Results 141-160 of 236 for at speaker:Tom Clonan

Seanad: Report of the Independent Review Group on Dignity and Equality Issues in the Defence Forces: Statements (25 Apr 2023)

Tom Clonan: In preparing these notes, I am not referring in any way to the sentiments expressed by Senators Ward or Kyne. I agree with absolutely every word that my good friends and colleagues, Senators Ward and Kyne, expressed here today. I really welcome the full statutory inquiry and I also welcome the fact that An Garda Síochána will now investigate allegations of sexual assault,...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Possible Enhancement of Child Protection Powers of Tusla: Discussion (25 Apr 2023)

Tom Clonan: With such little time and so much to ask, I do not know where to start. Following up on what Senator Ruane said, a paragraph in the report states, “The information did not at that time suggest evidence of systemic abuse across the organisation.” That was in 2019. The values and norms of behaviour in that organisation suggest that the risk factors were systemic. With my...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Possible Enhancement of Child Protection Powers of Tusla: Discussion (25 Apr 2023)

Tom Clonan: Just to be clear, I am not downplaying the risk. Of course we all know that abusers are usually known to the survivor and very often are family members. I am talking about it from a sociological or anthropological perspective - systemic in the context of an organisation. When Tusla is dealing with an organisation such as the one we cannot mention, at our stage and with our level of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: A Rights-Based Approach and Disability Legislation: National Disability Authority (20 Apr 2023)

Tom Clonan: I apologise that I had to leave this morning. I had to go to a crisis meeting. I really wanted to hear what National Disability Authority had to say today and I am at a disadvantage in that I did not hear what it spoke to today. I very much appreciate the National Disability Authority coming in here and the work that it does. Deputy Higgins mentioned the lived experience. I have come...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: A Rights-Based Approach and Disability Legislation: National Disability Authority (20 Apr 2023)

Tom Clonan: It is great to hear that. I take the example of my son. He went to a mainstream school. He is now in third level and with a group or cohort of people who will be very familiar with a wheelchair and will not be afraid to ask how this works or what that is for. Before I got elected, my only experience of disability was our own family's journey. My son has a rare disease so we were never...

Seanad: Civil Liability (Schools) Bill 2023: Second Stage (19 Apr 2023)

Tom Clonan: I commend the proposer, Senator Mullen, and the seconder, Senator McDowell, on putting forward this Bill. I agree with Senator Ahearn that it contains a lot of common sense. In a previous life back in the 1980s, as a young primary school teacher, I was involved in many extracurricular activities with pupils. I was horrified to note that, in later years, when my children were in primary...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Youth Work: Discussion (18 Apr 2023)

Tom Clonan: I thank the witnesses for coming in. I have two straightforward questions and I invite each of the stakeholders to address them. I am struck by a recurring theme through all the presentations of the use of staffing, funding, premises and another pattern around the qualitative impact of youth work versus the trend towards quantitative measures imposed by funding streams and so on. The...

Seanad: Independent Review of the Handling of Past Complaints of Abuse in St John Ambulance Ireland: Motion (29 Mar 2023)

Tom Clonan: I thank the Minister for coming in here today. I thank my colleagues in the Seanad for proposing this motion and for the work that they have done, notably Senator Seery Kearney, who has done great work in this area, and Senator Ward. I have seen Mr. Mick Finnegan. I live not far from where I have often seen him standing on the footpath.I salute him and commend him on his bravery and moral...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Special Educational Needs (28 Mar 2023)

Tom Clonan: I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. I am seeking a statement from him on Department of Education Circular 0038/2007. The circular applies to primary school children who have a specific speech and language disorder. I raise this matter because the circular, which dates from 2007, needs to be updated. It is 16 years old. It consists of three paragraphs. The introductory...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Special Educational Needs (28 Mar 2023)

