Results 1-20 of 573 for speaker:Sinéad Gibney

Middle East: Statements (2 Jul 2025)

Sinéad Gibney: I welcome the opportunity to speak to the incredibly problematic situation in the Middle East. Over the past 18 months, violence has erupted across the Middle East. However, today I wish to speak about the Middle East before October 2023 - the violence at the hands of Israeli colonists in occupied Palestine; the systematic functioning of Israeli apartheid; and how Palestinians are...

Nursing Homes: Motion [Private Members] (2 Jul 2025)

Sinéad Gibney: Trust in nursing homes has been lost. With everything that has come to light in recent months, the one overwhelming response, which really concerns me deeply, is that people are now afraid of nursing homes, or perhaps more afraid, because revelations like these have been coming out for decades. Old age should come with a security and a certainty that a person's needs are met, they are safe...

GPO and Moore Street Regeneration as a 1916 Cultural Quarter: Motion [Private Members] (1 Jul 2025)

Sinéad Gibney: I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. I am proud to stand beside Deputy Gannon, who speaks with such a strong voice for Dublin city centre. He always has done, in particular on issues related to how we make Dublin a place for all people and really protect our culture and heritage. I want to briefly cover three key points. The first is that the GPO is such a vital...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Sinéad Gibney: I thank the witnesses for coming to the committee again. I wish to discuss the relationship between the Department and the Arts Council. A lot of people from the arts community have come to me expressing concern about the change of name, which to some people might seem a small piece, but for a lot of people it is symbolic. That, combined with what seems now to be quite a public row,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Sinéad Gibney: I will get into governance probably for the rest of my time. I appreciate Mr. Ó Coigligh said Ms Brennan will carry out a review but I would have thought that what we air in this committee could inform that review and there might be issues. I come at this as somebody who in my previous role was the director and chief commissioner of IHREC, which is essentially the chair and CEO role of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Sinéad Gibney: That is my point. The Department of public expenditure says "No". When the Department itself does not want to say "No", it says that the Department of public expenditure says "No". There was a risk associated with not allocating seniority to this role. A decision was made not to give the Arts Council a principal officer but to give it a higher executive officer. That, arguably, resulted...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Sinéad Gibney: Does the Department have a picture of that process? I would have thought the Arts Council could have articulated the risk, regardless of whether it did it effectively. Who in the Department had sight of the risk if it was not given a senior enough role? How is it compared to the other recruitment and sanctioning?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Sinéad Gibney: I urge the Department when Ms Brennan is looking at this review that it could inform her thinking to look at State agencies and the dynamics. If you only have a small staff and you have requests, you consistently get this answer from your parent Department. We know it is not just about staff. In lots of different ways, you are lost in the melee. I am a member of the Association of Chief...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Sinéad Gibney: I appreciate that. I get all of that but the other part of it is that one key role. An agency does not operate on the same basis as a Department where principal officers are not ten-a-penny but there are a lot more of them than in a State agency. A year and a half is a long time to be without someone you were expecting to come in a little earlier. You are dealing with the PAS and all of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Sinéad Gibney: Sorry, I had to pop up to the Chamber to speak so I hope I do not cover stuff that other speakers covered. I want to revisit one of the questions I asked earlier. It was the first question I asked and it was about how artists and the artistic community are perceiving this. In the answer Mr. Ó Coigligh gave me, he said that the Minister has made assurances about his support of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Sinéad Gibney: I appreciate the answers and, once again, the emphasis on the basic income. I do not doubt that the Department has connections with the arts community. What I am concerned about is that there are definitely concerns that this will mean throwing arts under the bus. That is what I am trying to get at. What is the Department doing strategically to make sure that that does not happen, that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Sinéad Gibney: May I ask one quick question about the name change? Has the Department had a lot of feedback from the arts sector about it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Sinéad Gibney: It is funny that on Teams we are still the arts and media committee, which are the two words that have been dropped from the Department's title.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport: Arts Council Grant Management IT System: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jul 2025)

Sinéad Gibney: I am sorry; I am over time.

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)

Sinéad Gibney: I thank Mr. Smyth and Mr. Keown for being with us today. The EU has enacted a ban on the trade in goods and services to and from occupied Korea since 2014. That was separate from the sanctions that were placed on Russia because these were viewed as the proceeds of crime. Has that been considered in light of the drafting of this Bill?

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)

Sinéad Gibney: Would it give Mr. Smyth comfort in a situation where infringement procedures were to happen, for example? Does that offer a precedent or a comfort for Mr. Smyth? If we were to include services and it did get as far as infringement proceedings, would that be something we could rely on as precedent?

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)

Sinéad Gibney: I appreciate that. I understand the legal picture but I am asking if it was considered. We have talked about infringement proceedings but I will dial back a bit. The concern I have with what is being presented here today, including the twin track referenced by Mr. Keown, is that while we understand it, we also know that there has been absolute paralysis at European Union level. It is very...

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)

Sinéad Gibney: I just have one tiny question on the 0% figure-----

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)

Sinéad Gibney: We know that Airbnb has publicly addressed the fact that it has rental accommodation services in the occupied territories. Does that 0% figure jar with our guests? This applies to other platforms too, not just Airbnb. We know that they let properties in the occupied territories at the moment. Do the witnesses have an issue with that CSO figure of 0%?

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025 : Discussion (Resumed) (26 Jun 2025)

Sinéad Gibney: I thank the witnesses for coming and for their submissions. My first question is for Mr. Noonan. We spoke about the pressure that politicians and the media refer to from Europe to step up Ireland's defence. What are Mr. Noonan's thoughts on how that pressure interacts with the declarations of the Nice and Lisbon treaties that acknowledge the neutrality of member states in the context of...