Results 81-100 of 338 for speaker:Patricia Stephenson

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I am out of time, thank you.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (16 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I thank Mr. O’Brien. We heard from officials of the Department last week or maybe the week before – I do not remember – that under international law Ireland is legally obliged to end trade in both goods and services. They acknowledged that if we ended trade only in goods, we would be only partially compliant with the ICJ ruling. They said that, to be fully compliant,...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: The Minister of State is asking to us support a Bill that erodes basic human dignity and environmental protections and basically gives carte blanche to developers to hide the fact that his Government is a serial failure when it comes to housing. We are asked to support a Bill that will lower housing standards at a time people are struggling to find homes that support basic well-being. He...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: On amendment No. 1 to amendment No. 13., I am going to double-check this and let the Minister of State know later, but this might have been slightly reformatted from my original submission. Maybe it was something to do with the renumbering but anyway, I will speak to the essence of the amendment. The purpose of this amendment is to limit the potentially negative effect of the specified...

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: If it is better for the Minister of State, maybe I should speak to all the amendments as opposed to-----

Seanad: Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2025: Committee and Remaining Stages (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I propose to withdraw the amendment to amendment No. 16. Amendment No. 14, to delete “varied.”.” and substitute “varied.”, is to deal with a punctuation issue. I am sure the officials will pick up on that on another Stage of the Bill. The purpose of the amendment to amendment No. 25 is to ensure that extraordinary and worrying new powers under the 2024...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I thank the witnesses for taking the time to attend. They must be very tired with all of these questions. Mr. Cohen stated, and I am quoting him directly: "The only country in the world you choose to boycott by law is the one Jewish state ... not Russia for Crimea." That is factually incorrect. A ban on trade with Russian-occupied Crimea was passed into Irish law in 2014. Would Mr. Cohen...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I thank Mr. Cohen. I appreciate that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I thank Mr. Shatter. That was just a question-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: We still imposed it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: My next question is for Mr. Shatter. He has spoken before about the Bill being antisemitic and likened it to something from Nazi Germany. Just yesterday, we received a letter from a number of high-profile Israelis who strongly support the Bill, among them a former Israeli attorney general, supreme court judges, recipients of Israel’s highest national prize, speakers of the Knesset...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: That is it. I thank Mr. Shatter very much.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I am running out of time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: We really appreciate that, but we have a quite tight time slot-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I thank Mr. Shatter very much. Earlier, he spoke a little about the peace process. He might be able to tell I am from the North. Regarding our own peace in Northern Ireland, the Mitchell principles set out that peace negotiations can work only when all parties agree to ceasefire activity, having regard to international law. In the context of what we are seeing now, Israel is quite...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I thank Mr. Shatter. I have a got few seconds left, so I will make the most of my time. Mr. Shatter said that this Bill is a matter of consensus in the political bubble only, but polling in the Irish Independent just a few weeks ago showed an overwhelming majority of the Irish public support the Bill. I believe the number is 74%. The public support a ban on trade in goods, and indeed...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I specifically thank Ms Al Tamimi for coming in. It is not easy to talk about things that are impacting your family and loved ones in this kind of setting. I am sure it can be quite emotional and exhausting, so I thank her. The ICJ last year found that Israel’s legislation and measures impose and serve to maintain a near complete separation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I suppose Mr. Shatter recognises, then, that there is diversity of opinion within the Jewish community and Israeli state.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (10 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I also pay my respects to the victims of Srebrenica and their families. It is particularly difficult to stand for a minute's silence when we know there is also a genocide happening in Gaza. While standing I was asking myself what day we will be standing to commemorate all the Palestinians who have been slaughtered. This week, the Journal Investigates team published figures after analysing...

Seanad: Transport Policy: Statements (10 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: That is a hard act to follow. We know public transport outside our major urban centres is, to one degree or another, poor or practically non-existent. I want to raise serious concerns about the issue of rural transport, particularly in Carlow and Kilkenny, where families are being let down time and again by a system that is underfunded, pretty complicated and failing in many cases to...