Results 5,961-5,980 of 11,469 for speaker:Ivana Bacik

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: I propose an amendment to the Order of Business that we would not take Committee Stage of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017 today. On behalf of the Labour Party group, I seek to put forward again the position that Senator Humphreys and myself put forward last Thursday that Committee Stage of the Bill should not be taken until we have sight of the as yet unpublished report that...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: The approach has made a mockery of the legislative process. We are being asked to legislate in the dark without sight of a report, significant excerpts of which have already been leaked into the public domain. I want to refer colleagues who may as yet be undecided as to what way they will vote on our amendment to four points that were raised in the GRECO report. First, GRECO expressed the...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: -----to respond to these very serious criticisms-----

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: -----by the Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption, GRECO. Finally, I agree with Senator Boyhan that the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport would be the first person to jump up and down in disgust if a Government, of which he was not part, tried to bring about much-needed reform in this extremely misguided and ill-conceived way. I urge colleagues to support my...

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: Yes.

Seanad: Order of Business (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: Under Standing Order 62(3)(b) I request that the division be taken again other than by electronic means.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: I wish to speak on amendment No. 5, the Labour Party's amendment in the grouping. It is a more technical amendment, simply offering a definition of a person who is employed in the service of the State. It specifies that a person is employed in the service of the State if he or she is a member of the Garda or the Defence Forces, or a civil servant. I support Senator Ruane's amendment No. 3....

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: First, I agree with my colleague, Senator McDowell, on the issue of the GRECO report. Without going back over the issue in great detail, as somebody who has taken a good deal of care in drafting 20 amendments on Committee Stage, it is frustrating to have had to do so without sight of the report, quite apart from the fact that we do not know whether the Government is taking into account the...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: I am a legal academic who has practised in the past 15 years. However, it is not for my own personal reasons I am making this point. The 15-year clause is unfeasibly long. I do not see why it needs to be that long in order to qualify as a lay person, particularly given Senator McDowell's point about legal academics who have not practised but who would be capable of being considered to be...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: It is extraordinary that the Minister has said he has not yet seen the report, yet he appears to know what is in it. He is going to be seeking Government clearance to publish it at the earliest opportunity. We are in the middle of Committee Stage in the Seanad, dealing with amendments that are directly pertinent to the critiques in the report, apparently. Some of us have seen what are...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: I have a copy of what purports to be three pages of the GRECO report in my hand, and it seems to be very up to date. Paragraph 35 of it states that GRECO has significant concerns about the composition of an appointments commission as proposed in the judicial appointments Bill, as amended, on 31 May 2018, which would place judges in a clear minority position in favour of a strong lay...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: I propose an amendment to the Order of Business to defer consideration of the resumed Committee Stage of the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill. Anyone who was in the Chamber last night or who was observing the debate would have been struck by the extraordinary and somewhat farcical nature of the debate. Those of us who were engaged in putting amendments in good faith – I have...

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: Precisely.

Seanad: Order of Business (4 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: I am pressing the amendment.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: I move amendment No. 5:In page 8, between lines 34 and 35, to insert the following:"(3) A person is employed in the service of the State if he or she is- (a) a member of the Garda Síochána, (b) a member of the Defence Forces, or (c) a civil servant in the Civil Service of the Government or the Civil Service of the State.".

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: No, it is not agreed. My amendment is amendment No. 7 and while I see that amendments Nos. 6 and 110 are very closely related and see the reason for the grouping, I would prefer my amendment No. 7 to be dealt with separately because it is not so closely associated. I do not know what the view of Senator McDowell is.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: Thank you.

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: Based on the voting pattern on the amendments we have put this afternoon, it is valid to ask the Minister if he is open to accepting any amendments. Amendment No. 5 in my name, which we debated last night, was a constructive technical amendment seeking to clarify a definition. I had not anticipated there would have been any difficulty with other parties supporting it. I was somewhat...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2018)

Ivana Bacik: Thrilled.