Results 2,521-2,540 of 7,648 for speaker:Rónán Mullen

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,...

Seanad: Relationships and Sexuality Education: Statements (25 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I agree with 50% of what Senator Ruane just said. When she says that sexual education and relationships and sexual education should always be accurate and condemns inaccuracy I agree with her 100%. When, however, she speaks about education being delivered in a way that is moralistic, I ask myself if she is talking about values and whether by "moralistic"...

Seanad: Seanad Reform Implementation Group: Statements (24 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: I do not believe those things.

Seanad: Seanad Reform Implementation Group: Statements (24 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: Jacob Rees-Mogg has taught us all a lesson on that.

Seanad: Seanad Reform Implementation Group: Statements (24 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: I welcome the Minister of State. I will take as my starting point Senator Paddy Burke's comment that the current Seanad, in a way that has never previously been the case, is not under the thumb of the Government. I suspect that depends on how one defines the "Government". I am not sure that historians will necessarily take the view that this Seanad showed itself to be completely...

Seanad: Seanad Reform Implementation Group: Statements (24 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: In other areas the Government has said that it wants to change the law and change things significantly, has sought the permission of the public in a referendum, and at the time has modelled what it proposes to do. It does not seem to be unreasonable that the Government, however one defines it in the current reality, would get together its preferred choice of Seanad reform and would make the...

Seanad: Seanad Reform Implementation Group: Statements (24 Sep 2019)

Rónán Mullen: A man from my own neck of the woods, Michael Tierney, was a very eminent Senator. It, of course, made sense in terms of inclusion of the Protestant minority and their voice in the new State to represent Trinity College adequately and fairly, but we need to be honest and say that this is an anachronism. I would rather see a generous election of Senators by citizens with no reference to...

Seanad: Parole Bill 2016: Committee and Remaining Stages (11 Jul 2019)

Rónán Mullen: I commend Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell on bringing forward this important amendment. Just as I supported her Private Members' Bill last week, I am very happy to support the amendment. I support the principle that judges should be in a position to make a recommendation. As I pointed out last week, and it arises here again, the precise amendment we are looking at would provide that a...

Seanad: Parole Bill 2016: Committee and Remaining Stages (11 Jul 2019)

Rónán Mullen: -----it is reasonable for us to seek to intervene at this point in the matter. Senator Bacik did a slight injustice to Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell in not acknowledging what she herself said, namely, that she accepts the principle of the Bill in general. This is an important point. What I hear coming from Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell is that she accepts the principle of the Bill but...

Seanad: Parole Bill 2016: Committee and Remaining Stages (11 Jul 2019)

Rónán Mullen: -----subject to a certain maximum and, I dare say, a certain minimum period also. I will make one final point in passing. Sentencing is the time to deal with the attitude that underlies crime and the circumstances surrounding it. There is a lot of talk these days about the need to name and create penalties for specific hate crimes. While I understand the thinking and sentiment behind it,...