Results 1-20 of 1,412 for speaker:Mary Fitzpatrick

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Tax Code (10 Jul 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for coming to the House this morning. My Commencement matter this morning calls for the Minister for Finance to make a statement on the proposal from Dublin City Council for the introduction of a tourist bed tax and for the Minister to make a statement on his Department's proposals to legislate to give local authorities revenue-raising powers....

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Tax Code (10 Jul 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I appreciate the Minister of State's response and that this matter falls to the Minister for local government. I will take up the issue with the local democracy task force. I am the Fianna Fáil spokesperson for local government and I look forward to engaging with the task force. One point that is very clear from the Minister of State's reply is that no action will be taken by the...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Tax Code (10 Jul 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I mean for budgetary purposes.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (10 Jul 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: On behalf of the Fianna Fáil group, I join in the welcome to our distinguished guests. We stand in solidarity with the victims and families of the genocide in Srebrenica and we renew our call for an end to the genocide in Gaza. On domestic matters, I welcome the announcement by the Minister for justice of his intention to bring a memorandum to Cabinet next week, on 15 July, regarding...

Seanad: Defamation (Amendment) Bill 2024: Second Stage (9 Jul 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I thank the Acting Chair for allowing me some time. I appreciate the Minister is under time pressures. Like the other Senators, I greatly appreciate his attendance in the House. He is affording us strong attention and I hope the contributions from the Senators merit that. Many of the other Senators spoke in detail about the Bill. I will focus my comments on an issue that has been aired...

Seanad: Post Office Network: Statements (9 Jul 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. I welcome and thank the Irish Postmasters' Union and the postmasters. Some postmasters are in the House this evening but many more are in their post offices. They are in more than 850 communities throughout the country. I know they are very important in Donegal and they are just as important in Dublin. The post office is the...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (8 Jul 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I second the proposal from the Sinn Féin Senator for a debate on the GPO. It is an incredibly important building and important site in the history of our State. The disinformation and untruths being put out by Sinn Féin about the plans for the GPO are alarming. We heard them repeated in this House again today. I do not know whether Senator Conor Murphy has been down to the GPO,...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (8 Jul 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: It is important then that Sinn Féin stop this dangerous false narrative that somehow there is a plan to sell it off to private enterprise. There is absolutely no plan. In fact, the responsible Minister confirmed that not once, but twice and maybe three times, last week on the record of the Dáil. Sinn Féin has posters up on the main streets of our capital city that say "Save...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (8 Jul 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: -----so every future generation can be aware of our history.

Seanad: National Drugs Strategy: Statements (8 Jul 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House today to engage with us on this really important issue. I wish her well in her role as Minister of State with responsibility for drugs policy. I am very confident that she will be an excellent Minister of State and will make her mark in this Department because I know she is a very human individual and she always looks at the human. She...

Seanad: National Drugs Strategy: Statements (8 Jul 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: Tomorrow at 10.30 a.m.

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Local Community Safety Partnerships (2 Jul 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I too welcome the visitors from Ringsend. It is opportune that the Minister would take this Commencement matter while his constituents are in the House. Ladies, you are most welcome. This morning I ask that the Minister update the House on the community safety partnerships that are due to be rolled out in the 31 local authorities. In the previous Oireachtas term, the Minister for...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Local Community Safety Partnerships (2 Jul 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: It is encouraging to hear of the efficiency with which the Minister has progressed the regulations and the preparations in train in the local authorities. I welcome the fact there will be five in the city and, to reflect its growing population and expanding demographic, two in Fingal. I echo the Minister's comments on local councillors. They get elected because they know the people they...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (2 Jul 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I join in the welcome to our visitors from the west. They are very welcome. They are in great company with the esteemed Senator Crowe and I hope he looks after them well. I am sure he will. I have just heard the very sad news that Brother Kevin Crowley has passed away. Kevin Crowley hailed from Cork and he passed away in his home county. He came to my constituency of Dublin Central...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (1 Jul 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I welcome that history will be made in the Oireachtas this afternoon when the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade commences pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory (prohibition of importation of goods) Bill 2025. The legislation is an opportunity for us, as a very small country, to lead the international community on...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (1 Jul 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: Hear, hear.

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Schools Building Projects (26 Jun 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I appreciate the Minister of State's attendance. This is an important issue. Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire is a primary school that has been located in temporary facilities - the Minister of State may struggle to believe this - for 23 years. To give a perspective on the human impact of that amount of time, the principal, Paul Hansard, a very...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Schools Building Projects (26 Jun 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate that he has been sent with a reply from the Minister for Education and Youth. It is disappointing that the Minister herself is not here, considering the importance of this school project and the unacceptable delays with it. The reply the Minister of State has been provided with - I thank him for sharing it with the House - basically confirms...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (26 Jun 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I return to the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and continue to express our concerns for the human atrocities being perpetrated there. We have moved to a point where we are not talking about women, children and men dying of starvation. We are talking about them dying of thirst. Water is something we take for granted. I reiterate our criticism of the division within the EU in its approach to...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 Jun 2025)

Mary Fitzpatrick: I welcome the approval yesterday by the Government of the city task force, a plan for Dublin city. This is a really important moment in the history of our capital. The plan has three primary objectives, namely, to get more people living in the city, to have safer and cleaner public streets and public spaces. and to have an always-on vibrant city that respects our heritage. They are three...