Results 11,661-11,680 of 11,695 for speaker:Ivana Bacik

Seanad: Government's Irish Aid Strategy: Statements (13 Nov 2007)

Ivana Bacik: I will share time with Senator Mullen. As one of the Senators who called for a debate on this matter I welcome this opportunity. Senator Norris has made numerous requests of the Minister of State, to which I will add two. It is important that Irish Aid and Irish development policy focuses on these two matters. I am pleased the Minister of State mentioned the reproductive health of women...

Seanad: Order of Business (8 Nov 2007)

Ivana Bacik: Will the Deputy Leader convene a debate on Irish Aid and development programmes, specifically on the need to mainstream disability rights in development programmes? I have just come from a seminar on disability and development being run by the Centre for Global Health at Trinity College Dublin in conjunction with Dóchas and Irish Aid. In the year in which Ireland signed the United Nations...

Seanad: Community Child Care Subvention Scheme 2008-2010: Statements (7 Nov 2007)

Ivana Bacik: This is nothing less than a fiasco. Reading between the lines of the Minister of State's speech, he acknowledged that there are genuine concerns among parents and child care providers in the real world about the effect of the Government's proposed scheme. The Government's announcement has caused grave concern for large numbers of parents and child care providers and has thrown them into a...

Seanad: Community Child Care Subvention Scheme 2008-2010: Statements (7 Nov 2007)

Ivana Bacik: It is far too low. Government policy must address the question of parents who are paying for child care in the private sector, yet we have seen nothing in ten years. The subvention scheme targets those who are most disadvantaged but as the Minister of State said, 80% of child care services receive no subvention. It is unacceptable that the Government has no tax break policy to support...

Seanad: Energy Security and Climate Change: Motion (7 Nov 2007)

Ivana Bacik: I wish to share time with my colleagues, Senators Quinn and Norris. I will speak for three minutes. I welcome the Minister to the House. All of us recognise and appreciate his genuine commitment to developing an effective policy on energy security and tackling climate change. However, the Fine Gael amendment deserves our support because it recognises, realistically, the true extent of the...

Seanad: Energy Security and Climate Change: Motion (7 Nov 2007)

Ivana Bacik: Against an axis of evil.

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (1 Nov 2007)

Ivana Bacik: I support Senator Norris's call for a debate on the Civil Partnership Bill. I welcome the support expressed by Senators from both sides of the House for the principle of legal recognition of gay relationships. It is distressing to hear the Government piously pontificating about the need to protect the family, when the policies it has adopted, such as its new policy on subvention on child...

Seanad: Order of Business (31 Oct 2007)

Ivana Bacik: I support the request by my colleagues, Senators Norris and McCarthy, for a debate in this House on the Civil Partnership Bill. We should all support the Civil Union Bill which the Labour Party is to bring before the Dáil today but it should be also noted we have a Bill on the Order Paper for this House which deals with the same matter and which would also give a route to legal recognition...

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (25 Oct 2007)

Ivana Bacik: Yes. I am grateful to Senator Boyle for providing some sort of answer but the procedure has not been addressed sufficiently.

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (25 Oct 2007)

Ivana Bacik: I propose an amendment to the Order of Business to enable the House to debate Private Members' motion No. 30 on the Order Paper. The motion, which is proposed by me and seconded by my colleague, Senator Norris, is to annul the Cockle (Fisheries Management and Conservation Regulations) (Waterford Estuary) 2007. To give a little background, the regulations were signed by the Minister for...

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (25 Oct 2007)

Ivana Bacik: Yes.

Seanad: Order of Business (Resumed) (25 Oct 2007)

Ivana Bacik: With respect, I would like to inform colleagues of the purpose of the motion because, on the face of it, this may not be clear. It relates to the Suir Estuary at Passage East, a special conservation area in County Waterford which many Senators will know. The regulation in question allows dredging for cockles within certain insufficiently restricted time periods. The national co-ordinator...

Seanad: Treaty of Amsterdam: Motion (18 Oct 2007)

Ivana Bacik: Like Senator Fitzgerald, I welcome and support the substance of the regulation. However, I share her concerns regarding the manner in which it has been introduced, particularly in the context of the absence of information concerning its substance. We are being asked to debate this matter in the absence of any text, other than the Minister's script, which can outline for us the substance of...

Seanad: Order of Business (18 Oct 2007)

Ivana Bacik: I support Senator O'Malley in her comments about CURA. The concern is that CURA is not co-operating with the Crisis Pregnancy Agency policy and that it is not providing women in crisis pregnancy with all the information on all the options available to them. I would be concerned that an organisation should receive State funding if it is not co-operating with an agreed body such as the CPA. I...

Seanad: Serious Crime: Motion (17 Oct 2007)

Ivana Bacik: I welcome the opportunity to engage in a debate on this issue, in which I have a strong personal interest, having worked for years as practitioner in the criminal justice system and teaching criminal law in Trinity College. It is important that we do not engage in pantomime politics. Rather than being a Punch and Judy show, I was going to start by making some constructive comments and...

Seanad: Serious Crime: Motion (17 Oct 2007)

Ivana Bacik: I was not sure if Senator Doherty was going to be in the Chamber, otherwise I would have asked at the start. I will share my time with him. Could the Leas-Chathaoirleach tell me how much time I have left?

Seanad: Serious Crime: Motion (17 Oct 2007)

Ivana Bacik: Perhaps the Leas-Chathaoirleach could tell me when I am five minutes through. With the permission of the House I will share the last three minutes with Senator Doherty.

Seanad: Serious Crime: Motion (17 Oct 2007)

Ivana Bacik: It is important that we build trust in communities as successful prosecution requires evidence and witnesses must be encouraged to come forward through strengthening witness protection schemes and increasing the powers and numbers of community gardaí. We have already had a debate on drugs and I echo the comments of my colleague, Senator Norris, that we need a radical review of our drugs...

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Oct 2007)

Ivana Bacik: We all saw the announcement in today's newspapers that the European Commission will take legal action against the State over the failure to protect adequately sites of national heritage. This is in the context of the Hill of Tara and the fiasco of the motorway going through this national monument. It is timely to call for a debate on the lack of protection we give to our national monuments...

Seanad: Burma: Motion (11 Oct 2007)

Ivana Bacik: Like other Senators, I welcome this cross-party motion. It is most important that the House achieve consensus on this issue. It is particularly important that we call upon the member states of the United Nations, especially those countries with seats on the Security Council, to put pressure on the despotic regime in Burma to cease its repression of the Burmese people and release its...