Results 10,321-10,340 of 21,440 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

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.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Citizens Assembly (4 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Would the Leas-Cheann Comhairle take some questions from others and then revert to the Taoiseach?

Ceisteanna - Questions: Citizens Assembly (4 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: It might be a more useful way of doing it.

Order of Business (4 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I want to ask the Taoiseach about the Defence (Amendment) Bill. This legislation will revive existing legislation on the deployment of military personnel overseas. One key issue of concern to military personnel subject to overseas deployment is the use of the anti-malarial drug, Lariam. Lariam was developed by the US army in the 1970s. Three years ago, on the back of increasing evidence...

Order of Business (4 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: There was none on the previous item so, with the greatest of respect, we will hear the Taoiseach's response.

Order of Business (4 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Taoiseach is in bad form. This has nothing to do with where we were on Saturday.

Leaders' Questions (4 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: If it is a thing that Theresa May assured the Taoiseach that there would be no hard Brexit and no hard border, she has clearly changed her mind. From the statements she made at her party's conference and in subsequent interviews, it is clear that this is what she is minded to do. Finally, we get an inkling into Tory thinking. Brexit is Brexit and Brexit means a hard Brexit. I say this...

Leaders' Questions (4 Oct 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Last weekend the British Prime Minister, Ms Theresa May, confirmed that she would trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty before the end of March 2017, thus triggering Brexit. By insisting that Britain pursues a hard Brexit and leaves the Single Market, she has set the British Government on a collision course with the EU in which Ireland, North and South, is regarded as collateral damage....

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: I would like to note one matter. Maybe it is not strictly a matter arising, but it is a matter that arises. I refer to the slate of witnesses that has been agreed so far for the hearings we are going to have. Obviously, we will add to that we as proceed. The question of securing documents remains an ongoing process.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (29 Sep 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yes, I have that.