Results 1,981-2,000 of 3,693 for speaker:Lynn Ruane

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Organisation of Working Time (Domestic Violence Leave) Bill 2020: Discussion (25 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: I echo everything that others have said about how important and needed the legislation is. It is brilliant. I have one or two queries. I want to avoid being too particular or specific. If a woman ends up having to go to a refuge a fair way away from her workplace, is there scope within the Bill to cater for extenuating circumstances and allow that woman to apply for additional leave? Is...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Child Poverty: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: I apologise that I missed my name when it was called earlier. The sound went on me and by the time I got it back it was too late. Many of the questions I had intended to ask have been covered. However, I am always confused by what does not seem to come up very often, especially from a poverty perspective and also when we discuss social welfare. At some point over the past decade or so, the...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Child Poverty: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: No-----

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Child Poverty: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: Perhaps it is this concept that all of a sudden meant it was attached to asking schools to sign the form. When I went to school, I never had to bring a form to the school to prove I was in school so my mother could collect the children's allowance. It is like the decision was made at a policy level. It is something new in the past 17 years. I am trying to think of the age of my daughter...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: I echo what Senator Hoey said about the health committee meeting. I had to turn off the camera at one stage as I thought I was going to have a panic attack. I thought I had been hurled through time, given everything I have stood for in this Chamber over the last six years and hoped that people were listening to me. I felt very disheartened and sad. I thought: "What is the point in me...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: With all due respect, the past 45 minutes, in particular, of this meeting have been among the most excruciating I have ever had to listen to when speaking about drug use in Ireland. I cannot believe I am hearing it in 2022. A lot more that was wrong has been said in the past 45 minutes than the naming of a building in the city centre, but nobody picked up on that and intervened, such as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: If it is appropriate, Chair, that is not why the national drugs strategy was brought in. The strategy has been around for a long time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: It is the version in my hand I am talking about. The war on drugs is criminalisation. Does the Minister of State understand that that is what that means? It is a reference to criminalisation.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: As a politician that stands over policy, does the Minister of State understand that the war on drugs is about the criminalisation of people who use drugs? Does he believe drug users are criminals?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: It is not about stigmatisation. I am going to have to outline the basics. The war on drugs is an American system that came through the UN treaty. If the Minister of State goes back right to the 1970s, to his party, Fine Gael, and to the Fianna Fáil Party, he will see the conversation on what the war on drugs means and where the drugs legislation came from. It originates from the UN...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: I want to make the point that criminalisation cannot be uncoupled from a health-led approach and they cannot be offered up as two separate themes. They are intrinsically linked. We do not reduce harm or increase happiness unless we stop labelling and criminalising people for their drug use.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: I did not interrupt Deputy Durkan.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: The working group received 22,000 submissions on decriminalisation. The evidence to the working group on decriminalisation was overwhelming, but the committee ignored it on the basis that we are not Portugal. Was the main conversation at that meeting that the Garda did not want to give up its powers to stop and search?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: Exactly, and we are politicians, and we make legislation. As a legislator, does the Minister of State realise what the situation is in respect of stop and search powers?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: It is not about normalising drugs; it is about people and what they do in their lives, their agency, their supports and their networks. It is about not excluding them from society because of their choice to take drugs. It is about fixing the poverty and inequality in communities where we have chaotic drug use. The Minister of State's statement was very strong, so much so that I texted him...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: It is a very important sentence.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: The Department of Health does not favour decriminalisation. Is the Minister of State saying that the Department supports and stands over the criminalisation of people for their drug use?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: We do not have a health-led approach because we criminalise people for their drug use.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: I know I am coming in hard, but the Minister of State must remember that I do not visit a treatment centre and ask people if they support legalisation. What I do is I ask my friends if they think they are criminals. If I ask the father of my child if he is a criminal for his drug use, he will say "No". I do not ask people if they think drugs should be legalised. We have to be careful...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Drugs Strategy: Minister of State at the Department of Health (19 Jan 2022)

Lynn Ruane: Then legalise it and then we will remove that. Let us have the conversation on legalisation. We gave them the market. We gave drug dealers the market.