Results 2,501-2,520 of 7,637 for speaker:Rónán Mullen

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (26 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: The Garda Commissioner does not believe legislation is required and we should engage with that.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (26 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: I am always delighted to hear the Leader's view.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (26 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: I asked the Leader if he would facilitate a debate. It is Senator Buttimer's role as the Leader to tell us whether he would facilitate a debate.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (26 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: We always get the Leader's view, but will he answer the question I asked?

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (26 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: No. The Leader does not have to turn every response into an attack. I asked the Leader for a debate. That is all I asked.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (26 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: I thank the Leader.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (26 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: And it is not even holiday time.

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: I was listening to Senator McDowell's remarks before leaving my office and I was very impressed by everything he had to say, particularly in the way he pointed to the incoherence between the constitutional change that the Government went to great efforts to bring about and the remaining existing provisions in the Constitution. He is warning about absolutely gratuitous attacks on religion now...

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: I was about to say that I do accept there is a certain legitimacy to what the Minister of State said in regard to other countries invoking Ireland's law. However, the logical and sensible thing to do is not to endorse their point of view by pretending that our law was ever the same as theirs, but to take every opportunity in diplomatic fora to condemn them for making such bogus...

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: I am certainly not referring to Senator Norris. The people who seek that outcome are undermining Ireland's future and opening up a future where populists will thrive because there will be no desire-----

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: -----to reflect on our heritage and on the things that bind us and have bound us in the past, for good or ill. The only policy that seems to satisfy some people these days in relation to religious practice is one of erosion and denigration. This is the problem of people scratching an itch. There is a certain itch about religion and faith that people feel they have to scratch....

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Second Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: It is good to have one virtuous Senator.

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: It would be difficult to define what is indecent now.

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: The animal rights people would not be too happy.

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: I wish to comment on the section in light of the remarks of Senator McDowell. There is a delicious irony in his reference to the Gadarene swine. I am reading a book on a related issue by Tom Holland. It is impossible to escape religious cultural inheritance, as the Senator's comments showed. On the issue of whether statutory provision for an offence of blasphemy ought to have been made,...

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: I have a little more to say.

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: I will be brief. The point I was making is that it will be open to us in the future to see if any mischief emerges from the new changed situation. I had no problem with the existing constitutional provision because it was so harmless but I have some sympathy with the idea that in its absence, one might have kept the legislation, since it was already there, and doing no harm but in some way...

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: It can and does occur today. It is not nothing and it is no accident that the single most targeted people in the world today for religious persecution are Christians.

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: Not only blasphemy laws.

Seanad: Blasphemy (Abolition of Offences and Related Matters) Bill 2019: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: It needs to be said that there is a risk in this country, because of a certain allergy to religion within the cultural elite, that not enough would be said and done to call out persecution of Christians where it occurs. I have always said that when it comes to migration policy, we should have a structured but generous approach, and we should not distinguish between people of faith, per se,...