Results 661-680 of 5,732 for speaker:Fidelma Healy Eames

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (19 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: I am delighted it is the Minister who is here. She is the person I need. My motion concerns the need for the Minister for Education and Skills to recognise that it makes good, sound educational, financial and domestic or family sense to provide resource support hours for children with Down's syndrome who also have a mild learning difficulty classification, and I hope my argument today will...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (19 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: The little bit of hope I have is that it is the Minister, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, who is in the chair. I mean that sincerely. I think she is very reasonable and practical, and she is listening. However, for the NCSE to say there is not enough evidence to reclassify children who have a mild learning difficulty and Down's syndrome as needing extra resource hours leaves an unbelievable amount...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (19 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: Just make an exception for these children.

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Special Educational Needs Service Provision (19 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: I thank the Minister. They are worth making an exception for.

Seanad: Adoption (Identity and Information) Bill 2014: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: I thank the Minister for attending the debate and for taking us to this point with the Bill. As the Minister said, the right to know one's identity and the right to privacy are two very important rights. In this Bill we believe we are achieving a workable balance that takes account of these two rights. The right to identity is a huge matter in a person's life and that is supported....

Seanad: Adoption (Identity and Information) Bill 2014: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: I will address the judgment briefly. The Minister stated that all duties of the natural parents were ended on the adoption placement. I remember the day of the adoption order in my first child's case. It was explained to us as a couple. I thought to myself that I would be naive in the extreme if I believed that a child's basic need to know his or her backstory - as Senator van Turnhout...

Seanad: Adoption (Identity and Information) Bill 2014: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: I move amendment No. 9: In page 8, between lines 29 and 30, to insert the following:"(c) a body of persons or society that was, at any time, an "accredited body" as defined by section 10 of the Act of 2010 or that was, at any time, a body of persons or society registered in the Adoption Societies Register maintained under section 35 of the Adoption Act 1952;".This amendment is to clarify...

Seanad: Adoption (Identity and Information) Bill 2014: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: I thought it was implicit in the Bill that the birth family's relevant medical history would be passed on. Senator Cullinane might clarify if, in his amendment, he means information over and above what is provided at the time of placement. As Senator Moloney said, by and large, most birth mothers would be quite healthy because they are young. The medical history one gets at that point is...

Seanad: Adoption (Identity and Information) Bill 2014: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: My experience is that since the mid-1990s, and probably since the early 1990s, this type of information has been sought from the birth mother when the child is being placed for adoption. However, the birth father's medical history would not necessarily be on record, but half a loaf is better than no bread.

Seanad: Adoption (Identity and Information) Bill 2014: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: This is a very positive amendment. It proposes a very healthy approach. It provides for a gentle lead-in to a potential meeting in time. It is unintrusive. It is an opportunity for the young adopted person to say to the birth parent that they respect their privacy. Equally it is an opportunity for the birth parent, who may be reaching out to the adopted young person, to say the same to...

Seanad: Adoption (Identity and Information) Bill 2014: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: This is a landmark day for our State; there is no doubt about it. As others have said, we are half way there. The Minister is the only person here today who belongs to the other House. We are now entrusting him with the Bill to take care of it so it will become law. Personally and politically, I am honoured to be a co-sponsor of the Bill. I thank Senators Power and van Turnhout for this...

Seanad: Adoption (Identity and Information) Bill 2014: Committee and Remaining Stages (18 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: Kill each other.

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: I heard all about Donegal Tuesday for about two hours when I listened to "Liveline" this afternoon. This morning at 8.45 a.m., 500 young people queued outside a particular public house in Galway. Apparently this is a new tradition that started about four or five years ago, and since Donegal won the all-Ireland, where people don Donegal shirts and queue. Really it was queuing to commence...

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: I am being straight when I say it is impossible to fight such a culture alone and families are finding this really tough. We have to start breaking down this culture. It is hard to change culture but we have begun to be successful in terms of drink driving, for example. I call on the Leader to say to the Minister in charge of this matter that we need a systematic plan to combat binge...

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: He was incorrect.

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: We need a debate.

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: I said I will.

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Gender Recognition Bill 2014: Report and Final Stages (17 Feb 2015)

Fidelma Healy Eames: I welcome the amendment tabled by Senator Katherine Zappone and others. I attended a human rights day in Galway last Friday week with Professor O'Flaherty, who has since written an interesting piece on the Bill in The Irish Times. I was struck by the fact that he called this a bad law. Those are strong words. He took the view that it falls far short of where we could be. I have heard...