Results 121-140 of 149 for speaker:Patricia Stephenson

Seanad: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (1 Apr 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: The Minister of State was going to respond to my first intervention when we reached section 9. I had spoken at the incorrect time.

Seanad: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (1 Apr 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I agree with what Senator Murphy has said about fear, coercive control and people being trapped in these cycles, and the importance of us having institutions that recognise, spot, detect and respond to this. We have options. We have protection orders, which exist in the Domestic Violence Act. Is there something that can be done in terms of using these protection order mechanisms and using...

Seanad: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (1 Apr 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: The Minister of State will be sick of me. There is also a component with this whereby the new cross-examination powers lack the safeguards for vulnerable witnesses. Re-traumatisation is a really common thing for survivors of domestic violence during financial proceedings. Perhaps we could consider the option of having examinations conducted through written submissions unless the...

Seanad: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (1 Apr 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: What this amendment is not in line with is the Istanbul Convention on Violence Against Women and Girls and our obligation as a State to protect survivors of violence. That is my one comment on that. I do not think it is in the spirit of the case that there is not fairness when it comes to survivors being forced to sit in a room with their abuser. It is something to be cognisant of.

Seanad: Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (Amendment) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (1 Apr 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I understood what the Minister of State was saying but to sit in a room with your abuser, not being cross-examined by them but sitting an a room with them and being obligated to be cross-examined by the ombudsman, could be a very re-traumatising incident, especially in cases with an active protection order, of which there might be very few. We might not be seeing many on an annual or...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (27 Mar 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Last week, The Ditch reported that an Irish academic had a connection to a lobbyist group for the defence industry. The lobbying group in question, The Irish Defence and Security Association, represents international arms manufacturers, including Lockheed Martin, Saab and KNDS. It regularly appears in the lobbying register meeting with the Department of Defence, including most recently last...

Seanad: Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2022 (Section 4(2)) (Scheme Termination Date) Order 2025: Motion (27 Mar 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I am sharing my time with Senator Harmon.

Seanad: Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2022 (Section 4(2)) (Scheme Termination Date) Order 2025: Motion (27 Mar 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I thank the Minister for coming to discuss this today. The point she discussed around certainty, which Senators O'Loughlin and Ahearn also raised, is important. The fact we are dealing with this motion four days before the end of the month suggests that there has not been certainty. I support the theory of the scheme but I wish it had been arranged earlier so that families were not living...

Seanad: Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2022 (Section 4(2)) (Scheme Termination Date) Order 2025: Motion (27 Mar 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I move amendment No. 2: To insert the following after “6th March, 2025”: “: provided that this Order shall not reduce the financial contribution payable to those hosting temporary protection beneficiaries”.

Seanad: Special Education Provision: Motion (26 Mar 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I am sharing time. I thank Sinn Féin for raising this issue in the Chamber today. We all know that no child should be denied their fundamental right to education, but across Ireland we see children with additional needs who are left without school places and we are forcing families into an endless battle with the system. It is not just a failure; it is a complete disgrace. All of us...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence (25 Mar 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I wish to speak today about gender-based violence, the prevalence of which is still shockingly high in Ireland, where we are still very much facing an epidemic of gender-based violence. How we respond to gender-based violence needs to be strengthened, but to truly address GBV, we need to look at the prevention angle. The online sphere is a major contributing factor to GBV.Young people are...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence (25 Mar 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I am delighted that the Minister of State feels this is an important issue and that it requires cross-party support, a cross-departmental response and an holistic response.I agree with the message behind that. However, I push back on the idea that the content reporting systems Coimisiún na Meán is implementing work; they do not. We have heard from civil society bodies such as...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 Mar 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Tomorrow my party colleagues in the Lower Chamber will bring forward a Private Members' motion that calls for a people's vote on the retention of the triple lock, which we believe is fundamental to protecting Ireland's neutrality. The triple lock is a system that has long ensured any deployment of Irish Defence Forces overseas is based on multilateralism and peacekeeping. We in the Social...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (19 Mar 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I will speak about something that has already come from this side of the Chamber today. It relates to what we saw this week. On Monday night, when we were all out enjoying St. Patrick's Day or returning from our celebrations, we heard that Israel had broken the fragile ceasefire in Gaza. Once again, we saw images of the complete horror of these bombings on our social media and newsfeeds....

Seanad: Health (Scoliosis Treatment Services) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Mar 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: We are talking about healthcare but it is important that we remember that this is very much a children's rights issue which was recognised by the Ombudsman for Children. As Senator Clonan explicitly pointed out in his intervention, it is a disability rights issue as well. I hope in this debate and in the eventual implementation of this Bill that there will be a framework of disability and...

Seanad: Health (Scoliosis Treatment Services) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (19 Mar 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Not all parents have the time to get elected to the Oireachtas to advocate for their children. They do not have the capacity. They might have multiple children. They might be working several jobs. Those kids, because they do not have parents who can fight and shout for them, are falling through the gaps. When healthcare systems receive pressure from parents, and rightly so, it is the...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Overseas Development Aid (5 Mar 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, for coming to the Chamber. I am delighted to see him because it is fantastic to have this dialogue with the responsible Minister. I have asked to talk about overseas development assistance, an issue I know is close to the Minister of State’s heart. The international development sector, which has been absolutely decimated by the...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Overseas Development Aid (5 Mar 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate his commitment to human rights and humanitarian aid, and I know it has always been on the Irish Government's agenda. However, it is so important that we really use the power that we have with the US and in the EU to reinforce just how abhorrent what we are about to see is. It also goes to the survival of many Irish organisations that live in the...

Seanad: International Women's Day - Women's Health: Statements (5 Mar 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I thank the Minister for coming to the House for this debate. We have already heard about medical gaslighting this afternoon. I suspect most, it not all, of the women in the Chamber can speak about experiences they have had when they have not been believed. Perhaps they have had really severe migraines and been told to try yoga or drink herbal tea. I once turned up in such severe pain to...

Seanad: Care, Supports and Enhanced Provision of Services for Older People: Motion (5 Mar 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I thank the Minister of State for coming today and thank the Fine Gael Senators for bringing forward this motion. We are talking about older people and sometimes we do so as though they are a homogenous group. However, I am sure we all know lots of older people who are living their best lives, hiking and skydiving. We need to think about them as individuals and the different supports we...