Results 581-600 of 11,441 for speaker:Ivana Bacik

Seanad: Order of Business (6 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I support the amendment to the Order of Business proposed by Senators O'Toole and Fitzgerald. I thank Senators O'Toole and Hannigan for their good wishes and I am delighted to have been selected to stand for the Labour Party in Dublin Central. I will not say any more about the election.

Seanad: Order of Business (6 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: It is important to debate the treatment of children today. It is extraordinary that this Government has time to legislate for an outdated and dangerous offence of blasphemous libel-----

Seanad: Order of Business (6 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: -----and yet no time, apparently, to ensure the impasse between the HSE and the Ombudsman for Children is resolved and ensure the bilateral agreements for adoptions in Vietnam and Russia are resolved.

Seanad: Order of Business (6 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: We need to ensure this Government gets its priorities right and the treatment of children should be uppermost in our priorities. I support others who have called for those debates today. It is essential. I ask the Leader for a response to a question I have raised many times in this House regarding the Climate Protection Bill. It is another matter which should be a priority for the...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (13 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I second the amendment.

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (13 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I second the amendment.

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (13 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I support the comments of Senators Prendergast and Fitzgerald on this amendment. It is important that the dreadful state of uncertainty in which so many prospective adopters find themselves is resolved. I, too, am interested to hear what the Minister of State has to say in regard to the agreement with Vietnam and the situation with Russia. This issue was raised on Committee Stage when the...

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (13 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I move amendment No. 4: In page 17, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following: "(4) In this Act, "married couple" means an opposite-sex or same-sex married couple or a couple who have entered a registered civil partnership with each other.". We debated this amendment at some length on Committee Stage so I do not propose to go back over that ground in detail. It is an important...

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (13 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I am glad the Minister of State supports the principle that children are entitled to a loving family of whatever form. I should have declared an interest in that I am serving as junior counsel in the Zappone-Gilligan case, which has not yet been heard by the Supreme Court. This will be the first occasion on which this issue, namely the definition of marriage and whether marriage is confined...

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (13 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I move amendment No. 5: In page 17, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following: "(4) In this Act, "special guardianship order" means an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child's "special guardian" (or special guardians). The Minister may prescribe procedures for the court to follow in making a "special guardianship order", in accordance with the following principles: (a)...

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (13 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: In light of the Minister of State's comments, I will not press the amendment. I am glad the issue will be revisited. As I noted earlier, two expert reports have recommended the introduction of a special guardianship measure. I have only transposed some of the relevant provisions from English law as an example of what can be done. Clearly, much more detail would be required in respect of...

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed) (14 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I am grateful to Senator Fitzgerald for outlining the background to these amendments. I tabled them on Committee Stage and I was supported by Senator Fitzgerald, Senator Norris and others. The sense of them is not about changing the meaning of any of the relevant provisions but rather to change the language. The language used is based on the previous version of these provisions is...

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed) (14 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I second Senator Norris's amendment No. 38, which would have the same effect as my amendment No. 4, which Members debated earlier. The amendment is to insert into the Bill recognition of the position of same-sex couples who are parenting children and who may wish to adopt. I reiterate the point that many children already are living in Ireland with parents who are same-sex partners and who,...

Seanad: Order of Business (19 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I support calls for a debate on NAMA. Having campaigned around Dublin Central, it is certainly clear to me that the real concern of people in that constituency and others relates to the problems with the economy and jobs. They are very fearful about job losses and about their future and that of their children. This derives mainly from the considerable uncertainty associated with NAMA. Dr....

Seanad: Order of Business (19 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: Many of us feel developers have some nerve if they are thinking about challenging NAMA when it is their own profligacy and greed that has led to the problems we face. We need to debate this. We need to debate the role of the Seanad which has been coming under attack from all quarters, including Members of the House itself. Last week's outing by the Oireachtas golf society constitutes a...

Seanad: Order of Business (19 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: Can we have a debate on Seanad reform? It was unjustifiable that Members of this House were playing golf at Portmarnock Golf Club which has a notable policy against women at a time when many of us are trying to encourage more women to become involved in politics and enter both Houses of the Oireachtas.

Seanad: Order of Business (19 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I support what Senator Fitzgerald said about an adoption matter. One Bill on which the Seanad has had a particularly good and robust debate in recent weeks has been the Adoption Bill. A number of us have been very active in tabling amendments. The Minister of State has considered them seriously. I really appreciate his consideration of many of the important amendments tabled by those of...

Seanad: Order of Business (19 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: We all want to see adoption law that has the best interest of the child at its heart, regardless of the child's origin. We are all very mindful of our own history, in which dreadful things were done to children by way of adoption and adoptions carried out without proper consent. I would welcome the Minister of State's coming to the House to debate this further.

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (19 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I move amendment No. 68: In page 62, to delete lines 33 to 37 and substitute the following: "(2) The High Court, in respect of subsection (1)(b), in considering the fact that under the law of the state in which an adoption was effected, the adoption has been set aside, revoked, terminated, annulled or otherwise rendered void, shall review the status of the adoption order under the law of this...