Results 441-460 of 669 for speaker:Grace O'Sullivan

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) (13 Jun 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: I move amendment No. 42:In page 53, between lines 17 and 18, to insert the following:“24. Section 208 of the Principal Act is amended in subsection (1) by deleting: “in force on the commencement of this section”.”.

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) (13 Jun 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: This amendment seeks to maintain rights of way referred to in a development plan. Currently, the legislation only requires maintenance of those rights of way listed in the plans at the time when the section was commenced. As interpreted by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, for example, the obligation to maintain does not apply to any rights of way listed subsequently. The Green...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2016: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (13 Jun 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: The Government amendments implement the following changes which were first recommended in my Derelict and Vacant Sites Bill in February 2017 and the Green Party's Living Cities Bill 2017 which is currently part the lottery. There will be an increase in the vacant and derelict sites levy to 7%, the removal of the loophole that allows vacant sites in negative equity to hide from the levy and...

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Jun 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: I raise an issue of extreme importance and urgency that emerged almost by accident at yesterday's meeting of the Joint Committee on the Future of Mental Health Care. The committee Chairman, Senator Joan Freeman, was made that three consultant psychiatrists in Waterford and Wexford had resigned their positions together and that the fourth consultant for the south east region was on sick...

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Jun 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: I propose that he comes in after the motions this afternoon.

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Jun 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: Yes.

Seanad: Order of Business (14 Jun 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: I accept the Leader's comments. I want to see the matter on the Order Paper next week. Otherwise, I will return to the House and call a vote on the issue.

Seanad: Commission of Investigation: Motion (14 Jun 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: I welcome the Minister. I thank him and his departmental staff for their work on this issue over the past few years. I would also like to extend a welcome to some of the representatives of the victims of Bill Kenneally who are in the Visitors Gallery today, Mr. Jason Clancy and Mr. Colin Power. Both have worked tirelessly over many years to see justice delivered in this case. Their...

Seanad: 25th Anniversary of Decriminalisation of Homosexuality: Motion (19 Jun 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: Back in the 1980s and early 1990s I sailed on many Greenpeace ships. I was lucky because on those multinational crews were lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex people. That was the community of which I was part. I was lucky enough to be able to embrace that community at an early stage of my life and as a member of the Green Party, which has also campaigned for the rights...

Seanad: Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (20 Jun 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: I move amendment No. 28:In page 23, line 11, after “school” to insert “not aided by the Department of Education and Skills”. I would like to start by welcoming the Minister's new amendments, which go some way towards addressing the issue of the baptism barrier. However, I am unhappy with the singling out of one religion, namely Catholicism, and the removal of a...

Seanad: Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (20 Jun 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: I understand what the Minister is trying to do. There are fundamental differences between us. I lived abroad for many years in countries such as Spain and Holland. A baptism barrier just would not exist in the Netherlands. The discussion, in terms of the separation of church and State, is something that will evolve over time. I agree with the Minister that we are not ready for such a...

Seanad: Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (20 Jun 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: I move amendment No. 29:In page 23, line 20, to delete “or”. This issue has been highlighted by the Ombudsman for Children, the Irish Foster Care Association and by foster parents themselves. The amendments I am putting forward seek to protect children who are terminally ill and to reduce the stress on a child and his or her family at such a difficult time. I call on the...

Seanad: Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (20 Jun 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: Yes.

Seanad: Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (20 Jun 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: As there might be some ambiguity, I will table the amendments again on Report Stage. I will examine them and get some more advice.

Seanad: Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Committee Stage (20 Jun 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: I am not pressing it.

Seanad: Mental Healthcare in South-East Region: Statements (20 Jun 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: This is another real life and death issue for young people of the south east. I thank the Minister of State for coming into the House this evening. This debate is due to my intervention on the Order of Business in the Seanad last week. I took the view that it was necessary due to the details that emerged from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Future of Mental Health Care, of which...

Seanad: Mental Healthcare in South-East Region: Statements (20 Jun 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: However, he is only talking about weekends. What about Monday to Friday? There are so many holes in what he has said, and I hope we will have enough time to discuss them further here.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Rural and Community Development: Rural Transport Policy: Discussion (Resumed) (20 Jun 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: I thank the witnesses for their presentations. Recently, Dr. Eimear Cotter, director of environmental sustainability in the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, said Ireland is locked into a trend of rising carbon emissions. She was referring to the transport and freight sector. The freight line between the Port of Waterford and Ballina recently ceased. Currently we do not have a...

Seanad: Traveller Culture and History in Education Bill 2018: First Stage (3 Jul 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: I second it.

Seanad: Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016: Report and Final Stages (4 Jul 2018)

Grace O'Sullivan: I move amendment No. 14:In page 23, line 11, after “school” to insert “not aided by the Department of Education and Skills”. We addressed this issue in my amendments on Committee Stage. The Minister indicated that his aim with the Bill was to make incremental progress in secularising Irish education and removing barriers for access to education. Of course I...