Results 241-260 of 784 for speaker:Grace Boland
- Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)
Grace Boland: I am watching the clock.
- Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)
Grace Boland: In the short time I have left, I want to ask about the UN convention. What is the impediment? Why have we not moved forward with it?
- Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)
Grace Boland: That money could be better spent on actually investing in the services.
- Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)
Grace Boland: As a lawyer, I absolutely know how expensive those cases are.
- Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)
Grace Boland: Will that be shortly?
- Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)
Grace Boland: Are there other countries like Ireland that have incorporated the UN convention?
- Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)
Grace Boland: In looking at the priority recommendations, I noted one was to keep the child poverty and well-being programme office and address the disproportionate impact of poverty on marginalised children. We have recently seen again the commentary about the huge number of children – I think the highest ever – in poverty. Where is that office now and what is the plan for the future?
- Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)
Grace Boland: Has the unit been retained indefinitely?
- Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)
Grace Boland: Good. I attended a briefing with Tusla yesterday on foster care. I heard from some of the fantastic foster care parents and their passion and commitment. The issue of the income supports being applied to foster parents was brought up. There is a concern around the means test. Children in foster care are hugely vulnerable. As a parent, I know how expensive children are. I do not believe...
- Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)
Grace Boland: That is good to hear. When Dr. Muldoon meets the Minister in the next couple of weeks, what are his top three asks?
- Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)
Grace Boland: On issues around mental health and disability, we need to see therapies much earlier. What can happen is children become disengaged and disenfranchised from the school system and from authority. It also affects their self-worth, their self-confidence and their mental health. That only creates societal issues. Apart from having more therapists, which we are all agreed on and we hope we...
- Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)
Grace Boland: Primary and secondary.
- Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)
Grace Boland: Primary and secondary schools?
- Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (26 Jun 2025) Grace Boland: I am very supportive of the work of An Garda Síochána. Its representatives' appearance at this committee is really important in ensuring the trust and confidence of the public in the fantastic work An Garda Síochána does. As the Deputy highlighted, we will want to go through a couple of points with the witnesses. It is important to ensure that issues, including those...
- Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (26 Jun 2025) Grace Boland: I agree with that. Let me refer to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. I represent Dublin Fingal West, which includes the towns of Balbriggan, Skerries, Rush and Lusk, the rural villages and the area all the way down as far as north Santry and a little bit of north Finglas. It is a very mixed area. For a Dublin constituency, it is very different in that it is rural, urban and...
- Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (26 Jun 2025) Grace Boland: Is there funding going into training more gardaí to deal with this?
- Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (26 Jun 2025) Grace Boland: Considering it is one of the top two issues, should every garda be trained in this area?
- Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (26 Jun 2025) Grace Boland: I am conscious of my time. I will quickly get through a couple of more questions. Regarding recruitment, the target is to recruit more than 5,000 gardaí over the next five years, which is very much welcome. There is a senior vacancy in the area I represent. The superintendent position has not been filled for many months. Two gardaí are acting up. Given the demographics of the...