Results 561-580 of 2,078 for speaker:Mary Seery Kearney

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Dereliction and Vacancy: Discussion (15 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: In the context of the intellectual heavyweights on the committee, my questioning will seem very simple. My home constituency is Dublin South-Central. It encompasses Dublin 6, 8, 10 and 12 and areas like that. I have worked with members of the local community in Dublin 8 who put together a list of all the derelict sites that are not on the register. How is it that there are derelict sites...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Report Stage (14 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: I have huge sympathy for the case Senator Ruane makes. It is a very coherent argument, to be fair. We have evidence regarding people in that nursing or that maternity care aspect, that a single woman giving birth beside a married woman giving birth received very different treatment. The former was treated in an abominably different way. Empathy and respect was shown to the married woman...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Report Stage (14 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: I was using that term ironically.

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Report Stage (14 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: I abhor the term "unmarried mother". I used "single" to try to be a little more delicate and respectful. I accept the Minister's point.

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Report Stage (14 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: If a person's internment began with the maternity home it would be reasonable that the date is not the date the person entered into the county home but the date they entered into the maternity home and maternity service aspect. That may be where the affidavit is really important. We are not talking about a six month period but we would need permission for an affidavit to cover the extended...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Report Stage (14 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: I want to clarify what I think I am hearing from the Minister, which is that we are creating a redress scheme that responds to a multitude of things. In particular, the stigma that arises from an Irish society that sent women into a mother and baby institution, be it in some guises and instances that was a county home. In others it was clearly a mother and baby home. The labelling is...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Report Stage (14 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: I will make one last plea. I have family; my mother is from County Mayo. The worst possible thing that could have happened to my grandmother was that she would be sent to the county home. I am with Senator Ruane all the way on the issue of being on the same site. Once a woman was within those premises, she was a lesser human being in the manner of her treatment. We can include these...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Report Stage (14 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: And there were interchangeable staff.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying: Assisted Dying, Legal and Constitutional Context: Discussion (13 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: Should we ask IHREC for its response to the earlier questions?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying: Assisted Dying, Legal and Constitutional Context: Discussion (13 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: I echo the comments of every member who has contributed. I am mindful that the public discourse on this subject is delicate and begin from a place of empathy. I was taken by Ms Woods's words – or perhaps they were Ms Gibney's – about fears over painful and protracted deaths and how a person facing that prospect may wish to access a range of choices from palliative care to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying: Assisted Dying, Legal and Constitutional Context: Discussion (13 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: I thank the Chair. I have a few questions. First, the safeguards that we talk about are ones that, certainly aspirationally, all legislators would like to see. All of us, I imagine, are in public life to better the quality of life of everyone in our Republic. However, it is flawed. It is not perfect by any means. I am a member of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters, and I am very...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying: Assisted Dying, Legal and Constitutional Context: Discussion (13 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: I engage with people in palliative care who speak about the objective of living. When a devastating diagnosis is first given to someone, they project forward and imagine. I am sensitive to people throughout the country who are listening to this and thinking they do not want this option and those who will want it as an option. There is a change in the quality of life. The definition of...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Challenges Facing Women Accessing Education, Leadership and Political Roles: Discussion (13 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: I loved the witnesses' opening statements. I am sorry I was not present to hear them, but I read their submissions at the weekend. I value that we are championing making sure that we hear women's voices. This is the first Seanad to have such a large percentage of women. Consequently, the content of debate is more empathetic and a different side of things is heard. I get what Senator...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Challenges Facing Women Accessing Education, Leadership and Political Roles: Discussion (13 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: Yes.

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Challenges Facing Women Accessing Education, Leadership and Political Roles: Discussion (13 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: Deputy Higgins.

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Challenges Facing Women Accessing Education, Leadership and Political Roles: Discussion (13 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: It is very powerful. I went through all the WCI projects on its website. They are very powerful projects. I am involved in the Fine Gael Women's Network. As part of that, there is a mentoring programme to tackle that confidence piece. People in media training say that the lads will rock up and do not feel the need to prepare, while women do a huge amount of background work and prepare...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Challenges Facing Women Accessing Education, Leadership and Political Roles: Discussion (13 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: -----but for now I have to be mannerly and just delete them. We were afraid of the amplification but there was a need to call it out and say this is happening and it is not acceptable. Do the witnesses have advice on that? How do they deal with that tension?

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Challenges Facing Women Accessing Education, Leadership and Political Roles: Discussion (13 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: Ms Deirdre Campbell is amazing.

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Challenges Facing Women Accessing Education, Leadership and Political Roles: Discussion (13 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: When women came in at the beginning of this Dáil session, a query came in fromThe Irish Times asking us to discuss what abuse we had been subject to. I answered the questions and recall including in it a reference to my very first Facebook post. Somebody had said to me that posts on Facebook could be boosted. I had never done so before so I innocently did a boost. It was very simple....

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Challenges Facing Women Accessing Education, Leadership and Political Roles: Discussion (13 Jun 2023)

Mary Seery Kearney: I do not know whether women get a thicker skin. I would hate to think that I have because I know the first time, I got sick, my legs and my knees went from under me and then I moved to delete everything because I was afraid that if my husband saw it, he would be too frightened for me being in politics. I did not want to have to deal with his nerves as well. I think there is a circular...