Results 1,901-1,920 of 2,886 for speaker:Pat Buckley

Standards in Public Office (Amendment) Bill 2023: First Stage (23 Feb 2023)

Pat Buckley: I thank Deputy Farrell for introducing the Bill. She has raised the three relevant points on it. It is about working together and enhancing accountability. We need accountability within the HSE and other entities. In this regard, we could probably consider some more legislation. It was not too long ago that Deputy Farrell and I worked on the protected disclosures law. We worked with...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Autism: Services and Supports Provided by the State for Autistic People: Discussion (2 Mar 2023)

Pat Buckley: I have an observation rather than a question. Committees often bring in experts to debate legislation but the witnesses who gave testimony today are the experts. They are the ones who have lived experience in this area. I have made many notes, as have many of us, and a couple of things have come up. Each and every one of the witnesses has a personal story and it takes a lot of bravery to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Autism: Services and Supports Provided by the State for Autistic People: Discussion (2 Mar 2023)

Pat Buckley: It is not a competition, but it takes a lot of bravery for our guests to come to this House and tell their stories. The purpose of the meeting is to listen to our guests as experts, not for them to listen to us making recommendations. I might upset a few people here and I am known to speak out of turn at times. When I was a member of a previous committee on mental health, it was suggested...

Committee on Public Petitions: Public Petition on Lil Reds Legacy Sepsis Awareness Campaign: Mr. Joseph Hughes and Irish Sepsis Foundation (2 Mar 2023)

Pat Buckley: My apologies, a Chathaoirligh, but we are being bounced through the committees today. First, I congratulate the foundation. As I have often said here at this committee; this is a very different committee. It is last chance.com for somebody in the public to have his or her say and we are public representatives. It is our job and duty to listen to people but also then for them to have...

Committee on Public Petitions: Public Petition on Lil Reds Legacy Sepsis Awareness Campaign: Mr. Joseph Hughes and Irish Sepsis Foundation (2 Mar 2023)

Pat Buckley: I second that. I commend he work of the secretariat here and, in fairness to Tipperary County Council, it has come back with as much as it can. It has gone above and beyond would would be expected, and I thank its representatives. We have a good engagement with them here. The Chair is right. The fence seems to be moving all the time. It just seems to be a pressure test from Irish Water...

Committee on Public Petitions: Public Petition on Lil Reds Legacy Sepsis Awareness Campaign: Mr. Joseph Hughes and Irish Sepsis Foundation (2 Mar 2023)

Pat Buckley: I agree with the Chair on that. These scenarios seem to be getting a bit repetitive. I would be interested to see what the response will be and I would like to revisit that once the response comes back.

Committee on Public Petitions: Public Petition on Lil Reds Legacy Sepsis Awareness Campaign: Mr. Joseph Hughes and Irish Sepsis Foundation (2 Mar 2023)

Pat Buckley: I thank the committee secretariat and the case workers, as always. An amount of work goes on behind the scenes and that has to be acknowledged.

High Energy Costs: Motion [Private Members] (7 Mar 2023)

Pat Buckley: I will cut straight to the chase. I thank Deputy Doherty for tabling the motion and I ask the Government to withdraw its countermotion. The Minister mentioned a few payments. He should remember one thing. Governments are supposed to serve the people. The payments the Minister mentioned are taxpayers' money. The Government is giving it back to the same people. It is not targeting it. I...

Committee on Public Petitions: Business of Joint Committee (23 Mar 2023)

Pat Buckley: Agreed.

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with European Ombudsman (23 Mar 2023)

Pat Buckley: I thank Ms O'Reilly for her time today. I was interested to hear about the Covid recovery fund and very interested to read the press statement from the European Court of Auditors, which stated: Citizens will only trust new ways of EU funding if they can be sure that their money is being spent properly ... Currently, there is a gap in terms of the assurance the Commission can provide for...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with European Ombudsman (23 Mar 2023)

Pat Buckley: That is absolutely perfect. I wanted to see had I gone in the right direction. I know it takes time for the European Court of Justice to go through the cases but I just wanted clarity. I am glad Ms O'Reilly has given me that information and there is actually an avenue there.

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with European Ombudsman (23 Mar 2023)

Pat Buckley: I thank Ms O'Reilly very much.

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with European Ombudsman (23 Mar 2023)

Pat Buckley: Fair play to Ms O'Reilly. I would love her job, to be honest. I would actually love her job.

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with European Ombudsman (23 Mar 2023)

Pat Buckley: Absolutely. It is on the public record. I would like to return to something I have previously spoken to Ms O'Reilly about. I got the document and her office looked into it. The response that came back to the question I had about the issues with the Owenacurra centre was that the European Ombudsman can not look into complaints about publicly funded healthcare systems like the HSE. Where...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with European Ombudsman (23 Mar 2023)

Pat Buckley: It is a question of oversight and accountability. One cannot get anything. Once one goes into the system, whether it is the Mental Health Commission, the HSE, Tusla or anything else, it is just a constant circle. Ms O'Reilly spoke in her opening statement about accountability and transparency. That is where my bugbear was. As I said at the start, these are people, human beings, who are...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with European Ombudsman (23 Mar 2023)

Pat Buckley: I have tried that.

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with European Ombudsman (23 Mar 2023)

Pat Buckley: Yes, €724 billion is a lot of money, and €989 million is a lot of money. I want a tip on something else. I asked Ms O'Reilly about referring cases to the European Court of Justice, ECJ, or to the Public Prosecutor's Office within the EU because I approached the European Court of Justice a number of months ago with what I feel is a human rights-based issue. I wrote to Ms...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with European Ombudsman (23 Mar 2023)

Pat Buckley: I wrote to Ms O'Reilly's office and received a response back. I gather from the response that it was a matter for the European Court of Justice so I decided to go there.

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with European Ombudsman (23 Mar 2023)

Pat Buckley: It is not too often that we get the European Ombudsman to attend and I will catch her on the spot. I wish to return to an issue about which I have spoken to her, namely, the health centres, and so on. She may remember that I mentioned a mental health and respite centre for old folks, the Owenacurra mental health centre in Midleton, County Cork. If I send the details to her, can the...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with European Ombudsman (23 Mar 2023)

Pat Buckley: I would greatly appreciate that and I thank Ms O'Reilly very much.