Tom Clonan: I appreciate that the Minister of State has not heard my four-minute contribution until this morning. However, I know that he has heard me. As parents and carers in Ireland we are confronted with a situation where progressing disabilities in the community has failed. I received an on the record statement to that effect from the former CEO of the HSE, Mr. Paul Reid. For children like...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Work and Priorities of the Defence Forces: Engagement with Chief of Staff (21 Mar 2023)

Tom Clonan: .... A lot of questions have been asked. My primary interest is in the culture of the Defence Forces. Women of Honour was referenced. As the general staff knows, and as everybody in this room knows, the revelations about serious sexual violence, sexual assault and rape, did not begin with Women of Honour. It began 25 years ago, when I sat down with the Chief of Staff's predecessor,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence: Work and Priorities of the Defence Forces: Engagement with Chief of Staff (21 Mar 2023)

Tom Clonan: I would be delighted to meet him at any time. In the context of all these issues, I have never been approached in the past 23 years by anybody in the organisation despite the fact that I am the person who set out in great detail the causes, patterns and outcomes of this violence, as well as the solutions. All the Defence Forces have to do is talk to me. That is why I take great comfort in...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (8 Mar 2023)

Tom Clonan: I wish a happy International Women’s Day to everybody, and particularly to my female colleagues here in the Seanad and throughout the Oireachtas. I was away at the Scottish Parliament last week at meetings and I did not get a chance to congratulate Deputy Holly Cairns on her appointment as leader of the Social Democrats. That is a great development. Equally, I am delighted to see...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (8 Mar 2023)

Tom Clonan: Yes, very soon, and also in Fine Gael and in the Green Party. I firmly believe that our very survival and everything that confronts us, including awful global conflict and climate change, are the very expressions of patriarchy, and our survival and the survival of the planet is really at this point a matter of the empowerment of women and girls all around the world. It is a better way to...

Seanad: Sex Offenders (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (8 Mar 2023)

Tom Clonan: ...Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (2): “(3) A person convicted by court-martial in a military court should be subject to all of the same notification requirements outlined in this Act as a person convicted of the same crime in a civilian court.”.”. I thank the Minister of State for attending. As he may or may...

Seanad: Sex Offenders (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee Stage (8 Mar 2023)

Tom Clonan: ...General of the Department of Defence, Ms Jacqui McCrum, is a person of considerable ability and of the upmost integrity who has come to the Department and the role from a background in international finance and banking. I know that she would not mind my saying that she cut her teeth in international finance and banking in the city in London during the 1990s. I imagine, from a gender...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Disability Proofing and Data: Discussion (16 Feb 2023)

Tom Clonan: I thank our fellow public servants from the CSO for attending. The CSO is independent and impartial and the data it gathers are crucial to how we evolve policy and move forward in this republic. I echo Ms Gibney's call, which was reiterated by Nem, Ms Hassett and others, for the full ratification of the UNCRPD and to empower IHREC further to hold the Government to account and to report on...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Disability Services (14 Feb 2023)

Tom Clonan: I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, for attending. Given the date that is in it, I hope it will not be a case of there being no love lost between us at the end of the proceedings. I hope to enter this interaction with a solutions-based focus. The reason I am raising this Commencement matter is the problem in recruiting and retaining personal assistants, which I am sure has been...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Feb 2023)

Tom Clonan: I echo Senator O'Loughlin's expression of sympathies to the family of Declan O'Connell. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis. It is another loss for all the Defence Forces' community. I was so sorry to hear about this. I propose an amendment to the Order of Business that No. 130(9) be taken before No. 1 without debate. This is Senator Keogan's motion on Iran and the repressive...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Raising Awareness of the Lived Experience of Congregated Settings: Discussion (9 Feb 2023)

Tom Clonan: I thank our guests or coming in here today. At the outset, I wish to say I have only recently arrived here but I am also coming from a lived experience that is quite narrow. My understanding of our community and of our shared experience is predicated on just our own family experience. I have learned a great deal since I have come in here and through the committee. I very much appreciate...