Results 5,641-5,660 of 11,407 for speaker:Ivana Bacik

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: The practice normally is that just one person from each group speaks to welcome the passage of legislation I am happy to welcome the passage of the Bill on behalf of the Labour group. I commend Senator Lawless on his great work in getting it through. For all the reasons I and others have given, it is important that we see it through. I hope it goes to the Dáil. We live in a republic...

Seanad: Intoxicating Liquor (Amendment) Bill 2017: Committee and Remaining Stages (19 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Mediation Bill 2017: Second Stage (18 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I welcome the Minister and congratulate him on his recent appointment to the justice brief. I also welcome the opportunity to debate the Bill. The Labour Party supports this important Bill. We are conscious that it is overdue, as others have said. We have been working on it for a long time. Indeed, looking back through my files I saw that I had addressed the Chartered Institute of...

Seanad: Mediation Bill 2017: Second Stage (18 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I am aware that amendments on this issue were rejected in the Dáil, but Women's Aid raises an important matter. We must be cognisant that mediation will not be appropriate in all proceedings. Ruling out domestic violence proceedings specifically, as section 3 does, might not catch all the proceedings in which safety is at risk. I wish to raise some other points that emerged from the...

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Bill 2016: Second Stage (13 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, to the House. I also welcome the opportunity to debate this important Bill with him, which the Labour Party supports. As said by other speakers, this Bill is long overdue but nonetheless it is extremely welcome. It represents an increasing move towards recognition of victims' rights in our criminal justice system, which is a welcome...

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I remind all Members that this evening we have our Labour Private Members' motion on equal access to education. I thank those who came to the briefing we hosted yesterday in the AV room with a number of speakers in support of the motion, including Professor Kathleen Lynch from University College Dublin, UCD, and representatives from the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, and the Services,...

Seanad: Order of Business (12 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: The Minister, Deputy Shane Ross, might well be losing the run of himself. We might ask him for clarification on that.

Seanad: Equality of Access to Education: Motion (12 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I wish to echo the words of congratulation from Senator Ó Ríordáin on her new appointment. The Minister of State has such a strong background in education and it is great to have her representing higher education at Cabinet level. That is good to see. I welcome the many guests in the Gallery who are here to see the debate and...

Seanad: Equality of Access to Education: Motion (12 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: Indeed, as Senator Norris pointed out, perhaps it did. As recently as 1960, so-called Irish education experts argued against the introduction of free secondary education saying it would be "both financially unpractical and educationally unsound". Donogh O'Malley is now widely commended by all parties and none for his role in introducing this very scheme. Nobody would contest the immense...

Seanad: Equality of Access to Education: Motion (12 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Srebrenica Massacre: Motion (11 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, to the House. I commend our colleagues, Senators Feighan and Richmond, on proposing this important motion. Most important, I welcome the members of the Bosnian Irish community in the Gallery, in particular Mirza and Bronagh Catibusic. It is good to have them here. It is vital that we involve ourselves in formal events to commemorate the...

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I commend Senator Black on showing the film last night. I am sorry that I could not go as I was here in the Chamber for the debate on the Domestic Violence Bill. I agree with her on the need to ensure we have that declaration from the Government. I have long supported that principle, as indeed has the Labour Party. I ask the Leader for a debate on women in politics, and in particular on...

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I welcome the Minister of State to the House, in particular given his former role as Chairman of the Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality. Senator Conway and I had the pleasure of serving on that committee with Deputy Stanton as Chairman. During that time, we prepared a report on domestic violence which made some key recommendations, and I am glad to see the Minister of State has it...

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: As Senators Norris and Kelleher have already indicated, amendments Nos. 3 to 6, inclusive, are very important, practical amendments which seek to insert into this welcome legislation provisions for statutory guidance for judges in the making of orders under the relevant sections. There has been serious concern about inconsistency among different judges, particularly in the District Court, in...

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: Yes. They are very similar.

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: Yes. We all seek to do the same thing with our amendments. We would all be grateful if the Minister of State indicated a willingness to accept, in principle, the spirit of these amendments so that we can move on.

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I wish to make three brief points. I am concerned to hear the Minister extolling the virtues of broadness in this context because that is the precise difficulty. Judicial discretion at present is so unstructured and we have a real problem with inconsistency and divergence of practice. This is a problem identified, as the Minister of State has heard, not only by NGOs such as Safe Ireland,...

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: I thank the Minister of State for his constructive comments and for indicating that he has an open mind on this. This is very much a constructive engagement. All of us here, on Second Stage and since, have expressed a warm welcome for this much-needed and progressive legislation. It brings to mind the debates we had in this House on the Gender Recognition Bill 2014, which was also a...

Seanad: Domestic Violence Bill 2017: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jul 2017)

Ivana Bacik: Yes. We hear from applicants who are deeply traumatised by the length of time it takes to go through court processes, the multiple times they may appear before the courts and the lengthy delays between court hearings in hearing applications for orders. There is real concern about a lack of consistency and exercise of discretion by judges which is too unstructured. Judges have spoken about...