Results 7,021-7,040 of 7,583 for speaker:Rónán Mullen

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: I join in the sentiments expressed by my colleagues in condemning the outrages of the past few days in Northern Ireland. We have often had debates about terrorism and the need to understand its causes, while never condoning the acts of terrorists. In truth, it is very difficult to have that debate in this context. It is impossible to understand that after all the painstaking work of the...

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: He made one challenging and somewhat provoking observation when he suggested — as this report also suggests — that cutting class size will not necessary benefit students. That is something to which the Irish National Teachers Organisation is profoundly opposed. While not denying that this is a provoking statement, it is something we need to reflect on and we need to have this debate....

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: Without prejudging that issue, I call for such a debate in the context of a debate on education.

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: I thank my colleagues for their courtesy in their responses. I recognise that the position I advocate in the current climate is not the position that enjoys majority support in the media. It tends to be the view that is considered not to be politically correct. In a society where people who have a traditionalist world view presume to speak there can sometimes be a tendency to be intolerant...

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: There is no time limit.

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: Senator Healy Eames and I will have a glass of milk about it in the Dáil bar later and make up in due course.

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: Whose saucer?

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: Senator Fitzgerald said she did not believe we would quote any study that shows what works best for children. There might have been an unconscious glibness about what I had to say about surveys and statistics. While surveys clearly help to determine what assessment people have reached on an issue, they do not prove whether they are right or wrong in that assessment of a situation at a given...

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: The Senator referred to Professor Susan Golombok. Will we be so mindless as to ignore statistics? Surely we must factor them into the debate and consider the evidence. As to different types of family form and outcomes for children, other countries, including Britain and the United States, tend to be far ahead of us. I am concerned that, as a small community, Irish academia may be...

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: My contribution is relevant to the points made in response to my earlier contribution and I have not strayed from those points. I am trying to bring about circumstances in which respect as distinct from mere lip service is shown to different points of view. Senators Bacik and Norris are correct that there is a degree of unenforceability about a child's right to his or her biological...

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: On a point of order, I did not say that.

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: I call on Senator Norris to withdraw that remark.

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: I will place on record the precise circumstances of the conversation.

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: I, too, am happy to place on record the details of the conversation. I call on Senator Norris to withdraw the untruthful version of events he provided.

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: I am sorry, but I must respond to what Senator Norris has put on the record. The Senator was being rather uncharitable about certain people whose traditions and views——

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: I did not say it. What I did——

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: Because Senator Norris sulked about it for three weeks.

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: Will you call on Senator Norris to withdraw his comment, a Leas-Chathaoirligh? That is not what happened. I criticised certain comments he made in Magill. He denies having made those comments, but a source in Magill tells me he was reminded about them three times, yet he was happy to go ahead with publication.

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: Then we will have to find another forum in which to decide the truth of the matter, because Senator Norris has sought to misrepresent the situation. Senator Norris talked about the case of Mrs. Gill. It should be perfectly possible to give children rights and to acknowledge they have them in such a situation without necessarily envisaging same-sex adoption or a formalisation of the...

Seanad: (4 Mar 2009)

Rónán Mullen: Fellow school person.