Results 1-20 of 149 for speaker:Patricia Stephenson

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

Patricia Stephenson: I want to confirm that we are just speaking on the amendment.

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

Patricia Stephenson: I commend Senator Ryan on her bravery and honesty. It is very difficult to speak about personal issues in the Chamber. It takes incredible strength so well done and thank you. It is important that people do because it adds so much colour and weight to what we are talking about. So often we talk about these things in legalese terms and it loses the meaning in many ways. As Senator Ryan...

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

Patricia Stephenson: I appreciate the intervention of Senator Comyn, but the legal age for children is 18 for a reason. We deem anyone under 18 as a child and it is not appropriate for us to make a distinction between a younger or older child when they are witnessing domestic abuse. A boy of 17, an example the Senator gave, watching his mother being abused will suffer long-term psychological trauma. We spoke...

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

Patricia Stephenson: As we heard already, domestic violence and violence against women continues to be an epidemic across the island and that is why we need this Bill. Since 2020, 37 women have been killed in the South and 27 women have been killed in the North of the country. The vast majority of those women were killed in their own home. I also want to mark the latest tragic killing of Sarah Montgomery, who...

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

Patricia Stephenson: Why does violence against women happen? It is because of the patriarchy. It is because we have had decades of decades, hundreds of years, where it has been acceptable to be violent towards women. We cannot just call on individual men, although allies are always welcome. It is great to have strong voices of men in the Seanad calling this out, of course, but we need a really strong response...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I would like to ask about the Attorney General's advice. I want to make a clarification. The Attorney General's advice was actually leaked and he did not say that goods were more defensible. I just want to make that point. Can the witnesses understand me?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: He did not say that goods were more defensible. Does trade as per the ICJ ruling, meaning goods and services in the opinion Ireland-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: In that context, does Mr. Smyth accept that the heads of Bill are not fully compliant? They cannot be compliant because they do not include services.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: With regard to EU law and international law, does EU law trump international law or is there a hierarchy with regard to whom we are beholden?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: So, international law trumps EU law.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: The Long Title of the Bill lifts language directly from the advisory opinion of the ICJ. It states that the Bill is to provide compliance by the State with its international legal obligation. It reads: "... to take steps to prevent trade relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory". However, two specific words...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: It is my understanding that the purpose of the Bill is to make us compliant with the ICJ ruling on our commitments under the UN convention on genocide.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: May I get clarification? The Long Title states that the Bill is to deliver on the ICJ obligations. It is an "Act to provide for compliance by the State with its international legal obligation, as identified by the International Court of Justice in its advisory opinion of 19 July 2024". This is in the heads of the Bill.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: How does it relate if the Bill is not supposed to be bringing us into compliance with the advisory opinion?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: The advisory opinion included the word "investment", which was deleted in the Bill. I am interested to know why that word "investment" was deleted from the ICJ finding when it was interpreted in the Bill.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: The Bill will make us just partially compliant with the ICJ ruling as opposed to fully compliant.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Will it make us partially or fully compliant with the ICJ advisory opinion, as it stands, if it were to be passed in its current form?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Towards compliance. I thank Mr Smyth.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade: General Scheme of Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 (1 Jul 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: Will it be possible to get in writing some of the points made because they were not in the opening statement?

Seanad: Nursing Homes and Care for Older Persons: Statements (26 Jun 2025)

Patricia Stephenson: I thank the Minister of State and the other contributors. We were all appalled and disgusted by the "RTÉ Investigates" programme, which made for really disturbing viewing. It showed how older people in our communities are being neglected and failed by those responsible for their care. I worry about the reactionary response we take when we see a documentary or TV show that precipitates...