Results 741-760 of 873 for speaker:Averil Power

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Averil Power: Some of these amendments do because they provide that priority should be given to heterosexual married couples regardless of anything else and regardless of the fact that the children in this situation-----

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Averil Power: As has been said, the determining factor in making an adoption order is what is in the best interests of the child. No one has a right to adopt under Irish law, and after this legislation passes, no one will have a right to adopt. All any adults will have, be they single or as a couple, is the opportunity to apply. It is then up to the authorities to weigh up all the different factors and...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Averil Power: I move amendment No. 105: In page 89, between lines 17 and 18, to insert the following: “Amendment of section 89(2) of Principal Act 130. Section 89(2) of Principal Act is hereby deleted.”.This amendment is designed to deal with where an adoptive person might not be aware that they are adopted. I understand that prior to the Act being amended in 2010 an adoptive person would...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Averil Power: There is no other trigger.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Averil Power: In the absence of this, there is no trigger.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Averil Power: I welcome the Minister's understanding of the issue. My concern is that in the absence of the provision, there is no trigger.With regard to passports, my understanding of it is that one's birth certificate is needed for the first passport but if one's parent gets one a passport as a child and one seeks to renew, a birth certificate is not needed for the renewal. These days people travel....

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage (Resumed) (27 Mar 2015)

Averil Power: It is withdrawn.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (30 Mar 2015)

Averil Power: I move amendment No. 2: In page 11, to delete lines 10 to 18 and substitute the following: " "DAHR procedure" means a donor-assisted human reproduction procedure, being any procedure performed in a Member State of the European Union including the State, with the objective of it resulting in the implantation of an embryo in the womb of the woman on whose request the procedure is performed,...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (30 Mar 2015)

Averil Power: I thank the Minister for her response. I appreciate the challenge in recognising services that have been carried out overseas, particularly in such a sensitive area. That is why I did not draft an amendment to recognise services carried out anywhere in the world because that would have been very problematic. Instead, I restricted it to the European Union. I agree that there is a need for...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (30 Mar 2015)

Averil Power: I move amendment No. 26: In page 23, to delete all words from and including "that- " in line 37 down to and including line 38, and in page 24, to delete lines 1 to 3 and substitute the following:"whether the procedure was performed inside or outside the State,".These amendments are grouped and are designed to allow the courts to assign parentage in cases where somebody was conceived through...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (30 Mar 2015)

Averil Power: It is important to be clear that we are talking only about situations that arose prior to the enactment of this legislation. The Minister referred to the possibility of recognising procedures that were legal, such as self-insemination, but the reality is that such practices did occur in the past. Such circumstances arose where same-sex couples, for example, were prohibited from availing of...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (30 Mar 2015)

Averil Power: I do not wish to interrupt but the Supreme Court was also very clear in that case that the father had no constitutional rights. It does not recognise under Irish law a de factofamily in respect of the donor. The donor had no constitutional rights.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (30 Mar 2015)

Averil Power: I move amendment No. 68: In page 40, to delete lines 8 and 9 and substitute the following:“(e) the father is a guardian of the child by virtue of section 6D, or (f) the circumstances set out in subsection (4B) of this section apply;”,”.These amendments are designed to improve the position of the unmarried father. I discussed my concerns on Second Stage and on Committee...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (30 Mar 2015)

Averil Power: I thank the Minister for her response. The key point is that it would be a rebuttable presumption. This means that the court, if satisfied that it was not in the best interests of the child, could displace the presumption. I do not accept that my amendment would make things difficult for the court because it would be able to weigh up the varying evidence and decide what was in the child's...

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (30 Mar 2015)

Averil Power: I have given a commitment to the Minister that on the basis of having consultation and working on this area, I will not move it.

Seanad: Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Report and Final Stages (30 Mar 2015)

Averil Power: I support these amendments. I pushed a similar amendment on Committee Stage. It is a very serious area and for the effort involved in setting up a register the benefits would be immense, particularly in the situations Senator van Turnhout outlined. Perhaps the Minister might change her mind and go a bit further than a pilot on the basis of the discussion we had last week. This should be a...

Seanad: National Council for Special Education Inclusion Support Services: Statements (22 Apr 2015)

Averil Power: I welcome the Minister to the House. I will make my opening remarks and then leave because, unfortunately, our education committee is sitting at the same time as this debate, which has happened a few times and is an issue I have brought to the attention of the Leader previously. I apologise but I will read the Official Report of the debate. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the issue of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Future Funding of Higher Education: Expert Group (22 Apr 2015)

Averil Power: I have just one question as many of my questions have already been asked. I wish to ask about flexibility of delivery. We have a system whereby free fees are available for full-time undergraduate courses but no maintenance grants, as already mentioned, for postgraduates and part-time courses, so we have a very divided system compared with other countries which have much more flexibility....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection: Third Level Student Grant System: Union of Students in Ireland (22 Apr 2015)

Averil Power: I thank Ms Hoey and Mr. Stitt for attending the committee today. The USI paper was excellent. Last night, I spoke at the USI student achievement awards and there has been an increasing professionalisation from that organisation over the past year, which is really positive. It is useful for us, rather than criticising the system, to propose changes that can actually be made. I have a...

Seanad: Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (28 Apr 2015)

Averil Power: I acknowledge that the Minister has taken on some of the feedback from this House. We had an extensive discussion on the Bill in this House both on Committee and Report Stages. The Fianna Fáil Senators, Sinn Féin Senators and university Senators all spoke against the Bill and we voted against the legislation when it left this House because we had concerns about the procedure that...