Results 1-20 of 176 for garda speaker:Rónán Mullen

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (16 Apr 2024)

Rónán Mullen: ...freedoms we always thought people had, freedoms that have not been abused. I have heard allegations and, as I pointed out previously, the law is there to deal with them and let it deal with them. The Garda Commissioner said the law was there and, as I pointed out previously, there have been no complaints from hospitals. We do not have a problem with people praying silently intimidating...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: ...good. For that reason, their attitude to abortion advocates is that when they say “Jump”, this Government asks, “How high?” This is even to the extent of bringing in legislation that the Garda Commissioner has effectively said is not necessary, because we have laws to deal with any problems that could arise. No medical institution of which I am aware has...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: ...a person is harassed or intimidated, I would be completely shoulder to shoulder with him in making sure that such intimidation or harassment would be against the law, but I remind him that the Garda Commissioner said the Garda had the laws to deal with any problems that could arise in this area. I hope the amendment put forward by Senator Keogan and myself will be accepted. If so, it...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: ...to be a good and exceptional reason for it and a considerable body of visible evidence making a case for a problem that cannot otherwise be solved. I brought to the Minister's attention what the Garda Commissioner had to say a couple of years ago. He has not contradicted it, nor has he dared to refer to it. To paraphrase the Garda Commissioner, he said that we had laws adequate to deal...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: ...anybody’s face here. Let those who do want to be in somebody’s face be targeted by the public order legislation. Let us have no more of this dishonesty from the Government. There is law on the Statute Book, as the Garda Commissioner said. Regarding those who want to witness to human dignity in a way that has not caused a problem in the eyes of the Limerick or Cork...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: ...not be that heart lurch. However, most of us try to be solid citizens. It is anathema to most decent people to think they would ever do something that might bring about a situation where they are approached by a garda and told to move on, that they are doing something that is not really considered socially acceptable, that they could be on the threshold of breaching public order or that...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (Resumed) (7 Mar 2024)

Rónán Mullen: I am trying to address the issue of what matters in our society in terms of respecting people's freedoms. The irony in this case was that the garda was completely polite but in the wrong on the law and not acting in the best interests of a free and open democracy. Billboard Chris, a Canadian guy, was completely in the right in terms of asserting his right to say something that was truthful...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2024)

Rónán Mullen: ...on that, but it better be something more than the mere claims of a lobby group. As far as I am aware, and the Minister might correct me if I am if I am wrong, we have not yet to my knowledge heard the Garda Commissioner resile from his earlier statement. I see the officials are consulting carefully on this because I suspect this is one of those bits of legislation that is more driven by...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2024)

Rónán Mullen: ...another issue involving reports of coercion and people being obstructed - I do not know if the Minister used the word "intimidated" today - we would have chapter and verse. We would be told the Garda expressed a worry, as did the HSE and the Medical Council. The big claim would be backed up by evidence from credible sources. I look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say,...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2024)

Rónán Mullen: That is not true when it comes to giving evidence for a point of view that you hold. Say, for example, the Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, said that there is a lacuna in our law and that we need to legislate because there is a real danger of people being intimidated when they access abortion facilities. The opposite was the message we got. If Mr. Harris had said it, it would be remiss of...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2024)

Rónán Mullen: ...idea of the university is clearly a long way from the Minister's ideas about what should be permissible in a university. I will accept one point he made which is that there is a possibility that a garda who believes with reasonable cause that a person is engaging in particular conduct can warn them. I accept that as a legitimate response to the question but I note the following. We have...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2024)

Rónán Mullen: ...us chapter and verse. He would be showing us the Government's own studies as to whether this was in fact a problem. He would be bringing forward evidence of his careful consultation with the Garda and civil and healthcare authorities, but he has done none of this. He is the one who is being brazen, coming in here today without even giving us the courtesy of a direct quotation from any...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2024)

Rónán Mullen: ...expression of ideas by people in good faith who are not out to be in anybody's face. The only point that I accept from the Minister so far this afternoon is that there is the possibility of the Garda warning. I accept that point but I would point out to him that this is precisely where the process can become the punishment so easily and I gave that example. I will not reiterate what I...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Committee Stage (27 Feb 2024)

Rónán Mullen: ...than the Bill itself in that regard, because it would reduce the number of safe access zone areas and so, instead of people falling into the trap of unlawful conduct, as they could under the Bill, or at least be subject to a warning by a garda, it seems to me, moreover, that since commission of an offence under the Act depends on Garda intervention, it would be sufficient for the Minister...

Seanad: Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Second Stage (14 Dec 2023)

Rónán Mullen: ...and representatives caving in to special interest groups that want to silence dissent. I cannot believe that what is provided for in this Bill is constitutional, when one considers that the deputy Garda commissioner appeared only a year ago before the health committee and called for signage to be erected outside facilities where abortions were being committed, on the mistaken assumption...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (29 Nov 2023)

Rónán Mullen: ...the safety of people is always more important than the safety of property. It is the safety of people that should be the lens through which to examine the statements and utterances from the Garda, the Taoiseach and the Government in recent days. Frankly, I do not need to know whether terms like "lunatic", "far right" and "hooligan" are in the Garda Commissioner's vocabulary. I do not...

Seanad: Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages [Resumed] (15 Nov 2023)

Rónán Mullen: I move amendment No. 20: In page 14, line 26, to delete “member of the Garda Síochána not below the rank of superintendent” and substitute “judge of the District Court”.

Seanad: Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages [Resumed] (15 Nov 2023)

Rónán Mullen: I move amendment No. 23: In page 15, line 13, to delete “member of the Garda Síochána” and substitute “District Court judge”.

Seanad: Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages [Resumed] (15 Nov 2023)

Rónán Mullen: ...to move amendment No. 25, God willing. For now I will speak to amendments Nos. 25 and 26. Amendment No. 25 is similar to that of Senator Ruane. The issue here is that we all want to support the Garda in the pursuit of its duties but in a democracy one always has to have regard to checks and balances and the need to ensure the work we entrust to the Garda is always done in a way that is...

Seanad: Garda Síochána (Recording Devices) Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages [Resumed] (15 Nov 2023)

Rónán Mullen: ...No. 44: In page 21, line 19, after "the" where it firstly occurs to insert "technological specifications,". Here goes. Everyone should fasten their seatbelts. The Bill provides that the Garda and local authorities can apply to the Garda Commissioner for approval for CCTV in public places. This amendment seeks to insert a safeguard in the Bill that would make it mandatory for a...