Results 1,921-1,940 of 5,794 for speaker:James Lawless

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Business of Joint Committee (18 Apr 2023)

James Lawless: We have received apologies from Senator Vincent P. Martin. I ask everyone to turn off their mobile phones or put them on flight mode so as not to interfere with the sound. We are all familiar with the procedures around that. Today's meeting is to conduct pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the domestic, sexual and gender-based violence agency Bill. A number of stakeholders...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency Bill: Discussion (18 Apr 2023)

James Lawless: Good afternoon. Everybody is welcome. We have a number of guests. Members are joining us both in person in the committee room and online too, so people will pop up on video screens at various stages. The purpose of our meeting today is to engage with the stakeholders in the room on the scrutiny of the general scheme of the domestic, sexual and gender-based violence agency Bill. This is a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency Bill: Discussion (18 Apr 2023)

James Lawless: I am sorry to interrupt, but I am just conscious of time. Perhaps Ms Youtchak might close that point and we will take the next speaker. She can come in again later; her time is up. Does Ms Youtchak want to finish that point she is making?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency Bill: Discussion (18 Apr 2023)

James Lawless: I thank Ms Youtchak, and I want to hear from her plenty more over the course of the meeting. Mr. Seán Cooke from the Men's Development Network is up next.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency Bill: Discussion (18 Apr 2023)

James Lawless: I thank Mr. Kelly Ryan. Next up is Daire Dempsey from Transgender Equality Network Ireland, TENI. They are very welcome to the committee.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency Bill: Discussion (18 Apr 2023)

James Lawless: I thank Mx. Dempsey. Next we have Dr. Salome Mbugua Henry from AkiDwA.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency Bill: Discussion (18 Apr 2023)

James Lawless: I thank Dr. Mbugua Henry. We will now move on to the next speaker. We can hear more from her as we move on. I would like to hear the rest of the example she gave of a lady in distress because I think it would be very useful. We will take that in the next part of the meeting. The time slot is over for those particular opening remarks. I call Ms McDermott from Safe Ireland.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency Bill: Discussion (18 Apr 2023)

James Lawless: I thank Ms McDermott. I call Dr. Saidléar from the Rape Crisis Network Ireland.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency Bill: Discussion (18 Apr 2023)

James Lawless: I thank all of the witnesses. That concludes the opening remarks from the organisations represented today. We will now move to a round of questions and answers. I invite members in the order in which they have indicated to engage.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency Bill: Discussion (18 Apr 2023)

James Lawless: I thank the witnesses for the contributions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency Bill: Discussion (18 Apr 2023)

James Lawless: We are almost out of time. Dr. Saidléar and Ms O'Connor are offering.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency Bill: Discussion (18 Apr 2023)

James Lawless: I will allow a little bit of latitude in this round because it is good to hear all views.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency Bill: Discussion (18 Apr 2023)

James Lawless: Before we move onto the next question, the point about the difficulty of getting family lawyers into the District Court goes back to the system of civil legal aid. It is a topic that the committee intends to examine over the course of this year. There are a number of anomalies in the current system with regard to how lawyers, particularly in the District Court and Family Court, are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency Bill: Discussion (18 Apr 2023)

James Lawless: Would Ms O'Connor like to comment?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency Bill: Discussion (18 Apr 2023)

James Lawless: Did Deputy Costello indicate?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency Bill: Discussion (18 Apr 2023)

James Lawless: I thank Senator Clonan for his work in that area. The Defence Forces issues are subject to a different committee, but certainly they are relevant. An independent inquiry is about to commence so we welcome that. We have been around to all the members and we have had good engagement. Would the representatives from the Department of Justice like to make any remarks?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency Bill: Discussion (18 Apr 2023)

James Lawless: I thank the Department and Ms de Cogan Chin. That concludes our discussion. Does Mr. Cooke want to have the last word?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Agency Bill: Discussion (18 Apr 2023)

James Lawless: Effectively, yes. We have the opening statements and then we have interaction from the members. There is a possibility of a second round for members if they wish to indicate. No one had indicated but if a member wants to do so they may. Does Deputy Pringle want to kick it off and Mr. Cooke can reply to him?