Results 5,801-5,820 of 5,914 for speaker:Gerard Craughwell

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (19 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: No, it is not. It is a political point and the Senator is using the committee for political reasons.

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (19 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: We are tight for time. I have a couple of very quick questions about the triple lock and sovereignty. Where does the sovereignty of the State lie when we go outside the State for permission to deploy troops? Could the Seanad fill the same role as the United Nations Security Council with a significant majority required to deploy troops? Finally, there has been a lot of talk here about the...

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (19 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: It is not.

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: I, too, want to support Senator Stephenson's amendment. I have a difficulty with the way we use the possibility of a charge on the Exchequer to say that certain amendments must be rejected. There is no absolute charge on the Executive by having an advocate in place. As my colleague Senator Boyhan has just pointed out, most of the people we are talking about are in their 60s. Most of...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: Getting back to the appointment of a special advocate, the Bill will lay on the State and the HSE statutory rights that people have. What do we do when those statutory rights are ignored? How do we resolve that? The only way we can get a remedy is to go to the courts. The Minister and I know that if you take the State to court, it has deep pockets and will keep you in the courts until you...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: I wish to raise a couple of issues. Anything that imposes a charge on the Exchequer can be ruled out of order. Printing the documentation was a charge on the Exchequer. We are a bit selective in that regard. I want to go back to the contributory pension. My colleague, Senator Boyhan, made a point about the religious institutions, some of which have not yet made the contribution that is...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: I am sorry to come back in so quickly but, as the debate has been going on, I have received a message on my phone from a person who is well advised and well informed in respect of these institutions. I will not read out the name of the company but this person has given me the name of a company, one of the largest companies in the countries and one that is highly successful and highly...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: We spoke about statutory obligations. I have just received a message from one person on the mother and baby homes medical card who sought physiotherapy and was told to go private because of the long waiting list. Where is the statutory obligation there? How does that person overcome that? I fully appreciate the Minister's officials will have informed her of the answers that she is...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: With respect to supports for people living outside the State, I cannot understand why a specific figure was ring-fenced. As somebody who goes to a couple of consultants every year, €3,000 will not take one very far in this world. There should be an expense scheme based on returned receipts such that any time survivors seek medical help, providing it is in accordance with what they...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: I turn to amendment No. 19. We learned from the military side of the world that there is a thing called moral injury. They say moral injury transitions three generations. To be honest, I cannot see a massive rush for PhDs, Masters degrees or whatever else from the former victims of the institutions, but there will be a requirement for education. Can we spread the education allowances to...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: Following on from what Senator Ruane said about decoupling redress from justice, redress schemes are generally brought in to expedite the quick settlement, as it were, of an injustice. In a lot of cases, the people we are talking about opt for a redress scheme. They have been keeping this secret all their lives and they do not want their personal lives in the High Court, so there is an...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: The issue of the contributory pension for those who were in institutions has to be investigated. If they were employed and somebody got money for the labour they gave, that labour should have been covered under social insurance stamps back in the day, or PRSI. If companies in this country had the use of slave labour from these institutions and the institutions received money for it, then we...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: I, too, commend Senator Tully for tabling the amendment. The wording it contains is important. The Senator talked about measures being commensurate with compensation from the religious. Driving through any village or town in Ireland, the largest building you will find will be the church. I agree with what Senator Boyhan said in that I have known many good churchmen. I have known...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: Last night, we held an unscheduled meeting of the Joint Committee on Defence and National Security to explore the crisis in the Air Corps. When that crisis first emerged, the Taoiseach was asked about what was happening and he said it was a matter for military management and its to solve. Military management is not the Accounting Officer for the defence situation in Ireland. Leading up...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Report Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: The Minister is welcome to the House. I support my colleague, Senator Boyhan, in the withdrawal of our amendment No. 1. I went to the UK as a very young man. Many of us left in the late 1960s and it is only by the grace of God that we have not finished up in a one-bed flat or bedsit with nothing to look forward to and very little to look back on. As Senator Boyhan said, some people were...

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Report Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: I second the amendment.

Seanad: Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Report Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: My colleagues previously spoke about education and the withdrawal of the service after three years. Having an advocacy group like Sage means that the door is open. It is a one-stop-shop where the victims of institutional abuse can go to get the information they need and perhaps engage in education and many other things. Some time ago, I brought a delegation from the Organisation of...

Committee on Defence and National Security: Recent Air Corps Developments: Discussion (24 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. The Secretary General, the Chief of Staff, the GOC and other staff are welcome here. I ask the Secretary General that we start by being honest with one another. The policies that have been followed have been a disaster for the aviation services in our Defence Forces. We have lost search and rescue, we have a private operator providing a jet at Dublin...

Committee on Defence and National Security: Recent Air Corps Developments: Discussion (24 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: It is there.

Committee on Defence and National Security: Recent Air Corps Developments: Discussion (24 Jun 2025)

Gerard Craughwell: The question is there now. It needs to be answered.