Results 961-980 of 2,078 for speaker:Mary Seery Kearney

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Review of Testimonies Provided by Survivors of Mother and Baby Homes: Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (4 Oct 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I thank the Minister for that. I would appreciate a slight explanation. I have had experience in training people for counselling post-genocide in Rwanda and have visited the genocide memorial in Kigali. It is powerful to hear the lived testimony of people in their own voices as one goes through it. It is an incredibly moving experience and it brings one into the experience of all that...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Equality Issues (29 Sep 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I thank the Minister very much for taking my Commencement matter today. Medical and psychological professionals throughout the world have stated that LGBTI people who experience conversion therapy are almost twice as likely to think about or attempt suicide than their peers who have not experienced conversion therapy. Let us be very clear; conversion therapy is based on a particular mindset...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Equality Issues (29 Sep 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: It would be remiss of me not to commend Senator Warfield on the work that he has done in this area. I also commend my colleague, Luke Corkery, who is a member of LGBT Young Fine Gael and has constantly advocated in this regard. The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief is Dr. Ahmed Shaheed. Last year, he said the following to UK MPs that the international rights law is...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Equality Issues (29 Sep 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Excellent and well done.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (29 Sep 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Last night, BBC's "Panorama" programme aired details of horrific cases in hospitals in the greater Manchester area of patients with mental ill health being humiliated, abused and isolated for weeks. It was an National Health Service, NHS, foundation. People were being held under the UK Mental Health Act and were all individuals classified as being at serious risk of harming themselves or...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Planning and Development Act 2000 (Exempted Development) (No. 3) Regulations 2022, Planning and Development (Solar Safeguarding Zone) Regulations 2022: Discussion (29 Sep 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I thank the Minister of State. This is fantastic. I do not have a question but, rather, concur with everything the Chair has said. There are a number of community groups in Dublin South-Central that are trying to become as energy self-sufficient as possible. It is particularly pertinent at the moment. This is not the Minister of State's area but he might be able to exert some influence....

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I echo those concerns. I have received phone calls which upset me and I am not the better for. The idea that a document that is legally binding in many circumstances and is put together when the person has absolute capacity could be suspended in any circumstances is appalling. Has the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, been consulted on this? I expected these amendments to...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: The Minister did not indicate whether IHREC has had a role in this. There is also the question of where we stand in regard to the ratification of the optional protocol to the UNCRPD and whether these amendments will be acceptable in that regard. Do people have a right to take litigation outside the State when there is a cultural bias against people with mental ill-health? That bias is a...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: We have a difficulty where we apply a directive in one instance and not in another. We currently have a situation whereby people who need the support of the system, with all its good aspects and its flaws, rather than volunteer themselves for full transparency to get a fully comprehensive treatment, will pay lip service just enough to get by, because to volunteer the truth of what is really...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I agree with the Minister that this legislation is about far more than one particular group of people. Anyone who is subjected to the ward of court system desperately needs this Bill to pass. From that perspective, I am fully behind the legislation. However, the fact is that there is a community of people in our State who are being left behind and left without a voice. The threshold...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: We have not spoken on amendment No. 4 and there are things to say on that amendment. The Minister made his reply and Senator Warfield spoke on amendment No. 5 but I did not speak on this amendment because of the content of both of those speakers. I would like to speak on amendment No. 4, and I thought there was a complete misunderstanding, or perhaps that I was suddenly out of my depth in...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: For some of the reasons the Minister outlined, I do not support the amendment but I know and agree with what the Senators are getting at. Maybe the best way I could address the issue would be to ask how we will supervise the use of the functional test. A very strong recommendation of the committee following the pre-legislative scrutiny was that the functional test be removed. This is...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I absolutely agree. Carol Coulter's work on family law was fantastic and constructive. This raises another issue, which is the training of the Judiciary following this and making sure its members are absolutely conversant with the person-centred model and the interpretation of capacity, particularly when we are keeping a functional capacity test. The Judiciary must be sensitised and there...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: It is not for us to tell the Judiciary what to do, but when something has been so entrenched for decades it means there is a system of thinking that goes with it and it is reasonable that we comment.

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I support anything that will put in place a mechanism to ensure the investment and remote direction of any moneys belonging to a ward of court or given to a ward of court, awarded following instances of negligence that appallingly are all too often reported in the news. The idea that a person is given an award and that would be dissipated or lost, as has happened and as we have seen...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I accept that the Minister is just making a point but, for clarification, we should not confuse the two. Yes, it is very important an individual is entitled to make whatever decisions he or she wishes to make and that he or she should be supported in making those decisions. There is an enormous difference between someone making an imprudent decision for themselves and an imprudent decision...

Seanad: Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2022: Committee Stage (28 Sep 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: We need to refer back to our discussions earlier today regarding the engagement that will happen before Report Stage in the context of enduring power of attorney and the mental health effect of the competition, so to speak, between those two powers, or those two documents and preferences that are put forward. We need to come back to this on Report Stage and make sure that the recommendations...

Seanad: Impact of Cost of Living Issues on Young People in Ireland: Motion (28 Sep 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Senator Clonan's speech has established a very important point, with which I agree, namely, that there is nothing like keeping lived experience at the heart of politics and reminding Members of both Houses that when we make decisions in here it impacts people's lives. It is important with regard to decisions around disabilities and students that there is accountability. I claim the same...

Seanad: Impact of Cost of Living Issues on Young People in Ireland: Motion (28 Sep 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: We do.