Results 1,081-1,100 of 1,301 for speaker:Pauline O'Reilly

Seanad: Public Service Pay Bill 2020: Second Stage (14 Jun 2021)

Pauline O'Reilly: When is it proposed to take Committee Stage?

Seanad: Public Service Pay Bill 2020: Second Stage (14 Jun 2021)

Pauline O'Reilly: Is that agreed? Agreed.

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jun 2021)

Pauline O'Reilly: I thank Senators Moynihan and Warfield for putting forward these amendments. I will talk about cost-rental for a moment because it is important to provide the context. Cost-rental has been a key policy of the Green Party for decades. It is also a key part of this Bill. There are two reasons that cost-rental is important. These amendments align with those reasons. The first reason...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jun 2021)

Pauline O'Reilly: These amendments are related. I will go back to my point that cost rental has to do two jobs in our market. One job is about the tenants living in cost rental units. The other job is to calm the market overall. That means we must have supply of houses across all of the different elements of this Bill. From our perspective, we must have supply of cost rental. Everything has to be managed...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (4 Jun 2021)

Pauline O'Reilly: I will be brief because many of the points have been covered. I want to return to the issue of calming the market, which I have raised many times. Calming the market means that everybody needs certainty. It does not only apply to the certainty of the tenant but also applies to certainty for those providing the cost rental units because otherwise we will not have such units. I completely...

Seanad: Right to Housing: Motion (4 Jun 2021)

Pauline O'Reilly: I welcome the Minister of State. The Green Party believes access to adequate, secure, affordable and environmentally sound housing is a basic human right. This right should be set out in our Constitution. We call on the Government to move urgently to bring forward a referendum to amend the Constitution to include this right to housing. This is what is stated in Green Party policy and we...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (1 Jun 2021)

Pauline O'Reilly: I would like to join with the Cathaoirleach in celebrating Denmark day and I thank him for bringing it to our attention. There has been a big announcement today, which for some may seem like a very small announcement, namely that every childcare facility across the country will get €1,000 for outdoor play equipment.The sum of €1,000 for children is massive. This is not just...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2021)

Pauline O'Reilly: I thank all today's witnesses. I am sure they have been listening in to previous sessions. We have done a significant amount of work, as have the witnesses, which goes to show the importance of the kind of work in which they are engaged. What strikes me from listening to some of the statements and some of the responses that have been given is how much more is involved in the education of...

Seanad: Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (31 May 2021)

Pauline O'Reilly: The Minister is welcome. It is good to see him in the House. If we think back to a year ago, we did not even know if we would have vaccines. We did not know what kind of state the country and the world would be in so even having vaccinations is the first bit of great news. We can be so much in the middle of it that we can forget that we could have been looking at lockdown forever. We are...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Committee Stage (28 May 2021)

Pauline O'Reilly: It seems that a lot of the amendments are about removing things. They are about removing open market dwellings from the list of affordability and now removing the LDA. The LDA exists so why not use it? This is not even saying we should dismantle the Land Development Agency, which I could understand from the Senator's ideological point of view. It is actually just saying there is a thing...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Committee Stage (28 May 2021)

Pauline O'Reilly: This amendment concerns the LDA, which is actually a vehicle for the State to use to build homes. What the Senator is saying does not stack up.

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Committee Stage (28 May 2021)

Pauline O'Reilly: On the point raised by Senator Casey, I was a councillor, albeit for a short time, and I know there are difficulties with the LDA. That is why we are putting through the Land Development Agency Bill 2021. The National Economic and Social Council, NESC, advised us to give an enhanced mandate to the agency and that is exactly what we are doing in that Bill. Will the proposers of this...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Committee Stage (28 May 2021)

Pauline O'Reilly: I agree with Senator Warfield in principle on the problematic nature of some of the language here. In removing it, however, and putting in "promote sustainable mixed income communities", it would then lack what we might not refer to as social background, but other types of diversity. It is not just income we are talking about. We are talking about creating communities. In my housing...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Committee Stage (28 May 2021)

Pauline O'Reilly: I did not speak to amendment No. 17 earlier and I will come back in on that. In case it was not clear enough, I have an issue with some of the language around this and I would hope that the Minister of State will have a look at that language. The language that Senator Warfield is suggesting does not capture what we need to capture and is missing some of what is there already. Substitution...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Committee Stage (28 May 2021)

Pauline O'Reilly: I welcome this amendment. As we have discussed, the Bill makes provision for issues the NESC has been flagging, including cost rental, beefing up the LDA to enable it to deliver its functions effectively, the provision of mixed-tenure housing and ensuring we have diversity within our communities. I have spoken passionately about the 15-minute city, which requires diversity, an...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Committee Stage (28 May 2021)

Pauline O'Reilly: I want to make a brief point on whether one puts something into or outside of legislation. It is important sometimes to put things in legislation because it gives people confidence. They would not have to wait on the Government to produce a policy document, which it can ultimately change, and they could see that the Government is accountable in the legislation. That is exactly what the...

Seanad: Search and Rescue System: Motion (28 May 2021)

Pauline O'Reilly: I call on Senator Craughwell to respond to the debate.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion (Resumed) (25 May 2021)

Pauline O'Reilly: I thank the witnesses today, who clearly have watched the previous sessions. As it is quite clear, I thank them their involvement throughout the course of this section of our work. I seek their views in relation to the use of technology, technology as a tool of the modern era and over-restriction with regard to technology. Could we be doing a disservice to young people who are not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion (Resumed) (25 May 2021)

Pauline O'Reilly: Not at all, that is fine.