Results 21-40 of 671 for speaker:Tom Clonan

Seanad: Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2022: Second Stage (25 May 2022)

Tom Clonan: I thank the Minister of State and his officials for being here. I have some concerns about the legislation. I am delighted to see another whistleblower, Peter Behan, here. I am sorry Antoinette and Noel McGree and other whistleblowers cannot be here. My first concern is about section 8, which removes the right to make protected disclosures directly to a Minister. This applied to me back...

Seanad: Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2022: Second Stage (25 May 2022)

Tom Clonan: Ireland has a very particular and toxic culture when it comes to whistleblowing. The 2014 Act, for example, contains within it the assumption that the person who calls attention to wrongdoing will lose his or her job. We need to think about that. There is no mention in this legislation of those who engage in reprisal against whistleblowers. My sin or crime was calling out sexual violence...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022 (24 May 2022)

Tom Clonan: I echo my colleagues' concerns about that six-month period. If an unborn child is in uteroand the mother is in one of those settings, is that period counted? There is a lot of research that shows there will be effects if a mother is not properly nourished and stressed. I note that many of the women concerned carried out commercial work without pay. Another way of putting that would be...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022 (24 May 2022)

Tom Clonan: May I respond?

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022 (24 May 2022)

Tom Clonan: Please forgive me for asking but this is my first time to be a member of a committee.

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022 (24 May 2022)

Tom Clonan: I would make a brief observation and it is in no way intended to be a personal one. It is just part of the discussion and the dialogue. I am just concerned about an aspect of this matter. The length of time spent at the site of the trauma does not correlate in any way with the outcomes of the trauma. Trauma is an inevitable organic and automatic consequence of being in the wrong place at...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022 (24 May 2022)

Tom Clonan: It does. It does not allay my concerns but it is very clear what the rationale was. I thank Ms McGarrigle for that.

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022 (24 May 2022)

Tom Clonan: I thank the witnesses. The following is for Dr. O'Byrne. I said at the earlier session that as a layperson I felt there was no correlation between length of time and significance of trauma. It must be disturbing for anybody with knowledge or expertise in the area that this rationale was in place. It seems a cruel and arbitrary time limit. I echo the question Deputy Ward put. I imagine...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022 (24 May 2022)

Tom Clonan: Sorry, I should not have put her on the spot like that.

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022 (24 May 2022)

Tom Clonan: That is great. That makes sense. It is a deterministic, quantitative, paternalistic, measurable sort of thing. It is like they shy away from the qualitative, experiential element of being put in that awful situation and a mother knowing there will be negative consequences and seeing this happen to other people. It is unimaginable pain and torment. I thank Ms O'Kennedy.

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: General Scheme of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022 (24 May 2022)

Tom Clonan: It speaks to speaking the truth and naming the harm. I thank the witnesses.

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (16 Jun 2022)

Tom Clonan: I wish to raise a number of issues. This week the Women's Aid Annual Impact Report 2021 was published. I find the contents of it shocking. Its findings are deeply disturbing. We have a persistent and profound problem in Ireland with violence against women. I will quote some of the statistics. According to Women's Aid, 33,831 disclosures of abuse were made during 2021. This represents a...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Joint Meeting with Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Progressing Disability Services: Discussion (2 Jun 2022)

Tom Clonan: I thank the Minister of State and the officials for coming here. I am sorry that what I am going to say is not going to be pleasant but I am sure they have heard it all before. The reason I am here is the dysfunction in the services. I have a son who I speak about with his permission as he is very anxious I speak about this. He is now 20 years of age. You have failed him. He has not...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Joint Meeting with Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Progressing Disability Services: Discussion (2 Jun 2022)

Tom Clonan: We do not get that empathy when we interact with Mr. Reid's colleagues. The medical people are great but the HSE's management and administrative people are not empathetic or sympathetic, and very often they are hostile.

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Joint Meeting with Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Progressing Disability Services: Discussion (2 Jun 2022)

Tom Clonan: Across the board they are adversarial, hostile and confrontational. I have received correspondence from people for years and, unfortunately, one must go on “The Late Late Show” to get something in Ireland. It is like "The Hunger Games". I mean I think we should have a programme called "Ireland's Sickest Family" where people compete for a wheelchair, a therapy or an...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Joint Meeting with Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Progressing Disability Services: Discussion (2 Jun 2022)

Tom Clonan: Will the Department issue a statement to the effect that it has failed? That intellectual honesty would provide a good starting point for us to move forward. Both the Department of Health and the HSE have failed. It is not that they are failing or are struggling; they have failed. They have failed thousands of children like my son, all the people who are in contact with me and all the...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Joint Meeting with Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Progressing Disability Services: Discussion (2 Jun 2022)

Tom Clonan: Tens of thousands.

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Joint Meeting with Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Progressing Disability Services: Discussion (2 Jun 2022)

Tom Clonan: With respect, I do not know why Professor MacLachlan is saying all this to me. If he reads the article in The Irish Timesabout why medics will not come back from Australia, he will find that what he is saying is not actually quite the case. I wish he would address the point that I raised. Will he issue a statement to the effect that the HSE has failed? That is the intellectual point at...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Joint Meeting with Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Progressing Disability Services: Discussion (2 Jun 2022)

Tom Clonan: I did not get an answer. Professor MacLachlan is not going to issue that statement. I reject what he had to say there because he is not comparing like with like. The reality is that the evidence is on the ground. People are voting with their feet. The doctor in my house would say to our children: "Do not study medicine in Ireland and if you want to study medicine, work abroad. It is not...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Joint Meeting with Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Progressing Disability Services: Discussion (2 Jun 2022)

Tom Clonan: They are condescending, to be honest, given what I have had to say here today. I can see where the problems lie. What the witness is doing is an exercise in denial and being patronising and condescending, talking about twice this and twice that. We do not have the staff on the ground.