Results 2,341-2,360 of 3,747 for speaker:Lynn Ruane

Seanad: Response to Covid-19 (Housing, Local Government and Heritage): Statements (1 Feb 2021)

Lynn Ruane: I thank the Minister for coming to the House. I will begin by welcoming what I believe has been done right in housing since the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic last year. I welcome the fact that, finally, the Department and the Minister moved to introduce an eviction ban, despite many years of claiming that such a ban would be unconstitutional. I reject the notion that such a ban must...

Seanad: Response to Covid-19 (Housing, Local Government and Heritage): Statements (1 Feb 2021)

Lynn Ruane: What about the human rights issue I raised?

Seanad: Report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation: Statements (19 Jan 2021)

Lynn Ruane: I thank the Minister for being in the Seanad today. I sat down to read this report last week and I have been reading for days. I read it with a view that I was a pregnant, unmarried minor, albeit only 20 years ago. I also read it as someone who would have been deemed an illegitimate child when I was born in the early 1980s. When a family is given support and not punishment, the...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (18 Dec 2020)

Lynn Ruane: I have two points, one being on the matter of the new Standing Order, which I acknowledge is included on the Order Paper today. I thank the Cathaoirleach for the initiative on bringing in outside constituencies in this way. It concerns sexual harassment and bullying within the university sector but, most important, the use of non-disclosure agreements, NDAs, not only to move people around a...

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Second Stage (18 Dec 2020)

Lynn Ruane: I thank the Minister of State for being here this afternoon. The Oireachtas scheduling means that, though I will speak to the amendments, realistically I cannot push them. I do not want to hold the Bill up and I am the only one who has tabled amendments to it. When the domestic violence legislation was going through, I took a back seat because of the impact some of the conversations in...

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Dec 2020)

Lynn Ruane: I move amendment No. 1: 1. In page 3, to delete lines 19 to 27, and substitute the following: “ “intimate image” means a visual recording of a person made, with or without the consent, by any means including a photographic, film or video recording (whether or not the image of the person has been altered in any way)— (a) (i) of his or her genital organs...

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Dec 2020)

Lynn Ruane: In putting forward these amendments, as I outlined on Second Stage, it is in no way to put out the message that the Bill is flawed or does not fulfil its intentions. It is always good for legislators to have an opportunity to engage with the legislation and to at least signal our future intentions on how we feel the legislation should be improved. The fact is that there will be a review...

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Dec 2020)

Lynn Ruane: I move amendment No. 5: In page 4, line 5, to delete “and” and substitute “or”. On the surface, amendments Nos. 5 to 8, inclusive, all relate to small changes to the wording of section 2 on the distribution of intimate images. However, they are important in that the overall intent is to make the legal threshold at which distribution becomes a crime more...

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Dec 2020)

Lynn Ruane: Senator Ward was correct in what he said regarding proportionality. I did not have the time to rewrite a section between the Bill being passed in the Dáil on Thursday and being taken in the House today. I will get that little dig in there. As Senator Seery Kearney said, I would look forward to amending the legislation through miscellaneous provisions to provide for lesser offences...

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Dec 2020)

Lynn Ruane: I withdraw the amendment.

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Dec 2020)

Lynn Ruane: I move amendment No. 9: In page 4, line 23, after “records,” to insert “retains,”. Amendments Nos. 9 and 12 relate to a specific additional offence of retaining intimate images in a similar vein to amendment No. 4. Amendment No. 11 is again an amendment that was raised with me by the National Observatory on Violence Against Women regarding concerns in respect...

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Dec 2020)

Lynn Ruane: As with the other amendments, I will not press these amendments, but I look forward to working with the Department to move matters forward.

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Dec 2020)

Lynn Ruane: I move amendment No. 14: In page 4, line 37, after “threatening” to insert “, private”. Amendments Nos. 14 and 15 are attempts to legislate for a criminal offence for the practice known as doxing, where an abuser will publish private information such as home addresses or bank account details publicly on the Internet to terrorise their victims. The amendments...

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Dec 2020)

Lynn Ruane: Can the Minister of State comment whether it is an offence under the legislation?

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Dec 2020)

Lynn Ruane: Doxxing.

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Dec 2020)

Lynn Ruane: It is important issue regarding a tool of abuse and is something that could be looked at. It is one of the ever-evolving things we encounter that can be used in the absence of the more normal ways in which to abuse or engage in harmful communications. I will withdraw the amendment but I hope that the Department will consider an amendment to make it an offence in some way.

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Dec 2020)

Lynn Ruane: This points to why a review in three years is probably too far away. I am happy to withdraw the amendments in the hope of having continued conversations around the practice of the practice or abuse of doxxing.

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Dec 2020)

Lynn Ruane: This conversation interests me. I understand the Senator's point about something that is done lawfully causing distress, but there are also situations where someone uses lawful measures as a tool to abuse. On Second Stage, I mentioned two people on whose radar I am. One of them has used the courts in a vexatious way to continue abusing me and has tried to summons me to court. He is...

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Dec 2020)

Lynn Ruane: I move amendment No. 16: In page 5, between lines 12 and 13, to insert the following: “Harassment 5. (1) A person who, without lawful authority or reasonable excuse— (a) intentionally or recklessly— (i) follows, watches, pesters or besets another person, (ii) communicates with another person, or (iii) communicates with a third person about another person, and...

Seanad: Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Dec 2020)

Lynn Ruane: I wish to come back in on the issue of persistence. Removing the word "persistence" does not mean the offence only applies to once-off events. Rather, it allows us to begin to account for sporadic communication.In my experience, both my own experience and in supporting other women, sometimes abusive communication and harassment can be seasonal, for want of a better term. It can happen for...