Results 421-440 of 669 for speaker:Grace O'Sullivan

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Marine Resources (26 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Michael D'Arcy. Let me set the matter in context. Sir David Attenborough has called for the world to cut back on its use of plastics in order to protect the oceans. A recent investigation carried out by The Guardianestablished that consumers around the world bought 1 million plastic bottles every minute. Plastic production is set to double in the...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Marine Resources (26 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: I will be brief. I thank the Minister of State for that reply, which I appreciate. With regard to the marine strategy framework directive, the Minister talked about the environment. With marine plastics, and particularly microplastics and microbeads, we are now talking about human health. These plastics are being found in the crustacea, the little shrimp and different foods we eat here in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals (26 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: I would like to make a comment with regard to COM (2017) 481. The proposed cuts to European political party funding from 15% to 10%, and to 5% for political foundations, seem counter-intuitive and unwise at a time when citizens need to be brought closer to the EU and its work. European political parties are some of the hardest-working bodies in trying to do this. Just this weekend, we are...

Seanad: Order of Business (24 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: Thank you, a Chathaoirligh. Like my colleague in Fianna Fáil, I am delighted to be speaking today about the return home, at long last, of the Irish citizen Ibrahim Halawa, whose joyous welcome from his family, well-wishers, members of the Government and others made for really happy scenes at Dublin Airport earlier today. Ibrahim's strength in the face of such adversity and his evident...

Seanad: Order of Business (24 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: We cannot forget the sterling campaigning work of so many organisations, including but not limited to Amnesty International Ireland, the Union of Students in Ireland, numerous campus and secondary school groups, SIPTU, People Before Profit, the Green Party, including Deputy Eamon Ryan, who went to see Ibrahim during the summer as part of the Oireachtas delegation, the Labour Party and many...

Seanad: Order of Business (19 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: Here we go again. Met Éireann has just issued a status yellow weather warning for the coming weekend and, in addition, a status yellow rainfall warning. The Government sought reductions in Ireland's greenhouse gas emissions targets by 2020 in Luxembourg earlier this week. It is slinking away again from our commitments to our European and global partners. We know from Met Éireann...

Seanad: Flood Prevention Measures: Statements (18 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: I thank the Minister of State for attending this debate. I saw him on the TV3 programme last night presented by Matt Cooper and Ivan Yates, during the course of which Evelyn Cusack of Met Éireann and RTÉ drew attention to the mean increase of 1° Celsius in sea temperatures globally. We are seeing the pictures and reports in the newspapers of glaciers melting in the Arctic and...

Seanad: Flood Prevention Measures: Statements (18 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: It is highly likely.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Planning Framework: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: I thank the Minister of State very much for his responses thus far. With regard to his comments on innovation and losing people, as a nation we should have ambition and should not be fed by fear. We should be fed by opportunity. I would like to start with my reaction to the draft plan as it stands. In terms of our climate obligations. we are an island nation, we have an abundance of wind...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Planning Framework: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: Can I get clarification that the SEA document is now available?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Planning Framework: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: Who conducted the SEA?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Planning Framework: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Planning Framework: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: The final date for submissions is 3 November. Can the Minister tell us what the process will be from then onwards? To reiterate what my colleague, Deputy Eamon Ryan, said, he raised the important point that the budget is linked and must be linked to every single thing that we do every day going forward. The current budget for the draft plan is lacking. I ask the Government to consider...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Planning Framework: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: One area we did not discuss was the marine and the resources we have as an island community-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: National Planning Framework: Discussion (18 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: We talked about ports but I am referring to the general capacity we have in that regard. It is something the committee will discuss and feed into our report.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Electoral (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2014: Discussion (12 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: I thank Deputy Ó Cuív for his presentation. I am generally very supportive of the Bill. However, I have a few questions. There are facilities in place in terms of boating, the Coast Guard service and other services, as the Deputy said, but in the event of extremely bad weather conditions, would it be possible for the counts to be done on the islands and the results of them to be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Electoral (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2014: Discussion (12 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: Is there an option to do a count on an island?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Prohibition of Micro-Plastics Bill 2016: Discussion (12 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: I am delighted to see this legislation on the agenda. As Deputy Sherlock knows, last year I brought similar legislation before the Seanad. I had a guarantee from the then Minister that he would inform the European Commission that Ireland wanted a prohibition on the manufacture and sale of microbeads and microplastics in Ireland. The first question is whether we can find out from the...

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: I wish to express my concern to the Government about the continuing detention of the Irish citizen, Ibrahim Halawa, in a Cairo prison. Despite his acquittal in an Egyptian court over three weeks ago, news reports yesterday indicated that the paperwork to secure his release had not even been begun by the legal authorities. I am concerned about the effects that continued detention of an...

Seanad: Eighth Report of Convention on the Constitution: Motion (11 Oct 2017)

Grace O'Sullivan: I welcome today's discussion on the report and the conclusions of same. The aim of the Constitutional Convention is to discuss issues in depth, examine different points of view and make new conclusions, which is exactly the kind of involved direct democracy that my party is so keen to see so much more of in the Irish political system.