Results 1-20 of 1,488 for speaker:Eileen Flynn

Seanad: Domestic Violence (Amendment) Bill 2024: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2025)

Eileen Flynn: I did not get to hear all of Senator Ryan's speech this evening due to a committee meeting but, having listened to my colleagues in the House, I will listen back to it later. I grew up on a halting site with 73 extended families. Today there are about 20 extended families on the site. It is funny how, in some communities, domestic violence is seen to be part of the culture. I have said in...

Seanad: Disability (Personalised Budgets) Bill 2024: Second Stage (25 Jun 2025)

Eileen Flynn: I rise in support of Senator Tom Clonan’s Bill. All of the Civil Engagement Group supports this very important Bill. I am here five years this week, and since Senator Clonan has entered the House, his passion and determination around equality for people with disabilities has shown and brought things to the table that many of us would not have thought of in this House. The...

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: Business of Joint Committee (25 Jun 2025)

Eileen Flynn: What is the focus of the report and why are we doing a report? This is only one of the first public meetings of the committee. I just ask out of curiosity.

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: Business of Joint Committee (25 Jun 2025)

Eileen Flynn: My question is not a challenge; it is only for us, as a committee. When we launch the report, will it contain recommendations or will it just be a summary of the groups we have brought in?

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: Business of Joint Committee (25 Jun 2025)

Eileen Flynn: Okay.

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: Business of Joint Committee (25 Jun 2025)

Eileen Flynn: Would you call it an interim report?

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: Business of Joint Committee (25 Jun 2025)

Eileen Flynn: Again, I am not challenging this. I am just making sure we are not all looking like eejits landing a report.

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: Business of Joint Committee (25 Jun 2025)

Eileen Flynn: Brilliant. I have to leave to vote. I thank the Chair.

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: IBEC Report on Infrastructure Ambition for a Competitive, Productive and Resilient Economy: Discussion (25 Jun 2025)

Eileen Flynn: No, that is grand. I thank the Chairman. I have a few questions so I hope the witnesses will bear with me. They call for rebalancing the system to provide the common good over individual rights. Who decided what the common good is and why should affected communities lose their voice? Second, they call for a "standing forum with private sector deployers". Will this forum also include...

Committee on Infrastructure and National Development Plan Delivery: IBEC Report on Infrastructure Ambition for a Competitive, Productive and Resilient Economy: Discussion (25 Jun 2025)

Eileen Flynn: Just to be clear, that does not include trade unions or the community groups.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Funding Strategy for Traveller-Specific Accommodation: Discussion (19 Jun 2025)

Eileen Flynn: I thank the Chair. I look forward to doing the work with my colleagues on the committee over the next few years. It is a cross-party committee. It is great to have members on the committee who care for the Traveller community. I look forward to meaningful work going forward and, most important, actions that may save the lives of some Travellers.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Funding Strategy for Traveller-Specific Accommodation: Discussion (19 Jun 2025)

Eileen Flynn: We will come back.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Funding Strategy for Traveller-Specific Accommodation: Discussion (19 Jun 2025)

Eileen Flynn: Mr. O'Sullivan claimed earlier that there has been a full drawdown of funds for the past five years. However, between 2008 and 2018, local authorities only drew down €110.6 million of the €168.8 million allocated. What has changed since then, and what has been put in place to stop this pattern from returning? The 1995 task force identified a need for 1,000 transient bays,...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Funding Strategy for Traveller-Specific Accommodation: Discussion (19 Jun 2025)

Eileen Flynn: Yes, because a lot of that money was not spent on Travellers. It is important that we are very clear on this, because none of us here is living the experiences of the Traveller community.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Funding Strategy for Traveller-Specific Accommodation: Discussion (19 Jun 2025)

Eileen Flynn: Taking it back, Mr. O'Sullivan said that 78%-----

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Funding Strategy for Traveller-Specific Accommodation: Discussion (19 Jun 2025)

Eileen Flynn: Some 79% of Travellers are living in social housing.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Funding Strategy for Traveller-Specific Accommodation: Discussion (19 Jun 2025)

Eileen Flynn: That is, from the Department's point of view, as Mr. O'Sullivan said, positive. However, is that the accommodation that Travellers want or is that the accommodation that communities force them into? If we do not have the definition of "culturally appropriate" and what that means for many of the Traveller community, I find it a wee bit difficult to grasp. I am currently dealing with a...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Funding Strategy for Traveller-Specific Accommodation: Discussion (19 Jun 2025)

Eileen Flynn: For many years, Travellers have spoken about how society wants to make us fake settled people. When we go into the fact that 79% of Travellers are housed in local authority housing but without their needs being met or being culturally appropriate-----

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Funding Strategy for Traveller-Specific Accommodation: Discussion (19 Jun 2025)

Eileen Flynn: Travellers make up more than 9% of the homeless.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Funding Strategy for Traveller-Specific Accommodation: Discussion (19 Jun 2025)

Eileen Flynn: For the record, does Mr. O'Sullivan know who the Minister with responsibility for Traveller accommodation is because we are not-----