Results 2,361-2,380 of 2,771 for speaker:Colm Brophy

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Colm Brophy: In defence of my colleague, the Chairman did make an unfair reference to someone who makes every effort -----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Colm Brophy: I thank the Secretary General and her officials for coming. I do not believe I will have a productive time in asking questions because I will go over some ground that has been covered before and I am not doing so because I like to hear the sound of my own voice. I am doing so because there is complete inconsistency in the way the officials have answered questions. Perhaps that is because I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Colm Brophy: The Department did not comply fully in sending documentation until the events of the past few weeks and the discovery of the additional emails which the Secretary General says she did not know of or did not have, but obviously the Department did have them as they were available within it. The Secretary General did not look for them either because she did not think it was worth her while to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Colm Brophy: To outsiders looking in from the outside, that seems to be very difficult to believe. The Secretary General does two things and does them very well. She advocates that the Department is a huge organisation comprising thousands and thousands of staff, but I am absolutely sure thousands and thousands of staff do not receive emails concerning high-level decisions, interaction between Ministers...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Colm Brophy: Why then would the Secretary General decide not to look at everything concerning the people involved? I ask because she subsequently decided following a further trawl, to which I will get, that took just a few days that she could uncover additional relevant information. On the original email, while not reprimanding her for not sending it, she used the expression that the Charleton tribunal...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Colm Brophy: The words the Secretary General used were that it would be "of assistance" to it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Colm Brophy: That information has been provided and the Secretary General deemed it to be relevant. Why did she not seek it the first time?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Colm Brophy: I cannot understand the following. The Secretary General has said one cannot include a name in a Google search or anything like it and come up with all of the tens of thousands of documents available. The Department engaged in a process, a further trawl that had been requested by the Taoiseach, which produced additional information. The further trawl was completed within a number of days....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Colm Brophy: It was done by the Secretary General's own actions. She decided that the Department's initial trawl did not comply fully because additional information was sent to the tribunal. It seems that she wants to say both things simultaneously.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Colm Brophy: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Colm Brophy: The Department sent on additional information.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Colm Brophy: Would it not have been correct for the Department to have found it originally and sent it as part of its original-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Colm Brophy: I do not understand why Ms McPhillips cannot accept that to be the case. Would she get into trouble for doing so? Am I missing something?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Colm Brophy: I have one more question. During this discussion Ms McPhillips has given multiple answers about the tens of thousands of documents that would have to be looked at. Will she explain to me the process that was engaged in in the further trawl? Were tens of thousands of documents involved? Did the Department make another value judgment that it was not going to look at so many documents? Did...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Colm Brophy: Was the trawl confined to emails?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Colm Brophy: I thank the officials.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Colm Brophy: I would like to ask a question that might help. Can the officials disclose whether a catch-all line that refers to "all relevant material" or something like it is used?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Right to Die with Dignity: Discussion (22 Nov 2017)

Colm Brophy: I thank the witnesses for attending today. I acknowledge that the opinions they have provided are held very strongly and that the witnesses believe firmly in what they are advocating. I want to come to something Dr. McQuillan said and tease it out with her. Is it the view of the Irish Association for Palliative Care that in no circumstances should there be a right to die? Is there not a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Right to Die with Dignity: Discussion (22 Nov 2017)

Colm Brophy: The right of a patient to refuse treatment, which in a number of instances will lead to a more painful death, is an issue. Everybody has personal experiences and knowledge of such things. Medication for pain is a key part of palliative care for many people. The removal of that particular aspect would cause a person more pain and distress. If we respect the right to refuse treatment as an...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Disability Services Data (22 Nov 2017)

Colm Brophy: 148. To ask the Minister for Health the number of blind and visually impaired persons who have personal assistants paid for by the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49511/17]