Results 681-700 of 2,078 for speaker:Mary Seery Kearney

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Aligning Disability Services with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Discussion (Resumed) (11 Nov 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: I thank Ms Farrell. I have sought a debate in the Seanad on this topic, so I expect we will be exploring it there as well, and ventilating the very real concerns that were so well exposed in the documentary the other night and that Ms Farrell confirmed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Aligning Disability Services with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Discussion (Resumed) (18 Nov 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: That is a very good point.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Aligning Disability Services with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Nov 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: I thank the Minister of State and the HSE for being with us today. I note that in the Minister of State's speech she referred to doing ordinary things and living ordinary lives. That was a theme from one of our participants a number of weeks ago. I have used it in speeches with the Minister of State since and it demonstrates that she is listening to the witnesses of our committee and to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Aligning Disability Services with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Nov 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: I am thrilled that people with disability voices, who are best educated to talk about the lived experience and to influence that, are being listened to and are influencing Department representatives. I assume they meet more than quarterly. The Minister of State said she chairs it quarterly, which implies there are other meetings. How frequently do they meet?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Aligning Disability Services with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Nov 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: That is great. If there is time for the HSE to reply in respect of the letters, I would value that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Aligning Disability Services with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Nov 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: That is not indicated in the letters. Nobody sees that. Another side of it is that where parents are engaged, there is such a turnover of staff that parents start all over again with the next person they are dealing with. People go on leave, which they are entitled to do and I am not in any way commenting on it, but no replacements are put in for them. There seems to be a difficulty in...

Seanad: The Impact of Covid-19 on Primary and Secondary Education: Motion (19 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I am sharing time with Senator Conway. I welcome the Minister and Deputy Kehoe. I congratulate the committee on a fine report into which, clearly, a lot of hard work went. In anticipation of the motion, I canvassed the views of principals and deputy principals in my home region of Dublin South Central in light of the recommendations in the report to ascertain their feelings and...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Today I want to bring good news to the Seanad that yesterday a memo went to Cabinet regarding the special purpose surrogacy committee. This special three-month committee, with the possibility of a fourth month, will deal with complexities and hopefully find a pathway to parenthood for mothers of children born via international surrogacy. I thank the three Ministers - the Ministers for...

Seanad: Organisation of Working Time (Reproductive Health Related Leave) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (20 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I completely and utterly support this Bill. I commend the Labour Party for bringing it forward, and the INTO for campaigning on it. There is no question but that we need red-circled time for people who are going through reproductive health issues. I have got up previously and stated that I have done 13 in vitrofertilisations, IVFs. By the time one adds it all up, it is a re-mortgage and we...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: It is great that we are in the Chamber and are able to have such very different conversations and consider such very different points. One of the announcements that I really welcome is the one on the right to request remote working that was made by the Tánaiste and more details were provided on that today. I have heard various debates and interviews over the course of the day on the...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (26 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Yesterday, the joint policing committee of Dublin City Council heard a report from Detective Inspector Daniel Kelly on human trafficking statistics and actions for 2021. He said that there were 44 victims recorded by the Garda, 28 of whom were female and 16 were male. Some 19 victims were identified as being of labour exploitation and 25 were victims of sexual exploitation. The Minister of...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (27 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I rise today to bring to the House's attention, in the context of the evolving situation in Ukraine, the mixed reports on the ground, of people living their normal everyday lives, and those reports from the international arena. I note that there are Irish families who are expecting babies in the Ukraine. Between now and May, 14 babies are going to be born. I want us to have empathy for...

Seanad: Garda Síochána (Functions and Operational Areas) Bill 2021: Second Stage (27 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I welcome this as a technical Bill and a necessity. Listening to some of the commentary, I am chair of the drugs task force and gardaí always show off their fantastic resources. We reach out to them all the time in the community. Even when it is outside the community of our particular drugs task force and matters arise or in the wider area of my home constituency in Dublin...

Seanad: Violence Against Women: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I apologise for missing some of the debate. I was tied up for other reasons. I will go back and listen to what was said. It is clear that quite horrifying personal stories have been told today, as was the case in the Dáil, of life experience in a culture that is quite chilling. I brought my daughter to the vigil because I wanted to stand with a sense of hope that somehow the world in...

Seanad: Violence Against Women: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: When is it proposed to sit again?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (27 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I thank the Chairman and the Minister of State for the briefing information on this. I will return to the ordinary and everyday. We are on a building drive. There is momentum towards providing additional housing and looking at areas. Bodies like the Land Development Agency are taking over areas that have been perhaps lying there for years. Places of interest are now more likely to be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (27 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: It is the process of the declaration that I am raising. How do you know you have triggered the need for a declaration? That is the point I am curious about. I have had the experience of being involved in a project that was building homeless accommodation on a site in Dublin 2 that was thought to have been sterilised. It was believed that the previous foundations had been put in there, two...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (27 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I would like to know whether there are obligations on particular professional entities on site. I was also involved in the refurbishment of St. Catherine’s Church on Thomas Street from a derelict state to its current condition where it is operated by the Church of Ireland. A skull was found in it. That triggered the calling of An Garda Síochána. It is this kind of thing I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (27 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I come from a slightly different angle. I am also a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, which recently dealt with mother and baby homes, institutional burials, and birth information and tracing. The latter is not as relevant to this. We had discussions about the Magdalen laundries and industrial schools. The Minister for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (27 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: We can move it to a more macro level. I am very sensitive to the need for care and consideration on anything around to this. I am confused about how this might relate to developing the site of a former industrial school or a former Magdalen laundry. We have one former Magdalen laundry in the north inner city that is in the care of Dublin City Council. There has been no move to either...