Results 1,361-1,380 of 2,078 for speaker:Mary Seery Kearney

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Feb 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I acknowledge that at this committee and, in particular, at the Committee on Disability Matters, we are often joined by extraordinary advocates on behalf of family members. I often wonder about the people who do not have family members who are so extraordinary and have fought for so long. My question relates to the submission from Disabled Women Ireland regarding privacy. Although we may...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Feb 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Yes. I know that.

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Feb 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Yes. I agree with that.

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill 2021: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Feb 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I saw that in a recent television programme.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (10 Feb 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I want to share with the Senators an extraordinary witness contribution at the Joint Committee on Disability Matters, Mr. Craig Kelly, who is president of Ability@Work, which is aligned to the Cope Foundation in Cork. He wants to work with employers and prepare them to employ people with disabilities. He has an intellectual disability but, to use his own words, that does not define him. He...

Seanad: Safe Access to Termination of Pregnancy Services Bill 2021: Committee Stage (10 Feb 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I welcome and support the Bill. How could I not do so? We last debated this issue in October and it is now February. What progress has been made? I hope the Government is not minded to leave this matter inextricably linked with the review of the operation of the primary legislation for termination services because too much harm is being done daily in the meantime. I am concerned that too...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Aligning Education with the UNCRPD: Discussion (10 Feb 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I thank all the witnesses for their contributions. Ms Walsh said the aspiration is for ordinary lives in ordinary places with ordinary people. My experience is with people going into employment on a community employment scheme. They are afraid to ask about security of tenure and whether they will be employed afterwards because they are afraid to rock the boat. In some instances, informal...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (3 Feb 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I wish to begin by endorsing Senator Ruane's call for a debate. I would like to note that I previously did so as well. Our data is being collected, our privacy and the entirety of our lives is being collated for marketing and sinister purposes, unbeknownst to us. It is Thursday, so I am here to talk about this morning's meeting of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters. We heard two...

Seanad: Garda Síochána (Functions and Operational Areas) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (3 Feb 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: This is a great Bill, with great reorganising and modernising terminology, but I echo the concerns. While my colleagues who spoke earlier referred to more rural concerns, we end up with potential problems even within Dublin, where the likes of Ballyfermot has resources concentrated in Clondalkin. There were recent incidents in Cherry Orchard, Ballyfermot, that show the effects of such a...

Seanad: Child Trafficking and Child Sexual Exploitation Material (Amendment) Bill 2022: Second Stage (3 Feb 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I begin by congratulating Senator Flynn on her ongoing major impact as a Member of this House and on our nation. This is very fine legislation to bring forward. The information we got brought me to looking at the Luxembourg guidelines and into an area of beginning to perhaps have the words needed to articulate many things around this that are very wise. The opening of the press release...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Equality and Non-Discrimination: Discussion (3 Feb 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I thank the witnesses, as it is a very difficult thing to speak in public about their lives and life experiences. I lament that it is necessary. I appreciate how courageous they are today and the nerves of being in a forum that can be seen on television. I thank them most sincerely for that. We have two very distinct groups here today. However, we have a commonality of experience, in...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (2 Feb 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: For different reasons to Senator Gavan, I too call for us to have a debate on the recent Pensions Commission report. There has been a process and we now have a report. I look forward to reading and dissecting the report from the joint committee so that we can have a debate that involves both reports, which would be beneficial. The concerns I am hearing in my office relate to a proposal in...

Seanad: Payment of Wages (Amendment) (Tips and Gratuities) Bill 2022: Second Stage (1 Feb 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I thank the Tánaiste for bringing this Bill forward. When I saw it I was delighted. I am married to someone who was a representative in the hotel branch of the ITGWU some years ago. When we were dating, there were establishments he would not go to because they used tips to pay wages. The reputational damage that is attached to some establishments in this city is well warranted, and...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Rights of the Child in respect of Domestic and International Surrogacy: Discussion (1 Feb 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I thank everyone for attending today. They are very powerful, real, lived experiences of people who passionately love and advocate for their children. It would be prudent of me to commence my section by acknowledging my personal experience of surrogacy. No one in the surrogacy space, either domestic or international, wants to see anyone's human rights violated. That is a commonality among...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Rights of the Child in respect of Domestic and International Surrogacy: Discussion (1 Feb 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I must make it clear that no one wants to deny identity. As a member of this committee, I have come through the birth, information and tracing legislation and sat with very many groups and individuals over the last year. There is no desire to deny identity and to have that full transparency. However, we have a difficulty when it comes to retrospectively dealing with children who are...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (27 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I rise today to bring to the House's attention, in the context of the evolving situation in Ukraine, the mixed reports on the ground, of people living their normal everyday lives, and those reports from the international arena. I note that there are Irish families who are expecting babies in the Ukraine. Between now and May, 14 babies are going to be born. I want us to have empathy for...

Seanad: Garda Síochána (Functions and Operational Areas) Bill 2021: Second Stage (27 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I welcome this as a technical Bill and a necessity. Listening to some of the commentary, I am chair of the drugs task force and gardaí always show off their fantastic resources. We reach out to them all the time in the community. Even when it is outside the community of our particular drugs task force and matters arise or in the wider area of my home constituency in Dublin...

Seanad: Violence Against Women: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I apologise for missing some of the debate. I was tied up for other reasons. I will go back and listen to what was said. It is clear that quite horrifying personal stories have been told today, as was the case in the Dáil, of life experience in a culture that is quite chilling. I brought my daughter to the vigil because I wanted to stand with a sense of hope that somehow the world in...

Seanad: Violence Against Women: Statements (27 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: When is it proposed to sit again?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (27 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I thank the Chairman and the Minister of State for the briefing information on this. I will return to the ordinary and everyday. We are on a building drive. There is momentum towards providing additional housing and looking at areas. Bodies like the Land Development Agency are taking over areas that have been perhaps lying there for years. Places of interest are now more likely to be...