Results 161-180 of 1,451 for speaker:Eileen Flynn

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Travellers in Prison: Discussion (26 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: I welcome our guests. I remind people of their privileges and that they cannot participate if they are outside of Leinster House, etc. Those giving evidence have to be physically present within the grounds of Leinster House and should not criticise or make charges against any person, or identify him or her by name or in such a way that makes him or her identifiable. I think we all...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Travellers in Prison: Discussion (26 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: I thank Ms Brady for that. It was very good and very insightful, and it is important we are having this conversation. I know that. I call Ms Anne Costello and Ms Ann Marie Sweeney.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Travellers in Prison: Discussion (26 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: I thank Ms Sweeney for her input and just to let the committee know, she received the Traveller Pride intersectionality award this year. I know with all my heart it is not easy to come in here and tell your story as a Traveller woman. It is hard for all Traveller women, but is it even tougher when you are a mother who has come through addiction and prison, with that sense of shame. I...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Travellers in Prison: Discussion (26 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: I thank Mr. McDonagh. I will talk about some of the work we have done. As a politician, I know the vital work that Mr. McDonagh has done for me in my role to allow me to connect, along with some local county councillors and TDs. The work is absolutely vital and needs to be funded. Before I pass to Deputy Stanton, I apologise to the representatives of Barnardos. I had to run out to make...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Travellers in Prison: Discussion (26 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: Thank you, Deputy. To be clear, before the Deputy leaves, for the agreement of members of the committee, we will write to the Department of Justice about funding the three extra staff members for Barnardos. We will also write to encourage the Department to financially support the Traveller Mediation Service. We will also write to the Department of children. Is that agreed? Agreed. I...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Travellers in Prison: Discussion (26 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: It is important we look at getting Tusla before the committee about the work it does specifically with Travellers in prison. What Ms Costello spoke about is extremely real. Ms Sweeney rightly said that having a relationship with your children is important. Many Traveller women prefer their child to be with the grandmother, sister or uncle and cut off that relationship because of the fear...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Travellers in Prison: Discussion (26 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: Judges have to leave their children to go work and have to that explain to their children. Once a week, I explain to my children that mammy has to go to work in order that they do not feel abandoned. That is very real. To have that experience must have been absolutely traumatic for Ms Sweeney but, most importantly, for her children too. That should not be allowed to happen.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Travellers in Prison: Discussion (26 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: I thank the Senator.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Travellers in Prison: Discussion (26 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: Thank you, Deputy. Ms Brady, would you like to come in?

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Travellers in Prison: Discussion (26 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: The absolute last resort is to put a pregnant woman in prison. Thank you, Deputy Buckley. Over the summer, the Vice Chairperson, Deputy Ó Cuív, announced that he will not be running in the next election. As Travellers, we are very grateful for the work Deputy Ó Cuív has done for years, especially for Travellers in prison and people in prison in general. I do not...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Travellers in Prison: Discussion (26 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: Deputy Ó Cuív met a man in Castlerea who said he has been a long time on remand.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Travellers in Prison: Discussion (26 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: Are Travellers kept longer on remand than people from the general population?

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Travellers in Prison: Discussion (26 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: This shows the level of funding needed from the Department of Justice.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Travellers in Prison: Discussion (26 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: I have some questions that perhaps cannot be answered today because we are due to finish at 12.30 p.m. For us as a committee, it is not just about visiting halting sites and not taking any action. It is not just about going into the prisons and seeing the men and women and leaving it there. It has really opened up my eyes. In Castlerea Prison, Ms Costello said that we are not looking for...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Travellers in Prison: Discussion (26 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: I thank Ms Sweeney and everyone else so much. We will go back to being a little bit formal again. Would any members of the committee like to raise any other matters? No. We will meet again next Thursday, 3 October 2024, at 10.30 a.m., when we will have representatives with us from the Irish Travellers' Access to Justice Project, so the work continues. On 10 October 2024, then, at 10...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: This morning, I met representatives from the Irish Foster Care Association and learned of some of the inequalities that foster parents and children experience. If a foster child is coming to someone's home, a lot of the time, the child comes with just the schoolbag on his or her back without any start-up grant for a bed or a few little toys to make the child feel at home. The child or...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (25 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: I move amendment No. 63: In page 67, between lines 33 and 34, to insert the following: “(vi) the promotion of accessible and inclusive urban design;”.

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (25 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: I move amendment No. 64: In page 67, between lines 33 and 34, to insert the following: “(vi) the provision of suitable Traveller accommodation and community facilities;”.

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (25 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: I will speak briefly on the amendment on Traveller accommodation that the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, has indicated his Department cannot accept. Yesterday, while the Minister of State was in this Chamber, he made a comment that Traveller accommodation falls under the traveller accommodation programme, TAP, which is handled at a local and national level as well. That is the problem. It has...

Seanad: Planning and Development Bill 2023: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (25 Sep 2024)

Eileen Flynn: Hear, hear.