Results 2,841-2,860 of 7,582 for speaker:Rónán Mullen

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Report and Final Stages (13 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: I will try to get through what I have to say on this amendment as quickly as possible.

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Report and Final Stages (13 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: I second the amendment and, if I may at this stage, I will also second the consequential amendments Nos. 44 and 47, if that is the Cathaoirleach's wish.

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Report and Final Stages (13 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: I have seconded the amendment. The amendment arises out of a discussion on Committee Stage but it was not the subject of an amendment on Committee Stage. I raised the issue of the funding of abortion from taxpayers' funds on Second Stage. It is one of the many aspects of the Bill which has very little support among the electorate, with 60% opposing this proposal according to recent...

Seanad: Centenary of 1918 General Election and Irish Women’s Right to Vote: Motion (13 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: I commend everybody who has been involved in Vótáil 100. It has captured people's imagination. As somebody who often has guests and friends in Leinster House, it has been great to have the exhibition in the ante-chambers. It has been a real privilege to show people these wonderful artefacts and memories of a very important campaign at a very important in Irish history. Yeats...

Seanad: Centenary of 1918 General Election and Irish Women’s Right to Vote: Motion (13 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: It is equally relevant to women and men.

Seanad: Centenary of 1918 General Election and Irish Women’s Right to Vote: Motion (13 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: I am not making a political point. I am simply talking about how the ordering of business in the Dáil and the Seanad could reflect that priority but that is of equal relevance to women and men. We should all commit ourselves to working hard on behalf of all the women in other parts of the world today who are denied basic respect for their dignity and rights. In recent times we have...

Seanad: Centenary of 1918 General Election and Irish Women’s Right to Vote: Motion (13 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: The Senator is being too modest.

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: As the Minister and colleagues will recall, this amendment has to do with the provision of abortion under section 12 in early pregnancy. It provides for additional text which would ensure that a termination being sought because of the sex or race of the foetus concerned or because of any condition or disability affecting the foetus concerned would not be certified where the medical...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: There are one or two things that the Minister has said that need very specific working out. I might start with the last point and I am happy to go through it with the Minister, if he is happy to go through it with me. The Minister says that he finds the grounds that the Bill might permit without specifically providing for abortions on grounds of sex and gender more spurious. Why does he...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: Nobody is trying to put the Minister in a courtroom. Specific questions were put and answered on Committee Stage in the Dáil. Sometimes that is the only way to get clarity. Each time the Minister says something, he puts words in my mouth that have not been said-----

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: -----or he makes allegations about the amendment or the intent of the amendment that simply are not true. For example, it would not make-----

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: The specific exclusion I am proposing would not make section 12 inoperable. My proposal would, in line with the test that is already provided for in section 12, ensure that a doctor does not provide certification if it is his or her "reasonable opinion formed in good faith" that the abortion is being sought on the grounds of disability, gender or sex. That does not make section 12 of this...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: It simply imposes a specific duty on a doctor in circumstances in which certain knowledge has come to his or her attention. The Minister cannot twist that.

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: Words have ordinary meanings. The Minister brought out the contradiction in the joint committee's aims when he rightly mentioned that it wanted to see abortion legalised without reason up to 12 weeks and also wanted to see a specific exclusion to be provided for in the case of abortion on the grounds of disability. Those two aims are incompatible where information arises that causes...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: He will confirm that I asked him whether he meant that the Bill does not contemplate it in the sense of not intending abortion on those grounds, or that the Bill does not contemplate it in the sense of not even permitting it by omission.

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: The Senator told me that his view is that it is not contemplated in both senses. That is where the Senator and I have an honest disagreement. I think it is very obvious, in light of the evidence that Senator Ó Domhnaill and I have put before the Minister again, that circumstances can arise in which there will be knowledge of disability prior to the moment when the permitted time limit...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: It is a very irresponsible comment to make, because the reality is that abortion is associated with disability throughout the world. There is a vulnerability that this Bill is not currently addressing. The Minister made a particular promise to the electorate that he has not kept, namely, the specific exclusion of abortion on the grounds of disability. The Minister promised to be specific....

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: I understand that and I am grateful to the Cathaoirleach. As I said yesterday, I do not want to repeat myself in any way and I have tried to avoid doing that. However, everything that is important has to be put on the record because lives are at stake here. My colleague, Senator Noone, rightly points out that the committee report undergirded the legislation. It is true. It was the...

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: I will have to defer to Senator Norris on anything to do with words.

Seanad: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed) (11 Dec 2018)

Rónán Mullen: In regard to the suggestion of distrust in women, nobody distrusts anybody. Laws are about dealing with realities where people are vulnerable. According to that logic, a law that prohibits abortion in any situation means that we distrust women. That simply is not a basis for argument. The opposition to abortion springs from the fact that people, women, find themselves in vulnerable...