Results 1,921-1,940 of 7,637 for speaker:Rónán Mullen

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Jun 2021)

Rónán Mullen: I welcome the experts and witnesses. It is great to have them with us. I thank them for their insights and for sharing their expertise. There are many questions I could ask, but it would not be fair to expect that there would be research available that would answer everyone. Following on from what Deputy Ó Cathasaigh asked about where Ireland stands relative to other countries, a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Jun 2021)

Rónán Mullen: If nobody else wants to respond, I might follow on by saying that I was fascinated by what we heard in the opening statements. Many people would have been unaware that there seems to be evidence in that regard. Practising Catholics are mentioned specifically. I am not surprised by that because I heard anecdotal reports about children who dared to go against the cultural grain in school on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Jun 2021)

Rónán Mullen: In a society where there is so much evidence on identity and where there is conflict around identity, specifically racial identity such as, for example, Black Lives Matter, BLM, and all of that activity going on, is there a case to be made that when we talk about bullying, if we focus too much on individual identity, we might end up privileging one category who deserve our support, including...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Jun 2021)

Rónán Mullen: I thank Dr. O'Higgins Norman. Love your neighbour as yourself does not seem like such a bad starting point. If I have time, I wish to ask about cyberbullying. There had been a lot of talk about helping children to be resilient in terms of understanding what is happening to them when they are experiencing bulling. I am also concerned, however, about whether we are doing enough to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Jun 2021)

Rónán Mullen: I meant helping them with the skills to do it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion (Resumed) (15 Jun 2021)

Rónán Mullen: Yes, it does. I thank all the witnesses.

Seanad: Gender Pay Gap Information Bill 2021: Second Stage (14 Jun 2021)

Rónán Mullen: I welcome the Minister. There is always a balance to be identified between an agenda to remove what are objectively obstacles to people's equal participation in society and the economy, which one must always support, and where this drifts into the area of social engineering, which I have an issue with, when we start to tell people and families how to live and arrange their lives, identifying...

Seanad: Gender Pay Gap Information Bill 2021: Second Stage (14 Jun 2021)

Rónán Mullen: I thank the Senator.

Seanad: Gender Pay Gap Information Bill 2021: Second Stage (14 Jun 2021)

Rónán Mullen: There are good choices and bad choices.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Jun 2021)

Rónán Mullen: I welcome all our guests and thank them for their very interesting input. My first question is for Professor Hymel. I was very struck by what she said about moral disengagement and the challenge in that regard. She made the point that it may be difficult to talk about this with children, given that they are not, as it were, fully formed morally at the point at which they appear to be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Jun 2021)

Rónán Mullen: That is interesting. I was also struck by what Professor Hymel said about the evidence showing that we are reducing bullying by only some 20%, with little evidence of effectiveness at secondary level. That suggests to me that early intervention is required. Thinking about what Dr. Downes said, it seems clear that parent training is a key issue here. There may be negative experiences...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion (Resumed) (8 Jun 2021)

Rónán Mullen: My final question is to Professor Hymel, although it may be relevant to all the witnesses because it is a general question in a way. The more I have learned in recent weeks about the diversity of pretexts, means and contexts for bullying and the diversity of approaches to dealing with it, I am struck by a particular point. We live in a time when there is very much a focus on identity,...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (1 Jun 2021)

Rónán Mullen: I join the Cathaoirleach in congratulating our Danish friends today. These days, when colonisers and attempted colonisers are being brought again before the bar of history, perhaps it is time that we asked the Danish Government for an apology for the appalling murder of Brian Boru. The fact that he might have had some Irish co-conspirators or there might have been someone involved is no...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2021)

Rónán Mullen: I welcome our guests and thank them for their interesting contributions. I will pick up on the social media issues and ask a devil's advocate-type question. I note from the NAPD's submission the need for a separate and exhaustive investigation into the abuse of social media, its destructive bullying and the impact on young people’s mental health. In this culture we live in where...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2021)

Rónán Mullen: Can I ask Ms O'Connor how parents have lost their nerve to a point where it is even possible for children to have access to technology at such a young age and so late at night? Even with the discussions that have gone on at this committee, I worry that we have such a therapeutic-type culture that we do not call out poor parenting for what it is anymore. Do we need to talk about education...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2021)

Rónán Mullen: I use a smartphone myself; I am not a complete Luddite. I thank Mr. White for a comment he made. I have heard so much at meetings of this committee from people obsessing over faith-based schools and constantly implying they are somehow soft on bullying of a certain kind. It is often due to a misunderstanding over the culture of inclusion in our schools. Sometimes it is anti-religious...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: School Bullying and the Impact on Mental Health: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2021)

Rónán Mullen: We know the good it does but there is clearly something wrong. It is a question of some kind of access.

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

Rónán Mullen: Well-deserved tributes have been paid to the great Bob Dylan in recent days as he has reached that great milestone of his 80th birthday, but another legend, an Irish one, deserves to be remembered here too, and that is the great Barney Curley, who went to his reward in recent days. He had a particular connection with these Houses. We have important debates that we need to have on gambling...

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 May 2021)

Rónán Mullen: The Minister may recall that in the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan met President Gorbachev of the Soviet Union, he began with a famous line, saying that he would let Gorbachev know why he could not trust him. That is a question that I find myself having to ask the Government at this point as we discuss emergency powers in this House yet again. Throughout this crisis, I have been among many who...

Seanad: Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2021: Committee and Remaining Stages (25 May 2021)

Rónán Mullen: Will the Senator take a point?