Results 10,021-10,040 of 21,149 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I acknowledge the officials will appear again. The Minister stated that to intervene or to direct a cessation of the Project Eagle sale would be beyond his remit and he went so far as to say that it would be illegal. We need advice and clarity.

Public Accounts Committee: Special Report No. 94 of the Comptroller and Auditor General: National Asset Management Agency Sale of Project Eagle (Resumed) (6 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: We need a legal opinion on that.

Mental Health Services: Motion [Private Members] (5 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: It falls to me to conclude the debate on our motion. I will do so by firstly thanking people for their contributions and acknowledging people who came along. I also want to make it plain that at no stage did I or any of my colleagues set a hostile tone nor would we. Why should we? This issue is far too important for all of us, not just as public representatives but as human beings, for...

Mental Health Services: Motion [Private Members] (5 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I move:That Dáil Éireann:notes that:- 2016 marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of the Report of the Expert Group on Mental Health Policy entitled A Vision for Change, which laid out a pathway to progressive, modern and recovery-based mental health care in Ireland; - despite plans for its complete implementation by 2016, much of the strategy is incomplete and many of its...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Really? How kind of the Taoiseach.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: They were not going to hostels. That is an entirely different issue.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Who was in government last year?

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Who was in government last year?

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: We will see. The jury is out on that.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Simon Community survey found that 87% of rental properties are beyond the reach of people who depend on State housing benefits. This was raised earlier. It also found that less than half the number of rental properties are available than were available in May 2015. The Simon Community is deeply and rightly concerned about the ongoing reduction in the availability of homes to rent,...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am glad the Taoiseach has clarified that. It was an alarming thing to say. No family or individual should be homeless or raising their children in a hotel room or bed and breakfast accommodation. I am sure we agree on this.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: There has been a 32% increase in those recorded as sleeping rough during the past year. This happened on the Taoiseach's watch. Two weeks ago, we saw the relaunch of most of the same proposals that were announced in July, in the Government's action plan for housing. There were many promises but there was very little sign of real progress. While the announcement of 200 additional emergency...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Taoiseach is aware that we are at least nominally militarily neutral. The concerns raised about military capacity, obscene levels of spending and a growing symbiotic relationship with NATO are points that are well and fairly made and factually based. They have been rehearsed before. How is it, despite the suggestion of lots of people, including us in Sinn Féin, the Taoiseach has...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committee Meetings (5 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: On the Cabinet sub-committee on Brexit, will the Taoiseach accept that the overriding priority of the civic dialogue he proposes with the Government and Oireachtas must be to advocate on behalf of the remain vote in the North and that it should be the structure and context in which this sub-committee and all other discussions are framed?

Questions on Proposed Legislation (5 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: The programme for Government commits the Government to pursuing the implementation of the independent working group on Seanad reform as a priority. The report of the working group acknowledged that the current electoral system for the Seanad is elitist and it produced a range of proposals for the reform of the Seanad, including opening up the electoral participation for emigrants and...

Leaders' Questions (5 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Does the Taoiseach have confidence in the Minister and the Garda Commissioner?

Leaders' Questions (5 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: The difficulty is that this line has been well rehearsed in the Chamber and beyond for a long time. I suggest that the position, as the Taoiseach has outlined it, has run out of any credibility, not least for serving members of An Garda Síochána and, most particularly, for whistleblowers who have come forward only to be targeted and smeared. The Taoiseach stated that the Minister...

Leaders' Questions (5 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Here we go again - another week and another controversy surrounding the Garda Commissioner and the treatment of Garda whistleblowers. The protected disclosures made by two senior gardaí to the Department of Justice and Equality during the past week outline an orchestrated campaign by some in senior Garda management positions to undermine whistleblowers. They include the distribution of...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Citizens Assembly (4 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I will keep this brief. I am troubled by two prospects. First, the delay involved in this group of 99 citizens deliberating and then us going through all the machinations of the Oireachtas. I am also a bit taken aback that the Taoiseach cannot tell us which committee the deliberations might go too. My bigger concern, however, is that there can be no question of a referendum on the eighth...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Citizens Assembly (4 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Well before me.