Results 61-72 of 72 for speaker:Mal O'Hara

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Travellers in Prison: Discussion (26 Sep 2024)

Mal O'Hara: I have a couple of questions and then maybe a proposal, but first I just want to thank Ms Sweeney for sharing her personal testimony on the advocacy of that project and the supports. That was really powerful, as was everything else that was said. I want to ask about the Traveller Mediation Service. I have a Nordie accent, so I want to ask about that support in the North. Will the...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Travellers in Prison: Discussion (26 Sep 2024)

Mal O'Hara: I thank Mr. McDonagh for that. Has there been engagement with the Executive or the local council? Is it just the PSNI?

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Travellers in Prison: Discussion (26 Sep 2024)

Mal O'Hara: A strategic failure in the North has been the loss of An Munia Tober, an umbrella Traveller-led organisation that advocated on behalf of Travellers in the context of their needs. With regard to standards and training, Ms Brady and Ms Costello talked about going in and delivering one-off sessions. It is something but it is not systemic and does not address prejudice and racism. Do the...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Travellers in Prison: Discussion (26 Sep 2024)

Mal O'Hara: I thank the witnesses. I also work in youth work in building strong communities and looking at poverty and inequality and all of those systemic issues that we need to address. Can I make a proposal? I appreciate that the committee will be writing a couple of letters requesting additional funding. The Traveller Justice Initiative and the Irish Penal Reform Trust will be writing jointly to...

Seanad: Budget 2025 (Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform): Statements (1 Oct 2024)

Mal O'Hara: I will make this shorter, then. This is a somewhat surreal experience for me. For over ten years, I have been party-political, and that period has seen a polity in the North in which we have faced significant challenges. Therefore, it is welcome to see a budget that is very progressive. I would push back on some of the earlier commentary to the effect that it does little to help the most...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Irish Travellers’ Access to Justice Report: Discussion (3 Oct 2024)

Mal O'Hara: I have another question. My accent is obviously northern. For 26 years since the making of the Good Friday Agreement, we have had a section 75 duty in the North. There are two elements, the first being about promoting good relations among specific groups and the second being about equality of opportunity. To achieve these aims, we need data. We have the aims embedded in our international...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Irish Travellers’ Access to Justice Report: Discussion (3 Oct 2024)

Mal O'Hara: I am thinking about UK examples such as those in the Stephen Lawrence report, and also about institutional sexism within the Metropolitan Police and such challenges. I take the point on recognition. I pay tribute to the witnesses. Having engaged with one in 60 Traveller adults in the State adds to the authenticity and voice of the report. The findings really reflect community...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Irish Travellers’ Access to Justice Report: Discussion (3 Oct 2024)

Mal O'Hara: I want to ask about confidence in the justice system for outcomes when Travellers are victims of crime. I know it is a wider point. As a caveat, in the North we have hate crime legislation and we have Judge Marrinan's review, which I hope we will update. Our outcome rates for hate crime reporting languish in the low teens. There is a lack of confidence in minority communities about...

Committee on Drugs Use: A Health-Led Approach: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Oct 2024)

Mal O'Hara: My apologies. The Traveller committee is reliant on me to be quorate at 10.30 a.m., so I thank the Chair and other members for allowing me to jump up the speaking list. I will go straight into my three primary questions. As I have said at nearly every committee meeting, 218 people died of drugs in 2020 in Northern Ireland where I am from and 213 died in 2021. The UK’s overall...

Committee on Drugs Use: A Health-Led Approach: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Oct 2024)

Mal O'Hara: Is that the consensus across the panel?

Committee on Drugs Use: A Health-Led Approach: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Oct 2024)

Mal O'Hara: The story of Davina sat with me. I have known Davinas. I grew up with Davinas. I was born at an interface in working class north Belfast, so I know exactly what was meant. I wish to discuss the tension between specialist and mainstream services. My background is in community health and well-being, particularly in the LGBT sector. There was an argument we always had about how we needed...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Irish Travellers’ Access to Justice Report: Discussion (3 Oct 2024)

Mal O'Hara: I will make a couple of comments. I thank the witnesses very much for the presentation. I have just come from a meeting of the Joint Committee on Drugs Use. I have a bad clash of meetings on Thursday mornings. Last week, I attended meetings of this committee and the committee on drugs use and heard about addiction, poverty, housing, inequality, systemic racism and discrimination and how...