Results 3,701-3,720 of 4,168 for speaker:Susan O'Keeffe

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (1 May 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: Given that the convention on the constitution will discuss the idea of people voting in presidential elections at Irish embassies in the future, perhaps we would encourage the petitioner to make a submission to the convention. As an alternative member of the convention, I can assure the petitioner that any submission he might chose to make would be read carefully and would be considered...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (1 May 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I would like to give the same encouragement to this petitioner as to the previous one. All the submissions are read and noted. The petitions to the Constitutional Convention are very welcome.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (1 May 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: This is a particularly welcome petition because it is a matter of public health in public space. I think the petitioner has great foresight, given that the Department of Health has recently launched the Healthy Ireland document, a joined-up strategy for a healthy Ireland. This is the kind of area that the Healthy Ireland document would seek to include, so the recommendation that we seek a...

Seanad: Address to Seanad Éireann by Mr. Seán Kelly, MEP (30 Apr 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I am sorry, far right. I thank the Senator. In the vacuum where people are not connecting with Europe it is very easy to create a message that Europe is too strong, has too much power, that the power should revert to the sovereign and that we do not want Europe interfering in our lives. That message then takes hold in the vacuum that is caused by the fact that our capacity to connect with...

Seanad: Address to Seanad Éireann by Mr. Seán Kelly, MEP (30 Apr 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I welcome Mr. Seán Kelly, MEP. As Senator Cummins has rightly said, credit is due to him for the enormous amount of work he does in Europe and for his work in his previous role as president of the GAA. I wonder, as I sit here, which EU country is closest to counties Kilkenny or Kerry in their race to be supreme at various sports. One of the main dilemmas, and Mr. Kelly touched on it,...

Seanad: Order of Business (25 Apr 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: This morning I would like to welcome the formation of the working group, comprising the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Fitzgerald, and the Minister of States at the Department of Health, Deputies White and Lynch, to tease out the difficulties with the protection of maternal life Bill, with the aim of presenting the heads of that Bill to...

Seanad: Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Second Stage (24 Apr 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: Like others, I welcome the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) (Amendment) Bill 2013 which will expand the definition of human trafficking and ensure people are not exploited for the purposes of forced begging and criminal activity. I would like, if I may, to start by thanking people who work in Ruhama and the Migrant Rights Centre and the many others who have worked enormously hard with...

Seanad: Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Second Stage (24 Apr 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: It does not describe the problem for me. As the Minister of State said we should call it what it is, slavery, as other have done. It is slavery. Perhaps that is a word that would resonate more clearly with members of the public and would help them to begin to understand that this is a massive problem of our time and that once there is money to be made in trafficking, slavery, the pushing...

Seanad: Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2013: Second Stage (18 Apr 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I welcome the Minister to the House. I welcome the content of the Bill. I appreciate that the European framework and legislation make it difficult for the Minister and will raise challenges in the future as to how the Department and the Government continue the battle against smoking. The Minister has always been passionate on this topic and this comes from personal experience. We are...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Apr 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: The Senator should not have quoted them.

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Apr 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: Senator Ó Domhnaill chose to put them on the record of the House.

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Apr 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: That is another personal attack.

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Apr 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: The Senator is very ill-informed.

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Apr 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: It is hot air rather than a gale.

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Apr 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I again call for an independent inquiry into the death of Savita Halappanavar. We have all seen the great pain experienced at the inquest into her death, the aim of which is to find out the cause of her death. The reason I again call for an independent inquiry is to find out exactly what happened in the hospital and how the death occurred in a modern hospital of a woman miscarrying at 17...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Apr 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: The event will start at 12.30 p.m. and there will be 45 students representing a number of counties, including Dublin, Galway, Wicklow, Roscommon, Kilkenny, Westmeath and Sligo. We are very lucky that the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, will be here at 1.30 p.m. to hear the students' views on the leaving certificate examination and what they think should be done...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (17 Apr 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I thank Mr. Callanan for his petition. We would be interested in examining his petition further but we believe he has further information that would be of benefit to this committee in its deliberations, and without that further information we are caught in terms of what has happened previously with him. We will be requesting Mr. Callanan to furnish us with the additional information to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (17 Apr 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: Can I ask whether it is appropriate - forgive me, but I do not know - for the petitioner to forward his recommendations to the Law Reform Commission? In closing the petition we might say that to him if it is appropriate.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (17 Apr 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: This is a complex matter because new regulations for the diving industry are almost finalised. It is something with which not many of us are familiar - certainly not myself, as I have never been involved with diving in any way. This committee has made clear that we must be made aware of previous action taken by petitioners. In this case the petitioner appears to have lobbied in the United...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions: Decisions on Public Petitions Received (17 Apr 2013)

Susan O'Keeffe: I ask that my apologies be passed on to the committee.