Results 11,101-11,120 of 11,695 for speaker:Ivana Bacik

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (19 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I support the amendment. Post adoption services will increase in importance. There is a great deal of awareness of the need for adults adopted as children to be able to acquire information about their past, their birth parents and their lineage. This is true for both national and international adoptions. Therefore, post adoption services will be of increasing importance. We have had...

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed) (14 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I am grateful to Senator Fitzgerald for outlining the background to these amendments. I tabled them on Committee Stage and I was supported by Senator Fitzgerald, Senator Norris and others. The sense of them is not about changing the meaning of any of the relevant provisions but rather to change the language. The language used is based on the previous version of these provisions is...

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (Resumed) (14 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I second Senator Norris's amendment No. 38, which would have the same effect as my amendment No. 4, which Members debated earlier. The amendment is to insert into the Bill recognition of the position of same-sex couples who are parenting children and who may wish to adopt. I reiterate the point that many children already are living in Ireland with parents who are same-sex partners and who,...

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (13 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I am glad the Minister of State supports the principle that children are entitled to a loving family of whatever form. I should have declared an interest in that I am serving as junior counsel in the Zappone-Gilligan case, which has not yet been heard by the Supreme Court. This will be the first occasion on which this issue, namely the definition of marriage and whether marriage is confined...

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (13 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I move amendment No. 5: In page 17, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following: "(4) In this Act, "special guardianship order" means an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child's "special guardian" (or special guardians). The Minister may prescribe procedures for the court to follow in making a "special guardianship order", in accordance with the following principles: (a)...

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (13 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: In light of the Minister of State's comments, I will not press the amendment. I am glad the issue will be revisited. As I noted earlier, two expert reports have recommended the introduction of a special guardianship measure. I have only transposed some of the relevant provisions from English law as an example of what can be done. Clearly, much more detail would be required in respect of...

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (13 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I second the amendment.

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (13 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I second the amendment.

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (13 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I support the comments of Senators Prendergast and Fitzgerald on this amendment. It is important that the dreadful state of uncertainty in which so many prospective adopters find themselves is resolved. I, too, am interested to hear what the Minister of State has to say in regard to the agreement with Vietnam and the situation with Russia. This issue was raised on Committee Stage when the...

Seanad: Adoption Bill 2009: Report Stage (13 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I move amendment No. 4: In page 17, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following: "(4) In this Act, "married couple" means an opposite-sex or same-sex married couple or a couple who have entered a registered civil partnership with each other.". We debated this amendment at some length on Committee Stage so I do not propose to go back over that ground in detail. It is an important...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I support the amendment to the Order of Business proposed by Senators O'Toole and Fitzgerald. I thank Senators O'Toole and Hannigan for their good wishes and I am delighted to have been selected to stand for the Labour Party in Dublin Central. I will not say any more about the election.

Seanad: Order of Business (6 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: It is important to debate the treatment of children today. It is extraordinary that this Government has time to legislate for an outdated and dangerous offence of blasphemous libel-----

Seanad: Order of Business (6 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: -----and yet no time, apparently, to ensure the impasse between the HSE and the Ombudsman for Children is resolved and ensure the bilateral agreements for adoptions in Vietnam and Russia are resolved.

Seanad: Order of Business (6 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: We need to ensure this Government gets its priorities right and the treatment of children should be uppermost in our priorities. I support others who have called for those debates today. It is essential. I ask the Leader for a response to a question I have raised many times in this House regarding the Climate Protection Bill. It is another matter which should be a priority for the...

Seanad: Order of Business (6 May 2009)

Ivana Bacik: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Gangland Crime: Statements (30 Apr 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I thank Senator Norris for sharing his time with me and I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I echo the words of Senator Norris in expressing sincere sympathy for the families of Roy Collins and, before that, Shane Geoghegan. Those two people in particular have in recent months come to symbolise the real problem that so many communities, not just in Limerick but around Ireland,...

Seanad: Order of Business (30 Apr 2009)

Ivana Bacik: I support the call by my colleague, Senator Norris, for a debate on freedom of speech. I am glad he raised the issue of the blasphemous libel offence being suggested by the Minister. I raised the matter yesterday. It is very dangerous to talk about creating an offence of causing outrage to somebody on grounds of religion.

Seanad: Order of Business (30 Apr 2009)

Ivana Bacik: There have been all sorts of difficulties in other countries where that has been done. It is very different from the careful legislation we have in place on incitement to hatred on racial grounds, although there have also been difficulties in prosecuting those offences. We must be careful about rushing willy-nilly to create offences in this way. I did not get a satisfactory answer yesterday...

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2009: Second Stage (29 Apr 2009)

Ivana Bacik: With the permission of the House, I wish to share time with Senator Quinn.

Seanad: Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2009: Second Stage (29 Apr 2009)

Ivana Bacik: Everyone acknowledges that we are facing into an unprecedented economic crisis. The ESRI published a report earlier today which states that we are set for the sharpest fall in economic growth experienced by any industrialised country since the Great Depression. In light of this extraordinary and deeply depressing prognosis, we all acknowledge the need to make savings. I wish to be...