Results 1,381-1,400 of 2,078 for speaker:Mary Seery Kearney

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: It is the process of the declaration that I am raising. How do you know you have triggered the need for a declaration? That is the point I am curious about. I have had the experience of being involved in a project that was building homeless accommodation on a site in Dublin 2 that was thought to have been sterilised. It was believed that the previous foundations had been put in there, two...

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 would like to know whether there are obligations on particular professional entities on site. I was also involved in the refurbishment of St. Catherine’s Church on Thomas Street from a derelict state to its current condition where it is operated by the Church of Ireland. A skull was found in it. That triggered the calling of An Garda Síochána. It is this kind of thing I...

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 come from a slightly different angle. I am also a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, which recently dealt with mother and baby homes, institutional burials, and birth information and tracing. The latter is not as relevant to this. We had discussions about the Magdalen laundries and industrial schools. The Minister for...

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: We can move it to a more macro level. I am very sensitive to the need for care and consideration on anything around to this. I am confused about how this might relate to developing the site of a former industrial school or a former Magdalen laundry. We have one former Magdalen laundry in the north inner city that is in the care of Dublin City Council. There has been no move to either...

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: There is not an objective checklist that ensures hitting a threshold or is there? If so, who is the arbiter? Who makes the decision that a site meets the relevant criteria? There appears to be a gap.

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 suggest that the committee invite submissions from bodies that have been affected like the Cork survivors because it would be interesting to have any gaps pointed out or where the legislation can be enhanced to ensure that there are no gaps.

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: That is great. I look back to the summer of 2019 because Covid-19 has bled us all of everything since then. With the really good weather, all sorts of potential monuments became apparent, including some of the ÉIRE signs that are sometimes visible as one flies in over Ireland. They date back to the Second World War. They became apparent even though they had not been previously...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (26 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Yesterday, the joint policing committee of Dublin City Council heard a report from Detective Inspector Daniel Kelly on human trafficking statistics and actions for 2021. He said that there were 44 victims recorded by the Garda, 28 of whom were female and 16 were male. Some 19 victims were identified as being of labour exploitation and 25 were victims of sexual exploitation. The Minister of...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: It is great that we are in the Chamber and are able to have such very different conversations and consider such very different points. One of the announcements that I really welcome is the one on the right to request remote working that was made by the Tánaiste and more details were provided on that today. I have heard various debates and interviews over the course of the day on the...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: Today I want to bring good news to the Seanad that yesterday a memo went to Cabinet regarding the special purpose surrogacy committee. This special three-month committee, with the possibility of a fourth month, will deal with complexities and hopefully find a pathway to parenthood for mothers of children born via international surrogacy. I thank the three Ministers - the Ministers for...

Seanad: Organisation of Working Time (Reproductive Health Related Leave) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (20 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I completely and utterly support this Bill. I commend the Labour Party for bringing it forward, and the INTO for campaigning on it. There is no question but that we need red-circled time for people who are going through reproductive health issues. I have got up previously and stated that I have done 13 in vitrofertilisations, IVFs. By the time one adds it all up, it is a re-mortgage and we...

Seanad: The Impact of Covid-19 on Primary and Secondary Education: Motion (19 Jan 2022)

Mary Seery Kearney: I am sharing time with Senator Conway. I welcome the Minister and Deputy Kehoe. I congratulate the committee on a fine report into which, clearly, a lot of hard work went. In anticipation of the motion, I canvassed the views of principals and deputy principals in my home region of Dublin South Central in light of the recommendations in the report to ascertain their feelings and...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 Nov 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: I wish to associate myself with Senator McGreehan's remarks. We need to do everything we can to highlight gender-based violence. The problem is that, in many instances, we do not know. There is a culture of masking it and pretending that everything is right when it is not. As such, it is good that we have 16 days to highlight it. Every Thursday morning, I come to the Chamber and give out...

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: Now.

Seanad: Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2021: Report and Final Stages (25 Nov 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: Next Tuesday at 12 noon.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Aligning Disability Services with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Nov 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: I thank the Minister of State and the HSE for being with us today. I note that in the Minister of State's speech she referred to doing ordinary things and living ordinary lives. That was a theme from one of our participants a number of weeks ago. I have used it in speeches with the Minister of State since and it demonstrates that she is listening to the witnesses of our committee and to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Aligning Disability Services with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Nov 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: I am thrilled that people with disability voices, who are best educated to talk about the lived experience and to influence that, are being listened to and are influencing Department representatives. I assume they meet more than quarterly. The Minister of State said she chairs it quarterly, which implies there are other meetings. How frequently do they meet?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Aligning Disability Services with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Nov 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: That is great. If there is time for the HSE to reply in respect of the letters, I would value that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Aligning Disability Services with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Discussion (Resumed) (25 Nov 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: That is not indicated in the letters. Nobody sees that. Another side of it is that where parents are engaged, there is such a turnover of staff that parents start all over again with the next person they are dealing with. People go on leave, which they are entitled to do and I am not in any way commenting on it, but no replacements are put in for them. There seems to be a difficulty in...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (24 Nov 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: In March 2000, the then Minister for Health and now Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, launched the commission on assisted human reproduction, which reported. In 2009, we had a decision in the Supreme Court regarding assisted human reproduction with regard to surrogacy. In 2012, the then Minister, Alan Shatter, produced guidelines for international surrogacy. In 2015, we had the...