the motion and in defence of our small and medium-sized enterprises, which are the lifeblood of our communities. The SME test, as outlined in the programme for Government, is a tool meant to protect these businesses from the unintended consequences of legislation. Tools are only as good as the hands that wield them, however. Right now, I fear we are not wielding...

Seanad: Enterprise Matters and Business Supports for SMEs: Motion (Resumed) (18 Jun 2025)

Sharon Keogan: Open one in Taiwan, please.