Results 1-20 of 5,165 for speaker:Joe O'Reilly

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (3 Jul 2025)

Joe O'Reilly: Retailers are the lifeblood of all our communities, sponsoring virtually everything and creating local jobs, particularly for students during the summer holidays, etc. We should support our small retailers in every way possible. One of the biggest threats to them is smuggling of illicit goods and selling them outside the normal retail chain. The biggest example of this is in the tobacco...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Special Educational Needs (2 Jul 2025)

Joe O'Reilly: I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this Commencement matter, which is important to the people I represent. I thank the Minister for coming in to take the question in person and give it the seriousness it deserves. I have lived in the Bailieborough area for more than roughly 30 years and in all of that time, there has been a speech and language service available to parents in...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Special Educational Needs (2 Jul 2025)

Joe O'Reilly: I thank the Minister for that. I accept her bona fides and accept that she is doing everything possible to increase the number of speech and language therapists. The issue here, however, is that this has been centralised and moved from the villages and the small towns. The Minister might say that is because of a lack of speech and language therapists. There are enough there at the moment...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Joe O'Reilly: I join with colleagues who paid tribute to our colleague Senator Black for her pioneering work in this area. I do not think we can lose sight of that in the discussion. I will make a comment initially and then ask a couple of questions. I strongly believe that the benefit of this legislation is in the areas of moral leadership and optics. That is borne out by the witnesses' response to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Joe O'Reilly: Sanctions are different. Is that what Mr. Smyth is saying?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Joe O'Reilly: Which it would not achieve in this.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Joe O'Reilly: It will not be achieved here. Mr. Smyth has answered that question. Mr. Smyth made the obvious point that trade was the exclusive competence of the EU and that it was only in very limited circumstances where that could be breached, as it were. I will come to the ICJ, which Mr. Smyth talked about, but will he please elaborate in layman's terms on the limited conditions that we can breach...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Joe O'Reilly: And this would constitute that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Joe O'Reilly: I take Mr. Smyth's point. He might correct me if I am wrong, but if I understand him correctly, we are really relying here on the ICJ ruling.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Joe O'Reilly: With that small competence.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Joe O'Reilly: I thank Mr. Smyth. I think I have it there, Chair. The question everyone is asking has been well asked, but my question was only to re-emphasise it. I would also say to colleagues that the big issue here is actually speed if we consider the overall geopolitical context at the moment. We need to go for speed here, even if we do something less than what would be the ideal or what we would...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Funding Strategy for Traveller-Specific Accommodation: Discussion (19 Jun 2025)

Joe O'Reilly: I welcome our guests and thank them for being here. Returning to the question of social workers, I accept of course that they are needed. From my work in my area at home over the years, I know many other sectors of the population need social workers as well. It would be an unreasonable situation if the money to pay the social workers was ultimately coming from Traveller accommodation per...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Funding Strategy for Traveller-Specific Accommodation: Discussion (19 Jun 2025)

Joe O'Reilly: In a general sense, and I commend the overall role of the local authorities in this regard, but it should not be the case that the costs for the social workers come out of the budget for housing for Travellers. It would be very bad practice.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Funding Strategy for Traveller-Specific Accommodation: Discussion (19 Jun 2025)

Joe O'Reilly: That is reassuring. If there is any supplementary information, I would like to get that too.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Funding Strategy for Traveller-Specific Accommodation: Discussion (19 Jun 2025)

Joe O'Reilly: With great respect, I think it is wrong that social workers are being paid from the Traveller accommodation budget because social workers are needed by the entire population. We are not going to resolve the matter here and just wanted to put the matter on the record. On the HAP schemes, I presume the witnesses would agree the ideal is that few Travellers or indeed, very few or any of the...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Funding Strategy for Traveller-Specific Accommodation: Discussion (19 Jun 2025)

Joe O'Reilly: So not racially.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Funding Strategy for Traveller-Specific Accommodation: Discussion (19 Jun 2025)

Joe O'Reilly: Do the witnesses agree that it is not ideal and it would be much better if people were in social housing?

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Funding Strategy for Traveller-Specific Accommodation: Discussion (19 Jun 2025)

Joe O'Reilly: Yes, it is not the ideal for anybody. In the initial presentation, reference was made to solar panels and retrofitting and fuel poverty. The latter is a real issue here and, God knows and God forbid, with what is happening in the world at the moment could become a shocking issue. Can the witnesses comment on how the retrofitting of Traveller houses fits into the overall retrofitting...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Funding Strategy for Traveller-Specific Accommodation: Discussion (19 Jun 2025)

Joe O'Reilly: Well done and congratulations on that great initiative. Is Traveller housing part of the general retrofitting schemes in every county?