Results 1-20 of 163 for speaker:Keira Keogh

All-Island Strategic Rail Review: Statements (Resumed) (2 Jul 2025)

Keira Keogh: I thank the Minister of State for being here. I will address the all-Ireland strategic rail review from the perspective of its profound significance to County Mayo. I am lucky to have a door-to-door service from Westport to Dublin, but if I want to go to Galway, which is the nearest city, I would have to go to Athlone and then back to Galway and if I want to go to Sligo, I have to drive or...

Review of Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act 2004: Statements (1 Jul 2025)

Keira Keogh: I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Moynihan, and the Minister, Deputy McEntee, for all they are doing to try to move the dial for disability matters and children with additional needs. Fifty-one recommendations have come out of the review of 2004 EPSEN Act. Two decades ago, the Act set out ambitiously to ensure equal access to an education system that would recognise the...

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Keira Keogh: I thank Dr. Muldoon. It is proposed to publish the opening statement on the Oireachtas website. Is that agreed? Agreed. Before I call members, I remind them that they will be allocated seven minutes' speaking time. They will all be happy to see that our clock is back up and working. This allocation must include the response from the witnesses. If time permits at the end, I will allow a...

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Keira Keogh: Dr. Muldoon will do his best to reply in the time remaining.

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Keira Keogh: Senator, please allow Dr. Muldoon to reply.

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Keira Keogh: I might give a second round of questions or people can finish questions.

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Keira Keogh: I am going to speak next. We will then go to Deputy Boland. I thank the witnesses for their engagement so far. I wanted to touch on the complaints about bullying. How many of them related to social media? I can see in the Ombudsman for Children's submission to Coimisiún na Meán around the online safety code, it put in recommendations on safety by design, parental controls,...

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Keira Keogh: Absolutely.

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Keira Keogh: Dr. Keilthy mentioned the recommender systems and Dr. Muldoon referenced accountability. Going back to the topic of pornography, while we are not teenagers anymore, but we all know that teenagers are getting around it. They are using "seggs", instead of using the word "sex". They are finding content by using aubergine emojis and things like that. If we know that, the social media...

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Keira Keogh: No Irish person wants anybody, no matter where they come from, going outside to have to come back in to heat the baby's bottle. We will move to Deputy Boland.

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Keira Keogh: I thank everyone for that first round of questions. It was really insightful and it is great that we have time for a second round. For the information of the committee, I am allowing questions on disability today because they are directly related to the report. Senator Keogan and Deputy Kerrane have indicated. Who else would like to speak on the second round? I have Deputies Currie,...

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Keira Keogh: I thank the Senator.

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Keira Keogh: I thank Senator Keogan. I will move to Deputy Kerrane.

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Keira Keogh: I thank Deputy Kerrane. Deputy Ó Murchú is next. Deputy Currie sends her apologies as she had to leave for a meeting of the Business Committee.

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Keira Keogh: I am next. Let us look at Oberstown and special care in Tulsa. We heard last week there was an incident in Oberstown where nine staff were injured and four went to hospital. We can look at special care and the number of people on extended leave or sick leave due to injury. I think we are all agreed more therapists are needed for special care and we are failing in that regard but on the...

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Keira Keogh: We had a briefing yesterday about fostering.ie which is under Tusla. There were foster carers there talking about how wonderful the experience is, and Senator Keogan is or was a foster carer. It is scary to see last year there were fewer foster carers joining than leaving. There is great support on the ground in one sense with the out-of-hours, the peer support and the financial...

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Keira Keogh: Regarding the LGBTQIA+ inclusion strategy, the witnesses mentioned the need for a renewed and more ambitious approach. I join them in noticing the fall back of support for the community. Ten years on from the marriage referendum, the community talks about being frightened at present after getting to a point where they could hold hands in public. That safety has been eroded in recent times....

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Keira Keogh: Regarding the rainbow community, could Dr. Muldoon give me an example of the type of complaints the office gets from that community? Is it from the children or teenagers themselves or from teachers or parents? What do those complaints look like?

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Keira Keogh: That is an interesting point. Freedom of speech and the right to protest is there and should be protected. There are places that are right to protest, such as outside local authorities and the Dáil here, where we have protests and engage with them regularly. Outside places where children are trying to be educated or play, however, is not the place for protests. Talking about the...

Committee on Children and Equality: Engagement with Office of the Ombudsman for Children (26 Jun 2025)

Keira Keogh: Dr. Muldoon does not have to answer personal queries.