Results 1,821-1,840 of 2,735 for speaker:Marie Louise O'Donnell

Seanad: Mental Health (Amendment) Bill 2016: Second Stage (21 Jun 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: I congratulate the Minister of State. He is coming down with congratulations today, but I genuinely mean it because I worked with him on the Joint Committee on Education and Skills for a number of years. He is a very able, informed and definite personality. He knows where he wants to go. I do not think he will be put off course very quickly. I wish him all that is best in this Ministry....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Jun 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: I have not so much a question but want first to echo what Senator Walsh said and thank the witness for coming before the committee and being so open but also informatively honest in writing to tell us that he did not want to continue for the reasons he outlined, which in one way are terribly shocking but in another way are understandable. We are choked by bureaucracy to the point of inertia,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Jun 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: We are a committee with a very good Chair. We are very involved and we are writing a report about rural development and the sustaining of rural communities. It is the oldest story in the world, as out the door goes the experience and we start all over again. I am not ageist. One of the recommendations is to use the brilliance that has been there. The witness has made a distinctive and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Jun 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: I hope I can go on record saying it is nothing short of a disgrace that he was silenced or choked by bureaucratic indulgence, obfuscation and inertia, with people not getting back or listening to him, making him write again. We all know that this is a major organisation in smaller communities. We should discuss how it can have a major part to play. Is the Chairman moving to rural development?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Jun 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: It will be the Department of culture.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Jun 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: Mr. McGuinness should play a very big part in the influence as this new Department could learn from him.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Jun 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: What is happening now? We all got a letter telling us Mr. McGuinness was no longer chairman, which we knew because he had told us months ago. Is there an impasse?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Jun 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: It has not happened.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs: Sustaining Viable Rural Communities: Discussion (Resumed) (21 Jun 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: Which Department?

Seanad: Order of Business (28 Jun 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: I want to raise two issues.I would like a guarantee from the Leader of the House that the Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2017, perpetrated by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, will not be guillotined in this House. If I do not get this guarantee I will call a vote in the House on it today. It is a very serious Bill, which has caused extraordinary...

Seanad: Report on Dying, Death and Bereavement: Statements (4 Jul 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: I welcome the Minister and wish her luck in her new job. I know that she will do it well and articulately. I thank her for being here today and for taking this debate. My report is an examination of end-of-life issues outside the health arena. My remit was to establish through 15 Departments and two State agencies policies, services and procedures around dying, death and bereavement and...

Seanad: Report on Dying, Death and Bereavement: Statements (4 Jul 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: The State must encourage, support and enable people to think ahead and not to do so through one Department. One of the main recommendations was that the Department of the Taoiseach would take the lead and help people to think ahead. Throughout the report, surveys and research the centrality of all arguments, and I have spent six years as a Senator, always comes back to the decency and...

Seanad: Report on Dying, Death and Bereavement: Statements (4 Jul 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: They have me dead and buried at the moment.

Seanad: Report on Dying, Death and Bereavement: Statements (4 Jul 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: Well, I read it.

Seanad: Report on Dying, Death and Bereavement: Statements (4 Jul 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: I know I am not allowed to speak.

Seanad: Report on Dying, Death and Bereavement: Statements (4 Jul 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: Yes, but I wish to recognise the various CEOs of organisations who are seated in the Visitors Gallery. Earlier, I omitted to mention Ms Mai Quaid, CEO, Active Retirement Ireland. She is an extraordinary woman and an extraordinary CEO of an extraordinary organisation. I thank the Minister for her comments. I thank all of my colleagues for their support.

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Jul 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: I second Senator McDowell's proposed amendment to the Order of Business. There is a massive need for reform. It is a very good thing. It is not change for change's sake but it is progress. We cannot go on in the form we are in. We might start with our internal reform in the Seanad Chamber since nobody listens to anybody in here. If one looks around, nobody is listening and everybody is...

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Jul 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: There is not even a display of manners to the Chair most of the time. Most people come in and out of here as if they are standing at a bus stop. People come in here and they do not listen to arguments. They may have plenty of other wonderful things to do but they do not even listen to the arguments. Sometimes they do not even know what they are voting for or against. They also use it as...

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Jul 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: There is no-one here from DCU.

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Jul 2017)

Marie Louise O'Donnell: I am not the Minister for tourism, that is Deputy Ross.