Results 621-640 of 911 for speaker:Tom Clonan

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Integration and Refugee Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (30 May 2023)

Tom Clonan: I thank our guests for coming in. I can imagine how busy they are at the moment. I will make the general observation that we would not be where we are were it not for the actions of Vladimir Putin. This is an unprecedented situation. I would consider it an emergency. We can look back to crises we have confronted in the past. In 2010, there was a period of intense flooding followed by a...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Integration and Refugee Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (30 May 2023)

Tom Clonan: I am conscious of the time. I will try to get my questions out as quickly as I can. I am familiar with the mental health tribunals for reviewing persons involuntary detention, and in that process, the detained person, or the involuntary patient, has representation at the tribunal. They have somebody to advocate for them, that is, a solicitor. It is not a patient advocate, but it is...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Integration and Refugee Issues: Discussion (Resumed) (30 May 2023)

Tom Clonan: I thank Ms Rooney for that. As a layperson who is outside the loop, I wondered whether she felt it had got to the point where it should be called an emergency. From her response it seems she does not consider it to be. This situation or crisis - I would call it an emergency - is being exploited by people on the far right and people who have other agendas. It is an intended consequence...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability Inclusive Social Protection: Discussion (Resumed) (18 May 2023)

Tom Clonan: I thank Deputy Ellis for allowing me to step in. Unfortunately, I have to leave at 10.40 a.m. and I just want to ask a couple of questions before then. I thank the witnesses for coming in. They will know the saying “When gardaí start to look young”, but when assistant secretaries general start to look young, I come to the depressing conclusion that I am just getting...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability Inclusive Social Protection: Discussion (Resumed) (18 May 2023)

Tom Clonan: Could the Department ensure, if possible, that a person in receipt of a disability allowance does not have that curtailed or abated because they are in receipt of something else? Really, as I was saying it should not be the case. I do not know whether the Department has any discretion or control over that, but it would be very interesting to know if that is the case. Apologies for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability Inclusive Social Protection: Discussion (Resumed) (18 May 2023)

Tom Clonan: If you get a grant from the Arts Council----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability Inclusive Social Protection: Discussion (Resumed) (18 May 2023)

Tom Clonan: Similarly, I am not talking about a payment for disability per se. For example, if you get a grant to help your hedgerows, does that impact on your disability allowance in the way that a grant from the Arts Council would? If that is the case, it should not be the case.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability Inclusive Social Protection: Discussion (Resumed) (18 May 2023)

Tom Clonan: It is.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability Inclusive Social Protection: Discussion (Resumed) (18 May 2023)

Tom Clonan: I appreciate the answer and the detail. Philosophically we saw with the payments during the Covid-19 pandemic, which were much more generous than disability allowance, that every cent of that €2 billion would be spent in the real economy. Disabled people do not hoard the money. It does not disappear. It is like Newton's Law. It is just transferred from one activity to another....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability Inclusive Social Protection: Discussion (Resumed) (18 May 2023)

Tom Clonan: I understand the semantics in the difference between crisis and emergency. For Mr. O'Sullivan and I, they are interchangeable terms, but legally, if the Cabinet declares an emergency, which it should have done a long time ago, the State would be authorised to mobilise resources in a more co-ordinated way. I heard the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, on "Morning Ireland" recently. He was under...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (17 May 2023)

Tom Clonan: I refer to the distressing images of rows of tents on Sandwith Street and around Mount Street. The practice of giving refugees, asylum seekers and people seeking international protection a voucher and then leaving them effectively homeless leaves them subject to hostile scrutiny. They are in a public space and gathering together for safety. It plays into the hands of xenophobic and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability Inclusive Social Protection: Discussion (11 May 2023)

Tom Clonan: I thank the witnesses for coming in. One of my sons is a wheelchair user and some of his services are provided by the Rehab Group. The people who come to us from the Rehab Group, without exception, are all wonderful. They are from Ghana, Nigeria, the Philippines, Korea and all over the world. They are all the most amazing people and the guy who organises for us is called Fauzi. Every...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability Inclusive Social Protection: Discussion (11 May 2023)

Tom Clonan: That is extraordinary.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability Inclusive Social Protection: Discussion (11 May 2023)

Tom Clonan: I thank the witnesses.

Seanad: Address to Seanad Éireann by Ms Mairead McGuinness, European Commissioner (9 May 2023)

Tom Clonan: I am delighted to welcome Commissioner McGuinness to the Seanad, especially on Europe Day 2023. The theme of Europe Day this year is peace and unity. As the Commissioner said in her opening remarks, formed just five years after the end of the Second World War, the European Coal and Steel Community, followed by the European Economic Community and then the EU, have amounted to an...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (9 May 2023)

Tom Clonan: Cuirim fáilte roimh ár gcuairteoirí. It is great to see them all here. I want to bring to the attention of the House a very serious issue that was raised recently by way of protected disclosure at Dublin Airport by a very senior and experienced member of staff there, with decades of experience in dealing with security and matters of passenger safety. This is to do with the...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (9 May 2023)

Tom Clonan: Will the Leader write to the Chair of the committee?

Seanad: Reykjavik Summit of the Council of Europe: Statements (3 May 2023)

Tom Clonan: Curirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit.I echo my fellow Senators' compliments to Senator O'Loughlin for the work done on the report in advance of the Summit of Heads of State and Government at the Council of Europe in Reykjavik in May. The last meeting in 2005 predated the invasion of Georgia by Russia. The geopolitical situation has changed fundamentally in Europe since then....

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (27 Apr 2023)

Tom Clonan: I welcome the ambassador and the military attaché to the Seanad. I want to raise the challenges confronting Irish citizens in Sudan, who are there amid the fighting, as well as our response and what we can do in Ireland to assist them. I understand that we have successfully evacuated just short of 100 of our citizens, but there are other citizens stranded there. I listened yesterday...

Seanad: Report of the Independent Review Group on Dignity and Equality Issues in the Defence Forces: Statements (25 Apr 2023)

Tom Clonan: Cuirim fáilte roimh an Tánaiste go dtí an Teach. I, too, am a veteran of the Defence Forces. I served overseas and came under sustained periods of fire when I was overseas but that was nothing compared with the anger, fire and reprisal from people who engaged in that well-known practice of shooting the messenger. Essentially, as has been pointed out in the IRG report,...