Results 501-520 of 1,029,890 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Seán Ó Fearghaíl OR speaker:Helen McEntee) in 'Committee meetings'

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Réada Cronin: -----maybe he should go into the Seanad and do that, but nobody here has been disrespectful about the external oversight board. We had a really good meeting with them at committee. It was positive. I have every faith in Professor Brian MacCraith and the other members of the-----

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: Sorry, I was not referring to the oversight group. It was the independent review group that was commented on negatively.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Réada Cronin: The Tánaiste was saying to accept the recommendations of the IRG. What I took from what the Tánaiste said there was that he felt that - I am talking about amendment No. 6, which I tabled - having representatives from the Defence Forces representative groups on the EOB in an ex officio capacity would be as if the external oversight group would not be able to handle that. We had a...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Cathal Berry: I will double down on a few points. First, I thank the Tánaiste for his response. I appreciate his position. I do not even feel as though we are having a debate here. We are not even having an argument. It is really an appeal to reason. The word "victim" was used, and it was used correctly. I would say we are speaking on behalf of the victims because the Women of Honour group...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I said I have not been following it closely. I am not on the defence committee-----

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: I did not mean that in any negative way.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: -----but I spoke on Second Stage and I raised some of these concerns, and I am sure others did as well. For the record, we all spoke at length about some of the horrible stuff that went on, the impacts on the victims and the sexual, physical and other abuse. It is not fair to suggest that is not as big a concern. I do not know why this is a source of amusement. I honestly do not. It is...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: That is the point of all of this. That is the point of what we are trying to do.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: So let us keep it independent, not potentially - let us put it that way - compromised.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: Deputy Boyd Barrett has made the argument. Maybe people can see there is an element of frustration. The bottom line is victims were not mentioned in this debate. They were not mentioned on Committee Stage either, to any great extent.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They were mentioned on Second Stage.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: It is all about equivalence between the military and the Department of Defence, but the origins of this is the independent review group. It called it. It produced its report. It was terrible reading for all of us. It made recommendations of the most fundamental kind and, above all, that the external oversight body would be independent of the Defence Forces for the very reasons Deputy Boyd...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: I apologise for nodding my head all the time, but in fairness to the Deputy, and I do not mean this in any bad way, he did say that he had come to the Bill and has not been following it to an extensive degree.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Not in great detail. No, I have not.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: The point I would generally make to all the Deputies is to ask what the genesis of this is. Why are we bringing in legislation, part of which is establishing an external oversight body? It is because the independent review group recommended it. Why did the independent review group recommend it? What was the independent review group doing? It was investigating shocking behaviour,...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Brendan Howlin: What has that got to do with anything?

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: -----to make a recommendation to create an independent oversight body with the Secretary General on it, by the way. There is a reason it is called independent oversight. The independent review body recommended that it be independent of the Defence Forces, whether we like it or not. That was the recommendation. When it came out and was published, every one of the Opposition Deputies was in...

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Brendan Howlin: We are all in agreement with that.

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Micheál Martin: I am not so sure you are. You say you are, but when we try to do something practical about it, you find other reasons about it and start getting Jesuitical about the public service management-----

Defence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Report and Final Stages (12 Jun 2024)

Réada Cronin: Oh, God.