Results 181-200 of 338 for speaker:Patricia Stephenson

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: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Just to clarify, it is not there as explicitly in relation to goods but the opposite is not true either, in that it does not say we should not have services included in terms of EU law.

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: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Thank you. You know I am very concise.

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: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Russia has been mentioned. I know the context is different because the sanction regime that came against Russia was EU-wide, but is there any precedent specifically as it relates to services and Russia that the witnesses could speak about a bit?

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: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Tracking services have been spoken about. I know we are not going to talk about specific companies, but what would be the mechanism for tracking services? Is there something like that that exists, like a database? There seems to be a feeling of ambiguity as to what companies - again, we cannot use names - do or do not trade. Is there a way to monitor that in order that if this were to be...

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: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Has there been precedent then, as regards that UN database, for tracking services for the purposes of banning them?

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: Role, Responsibilities and Processes of An Coimisiún Pleanála and Office of the Planning Regulator: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: To draw on what Deputy Tóibín was saying, Mr. Mullan is happy with the staffing levels for this year but he is saying that if infrastructure were to be scaled up and there were to be further planning applications, then the current staffing levels would not meet that demand.

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: Role, Responsibilities and Processes of An Coimisiún Pleanála and Office of the Planning Regulator: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Is that still the case if we were to scale up?

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: Role, Responsibilities and Processes of An Coimisiún Pleanála and Office of the Planning Regulator: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: That is fine, I just wanted to clarify-----

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: Role, Responsibilities and Processes of An Coimisiún Pleanála and Office of the Planning Regulator: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: We are just trying to get to the bottom of whether, if other workstreams were to come up, staffing of inspectors is a blockage.

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: Role, Responsibilities and Processes of An Coimisiún Pleanála and Office of the Planning Regulator: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Okay. That was the question. Perfect. I thank Mr. Mullan. In the previous iteration of An Bord Pleanála there were differing opinions on the board maybe having different opinions from those of the inspectors and then changing those decisions. How will an coimisiún ensure this is not an issue going forward where inspectors' recommendations differ from board decisions?

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: Role, Responsibilities and Processes of An Coimisiún Pleanála and Office of the Planning Regulator: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: It might be an issue around transparency, I suppose.

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: Role, Responsibilities and Processes of An Coimisiún Pleanála and Office of the Planning Regulator: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Are there guidelines though?

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: Role, Responsibilities and Processes of An Coimisiún Pleanála and Office of the Planning Regulator: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Are there guidelines or criteria on how much an inspector's weighting might be considered against the-----

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: Role, Responsibilities and Processes of An Coimisiún Pleanála and Office of the Planning Regulator: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: My understanding is that planning priorities are done on a first-come-first-served basis, meaning that if the planning for a one-off house comes first, that will be the first consideration versus the planning for a larger scale development. Are they done on a first-come-first-served basis or how are planning priorities allocated?

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)

Patricia Stephenson: I would like to ask about the Attorney General's advice. I want to make a clarification. The Attorney General's advice was actually leaked and he did not say that goods were more defensible. I just want to make that point. Can the witnesses understand me?

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)

Patricia Stephenson: He did not say that goods were more defensible. Does trade as per the ICJ ruling, meaning goods and services in the opinion Ireland-----

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)

Patricia Stephenson: In that context, does Mr. Smyth accept that the heads of Bill are not fully compliant? They cannot be compliant because they do not include services.

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)

Patricia Stephenson: With regard to EU law and international law, does EU law trump international law or is there a hierarchy with regard to whom we are beholden?

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)

Patricia Stephenson: So, international law trumps EU law.

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)

Patricia Stephenson: The Long Title of the Bill lifts language directly from the advisory opinion of the ICJ. It states that the Bill is to provide compliance by the State with its international legal obligation. It reads: "... to take steps to prevent trade relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory". However, two specific words...