Results 481-500 of 7,581 for speaker:Rónán Mullen

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: That is a point of information.

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: That was a point of information to me. I am very glad to take it. It does not in any way advance the Minister's case, needless to say. The Minister has very little to advance his case, except Government bluff and bluster. What bothers me most about the Minister's bluff and bluster is that it trivialises the life and death nature of this issue. I have absolutely no problem with the HSE...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: I am simply making the point. The endocrinologist, Professor Donal O'Shea said - again I am paraphrasing from memory - that the HSE and the politicians were in the grip of the activists. The idea that when we are dealing with the HSE we are dealing with some kind of honourable neutral, incapable of being corrupted by ideology, has long since lost its credibility. However, I reiterate that...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: I am just responding to the point.

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: All I will say is this: there is no contradiction between honouring mothers by recognising their particular role in the Constitution-----

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: -----and witnessing to the respect due to mothers and unborn babies. I remind my colleagues Senators Clonan, McGreehan and Gavan and the Minister that there are people who witness against abortion, who believe in the value of respecting human life, who support the idea of peaceful and honourable witnessing to this in public and who do not believe dissent should be curtailed. Among them are...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: I accept that but it does indicate the insiderism going on. The council, an organisation that gets funded for 95% or 96% of its staffing costs, is out canvassing for one side in a referendum campaign without having consulted ordinary people and, as far as I know, without even having consulted its member organisations.

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: Notwithstanding the McKenna principles stipulating public money should not be used-----

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: Understood. I have two other points. My friend and colleague Senator Clonan referred to laïcité. He turned to me as he made his remark-----

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: I am, but obviously, I have to try to challenge the arguments being advanced against the amendment.

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: I am trying not to say anything twice.

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: There are many good examples here because the Minister’s case is so weak.

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: There are a lot of good examples because the Minister's case is so weak.

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: On the laïcité point, I am not sure it is the definition of laïcité that there is civil space from which faith voices have to be completely excluded. As I explained, this is not about a religious view necessarily. Many people who have no religious faith see this issue exclusively through a human rights lens. It was Senator Clonan's first misunderstanding that this was...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: No, I will withdraw it with a view to reintroducing it on Report Stage.

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: I move amendment No. 4: In page 6, lines 12 and 13, to delete “, within that 100 metres”.

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: I move amendment No. 5: In page 6, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following: “(3) Nothing in section 2(2) shall prohibit a person from engaging in debate or lawful protest, advocacy or dissent on premises occupied by a designated institution of higher education, provided such debate, protest, advocacy or dissent is not directed at a specific relevant healthcare premises or...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: I move amendment No. 6: In page 6, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following: “(4) Nothing in section 2(2) shall prohibit a person from engaging in silent prayer in a public place.”. The amendment will come in under the section that provides for exceptions to the requirements set out in section 2. Not every part of what the legislation proposes is problematic....

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: What I am saying is not irrelevant.

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: I am trying to address the issue of what matters in our society in terms of respecting people's freedoms. The irony in this case was that the garda was completely polite but in the wrong on the law and not acting in the best interests of a free and open democracy. Billboard Chris, a Canadian guy, was completely in the right in terms of asserting his right to say something that was truthful...