Results 121-140 of 289 for speaker:Patricia Stephenson

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: At every opportunity we have had to deploy our 12 troops to any place, Ireland has done it.

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: We have deployed troops to Afghanistan. Any opportunity that has been given to us to deploy our 12 or below troops on a rolling basis, Ireland has participated in that, including missions. While I am not saying our troops were ever involved in anything that was human rights non-compliant, they have been deployed to such missions in an overall sense, including Afghanistan. That has happened...

Committee on Defence and National Security: General Scheme of the Defence (Amendment) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (3 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Yes, I understand that.

Seanad: Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I want to confirm that we are just speaking on the amendment.

Seanad: Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I commend Senator Ryan on her bravery and honesty. It is very difficult to speak about personal issues in the Chamber. It takes incredible strength so well done and thank you. It is important that people do because it adds so much colour and weight to what we are talking about. So often we talk about these things in legalese terms and it loses the meaning in many ways. As Senator Ryan...

Seanad: Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I appreciate the intervention of Senator Comyn, but the legal age for children is 18 for a reason. We deem anyone under 18 as a child and it is not appropriate for us to make a distinction between a younger or older child when they are witnessing domestic abuse. A boy of 17, an example the Senator gave, watching his mother being abused will suffer long-term psychological trauma. We spoke...

Seanad: Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: As we heard already, domestic violence and violence against women continues to be an epidemic across the island and that is why we need this Bill. Since 2020, 37 women have been killed in the South and 27 women have been killed in the North of the country. The vast majority of those women were killed in their own home. I also want to mark the latest tragic killing of Sarah Montgomery, who...

Seanad: Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Why does violence against women happen? It is because of the patriarchy. It is because we have had decades of decades, hundreds of years, where it has been acceptable to be violent towards women. We cannot just call on individual men, although allies are always welcome. It is great to have strong voices of men in the Seanad calling this out, of course, but we need a really strong response...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Yesterday, we heard from officials from the Department. They acknowledged there is an obligation to prevent trade with the illegal settlements and this obligation pertains to both goods and services. We had that conversation and they acknowledged that point. At the same time, however, those officials said the heads of Bill are not inconsistent with the obligation as identified in the ICJ...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I thank Mr. Liston. We also spoke yesterday about advice from the Attorney General's office. I know it is not advice that pertains to this Bill but to the previous Bill as it related to services. The Attorney General's opinion draws a distinction between public policy under EU law as regards the goods and services aspects. This opinion is in the public domain. Do the witnesses have a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I thank Mr. Liston. We also heard yesterday there is a question of reconciliation between obligations under customary international law and then EU law. What law are we most beholden to? I use that language but it is probably not the correct legal term. Can the witnesses explain this point from their perspective in terms of the law we are most required to meet?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Just to clarify, it is not there as explicitly in relation to goods but the opposite is not true either, in that it does not say we should not have services included in terms of EU law.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Thank you. You know I am very concise.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Russia has been mentioned. I know the context is different because the sanction regime that came against Russia was EU-wide, but is there any precedent specifically as it relates to services and Russia that the witnesses could speak about a bit?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Tracking services have been spoken about. I know we are not going to talk about specific companies, but what would be the mechanism for tracking services? Is there something like that that exists, like a database? There seems to be a feeling of ambiguity as to what companies - again, we cannot use names - do or do not trade. Is there a way to monitor that in order that if this were to be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025: Discussion (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Has there been precedent then, as regards that UN database, for tracking services for the purposes of banning them?

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: Role, Responsibilities and Processes of An Coimisiún Pleanála and Office of the Planning Regulator: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: To draw on what Deputy Tóibín was saying, Mr. Mullan is happy with the staffing levels for this year but he is saying that if infrastructure were to be scaled up and there were to be further planning applications, then the current staffing levels would not meet that demand.

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: Role, Responsibilities and Processes of An Coimisiún Pleanála and Office of the Planning Regulator: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Is that still the case if we were to scale up?

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: Role, Responsibilities and Processes of An Coimisiún Pleanála and Office of the Planning Regulator: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: That is fine, I just wanted to clarify-----

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: Role, Responsibilities and Processes of An Coimisiún Pleanála and Office of the Planning Regulator: Discussion (2 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: We are just trying to get to the bottom of whether, if other workstreams were to come up, staffing of inspectors is a blockage.