Results 21-40 of 519 for speaker:Mary Ann O'Brien

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: What about the Waterford Comeragh?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: Racism.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: Wild blackface sheep.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: I thank Ms Bentley, Mr. Zeig and Mr. Fennell for their excellent presentation. Deputy Ó Cuív has me smiling over here. I keep thinking of the wild blackface lamb and the Wild Atlantic Way and I thought, why not have the "Comeragh sunny south-east whiteface organic wild lamb"? Moving on to serious business, it is interesting that Aldi and Lidl have entered the organic market....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: We had a meeting with organic farmers seven or eight weeks ago. We are all on the same page but we need a few more elephants to join us here. I have read about the system in Austria and they seem to have it all streamlined, under one roof and one brand. I am the biggest fan of all time of Bord Bia and I do not bear any ill will towards the four or five certification bodies currently...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: This committee should take the opportunity at this stage to try to bring it all in under one roof. We cannot have the bodies deciding what happens nationally. If 5,000 farmers want to become organic and we can make it easier for them by having it governed by one body, we should do so. It is good that-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Farming Scheme: Bord Bia (1 Dec 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: Wild Atlantic salmon is organic.

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Charities Regulation (26 Nov 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. I wish to discuss the position in respect of the charities regulator. Even though the relevant legislation was enacted in 2009, the regulator was not put into place until 18 months ago. The Minister of State is very involved in the area of philanthropy, fundraising and charity. I am here to speak on behalf of the Exchequer, the...

Seanad: Commencement Matters: Charities Regulation (26 Nov 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: I thank the Minister of State for his reply from which I do take comfort. I ask him to imagine an analogy. If he and I had started a business and were spending €4.5 billion in approximately 12,000 charities, we would want to know which of them were efficient, how the funds were being used and the value being delivered to the taxpayer. I welcome the extra budget provision, for which...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations 2015: Motion (18 Nov 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: I will be brief. I thank the Minister for attending. I welcome the increase in the fund. On the elitist conversation, I was at Goffs this morning and on Monday morning. It is no more elitist than Billy the Bear. On Monday, we sold a foal for my parents, who are in their nineties, for €4,500. The man who has worked for us for 30 years sold a National Hunt horse that won a bumper...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations 2015: Motion (18 Nov 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: There is a harness racing track in Portmarnock which, to my knowledge, is not financially viable.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations 2015: Motion (18 Nov 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: But it is affiliated to Horse Sport Ireland.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund Regulations 2015: Motion (18 Nov 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: I second exactly what Deputy Heydon has said. The issues are not connected and we have got into a long conversation. We all agree we want to have good meaningful debate about harness racing and, as the Minister said, it is in its early stages. I am not quite sure why are we sitting here playing ping-pong and holding the meeting to ransom.

Seanad: Services for People with Asthma: Motion (18 Nov 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: I move:“That Seanad Éireann: notes The Case for Change report published by the Asthma Society of Ireland in February 2014, which included commentary on the prevalence and seriousness of asthma in Ireland; and acknowledges that:- there are very significant numbers of people in Ireland living with asthma; - hospital admissions from asthma are considered avoidable; recent OECD...

Seanad: Services for People with Asthma: Motion (18 Nov 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: I thank the Minister of State for her response and all the Senators who took time to contribute. I would like to acknowledge the work of the Asthma Society of Ireland. As we have all admitted, we have friends with asthma and I was aware of this at the start of my journey on this issue but I did not know that almost 500,000 citizens are affected by the disease. Every Member should have been...

Seanad: Services for People with Asthma: Motion (18 Nov 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: The Minister of State and I agree it is a small mortgage.

Seanad: Services for People with Asthma: Motion (18 Nov 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: As Senator Power said, she can afford that but many cannot. I have read the Finnish study and the Minister of State outlined the way she is going. Education is a key factor and she is on that journey. It is staggering what Finland achieved. Aside from the 500,000 people who are suffering, there is a significant cost to the health service, which could be dramatically reduced.Senator Gilroy...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Sector: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (17 Nov 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: I thank the officials for coming before the committee and addressing our concerns and comments about the previous visit we had from organic farmers. I listened carefully to what they said and understand that under EU law the Government is allowed to tender for certain things, but I fail to see why five bodies certify the organic sector. I examined what Austria is doing. Let us remember...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Organic Sector: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (17 Nov 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: I thank Mr. Dillon. The comment on grazing in the mountains and hills was fascinating. I wonder whether Senators, Deputies and the farming community as a whole are aware that organic animals can graze alongside non-organic animals up on the hills. I was not aware of it. There is a hell of a difference between the price of organic lamb and non-organic or regular lamb.

Seanad: Order of Business (11 Nov 2015)

Mary Ann O'Brien: I pay tribute to Mr. Pat Eddery, a natural genius in the saddle, who has sadly passed away after a long illness. We sometime talk about horse racing in the House and, as it is the time of the year, we will be talking about it again in the next few weeks. If horse racing was an Olympic sport, then Mr. Eddery would have won multiple gold medals. Horses loved to win for him and he rode 4,600...