Results 1-20 of 1,032 for at speaker:Aodhán Ó Ríordáin

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (16 May 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: I am not sure if the Tánaiste saw the Fine Gael video posted online yesterday about their 15 ways to help business. I saw it; I watch little else these days. The Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, starts to speak at point No. 12. He writes the words "Sick Pay" on a flip chart. He then goes on to say, "We are going...

Progressing Special Education Provision: Statements (9 May 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: The recently published NCSE policy document, which is called An Inclusive Education for an Inclusive Society, details a level of research that was done to try to move the country towards a more inclusive education system in the future, where all children with mild general learning disabilities, MGLD, and other disabilities will be catered for in their own local school and only children with...

Europe Day: Statements (8 May 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: I am proud to have the opportunity to contribute to this debate on behalf of the Labour Party. Robert Schuman, a Luxembourger by birth and a German by heritage, spent his life contributing to French politics. Like many of his generation, the experience of two world wars that devastated the Continent drove his determination to forge a Europe bound by trust, respect and peace rather than...

European Union Migration and Asylum Pact: Motion [Private Members] (1 May 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: ...of people in political life and people with influence not tempering their language and making their case or arguments in a more restrained manner. Over the recent time, it is quite clear that there is an impression that the Government is making this up as it goes along. At the Oireachtas justice committee last week, the Minister made the contention that 80% of all asylum seekers coming...

Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024: Second Stage (30 Apr 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: I apologise; I may need to leave the Chamber as the Joint Committee on Justice is sitting at the same time. The Bill has two main purposes: to enable the provision of certain health and educational supports to survivors of abuse in residential institutions; and to dissolve the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Board, commonly known as Caranua. The Bill provides for the amendment of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Facilities (30 Apr 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: 311. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her Department’s views on whether guidelines on the use of school buildings outside of school hours prohibit the provision of sibling hour and afterschool facilities in a school building, as per the decision of the board of management at a school (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19055/24]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Legal Aid Board: Chairperson Designate (30 Apr 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: I am sorry that I missed the presentation. I apologise if my questions have already been asked by other members. I want to drill down into the €18,000 threshold figure. When was that figure arrived at and how long has it been the threshold?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: EU Regulations and Directive on International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Discussion (Resumed) (30 Apr 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: I thank the Cathaoirleach. I am sorry I had to miss many of the presentations, but I had to be in two places at once. There was an education debate in the Dáil Chamber. On the last point about far-right parties, many of the voices in the Oireachtas that I am hardwired to immediately disagree with have been very critical of this. That is why people like myself have been willing to...

Gambling Regulation Bill 2022: Report Stage (24 Apr 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: ...Mr. Mark Bradshaw who is in the Public Gallery this evening. He has been a stalwart campaigner in the area of gambling addiction. The import of amendment No. 33 is to ban gambling advertising, notwithstanding what everybody has been saying heretofore about various different community events and fundraising activities that happen in all of our communities. Gambling is a vice that is...

Gambling Regulation Bill 2022: Report Stage (24 Apr 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: ...No. 9: In page 21, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following: “(6) For the avoidance of doubt, this Act applies to gambling activities carried on by, or on the premises of, a private members’ club in like manner as it applies to such activities carried on by, or on the premises of, any other natural or legal person or unincorporated body of persons.”. ...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Legislative Measures (23 Apr 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: I am reassured by that and I thank the Minister for her response. A Croatian man was beaten to death a couple of weeks ago because he did not speak English. We have had 23 arson attacks on accommodation centres over the last number of years. Members of the LGBTQ+ community and their families know what it is like to feel afraid that they will be assaulted for who they are. We are behind...

Acknowledgement and Apology to the Families and to the Victims of the Stardust Tragedy: Statements (23 Apr 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: The truth shall set you free, or so they say. What we heard last Thursday was, indeed, the truth. We can only pray that the truth has begun to set the families of the 48 free – free from the campaigning, the meetings, the closed doors, the trauma, the criticism and the lies, free from 43 years of seeking the truth, free from the disgusting suspicion that the phrase “probable...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: EU Regulations and Directive on International Protection, Asylum and Migration: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: I thank the Chair and the Minister. It is great to have a crowd here. It is a bit like going to a League of Ireland match. You wonder where everybody was, and now they are here, which is great. On the issue at hand, can the Minister confirm for me that the right to seek asylum will be maintained, enshrined and protected under this proposal?

Road Safety: Statements (17 Apr 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: Road safety is an issue that is seemingly spiralling out of control. This year is currently on course to prove the most lethal for traffic fatalities in 15 years, with all the good work that has been done in the years gone by completely erased. So far this year, 63 people have died on the roads, with the death toll climbing by an alarming 31% compared with the same period in 2023. In...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Disadvantaged Status (16 Apr 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: I am not in any way suggesting that the Minister does not appreciate the severity of the issues at hand. I have shared stories of my time teaching. The stories of people now on the front line are harrowing. We are losing children because of interventions which could take place and which, as has been acknowledged, would make the difference. It is very upsetting and very emotional to speak...

Ceisteanna (Atógáil) - Questions (Resumed) - Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Public Sector Pay (16 Apr 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: I thank the Minister for her kind words. It is very much appreciated by my family, to whom education means the world, that the Minister for Education mentioned my daughter on the floor of the House. Her sister Anna is very excited. On the matter at hand, the INTO has spoken at its recent conference about 2,000 long-term vacancies within the primary school sector, as the Minister knows....

EU Police Co-operation: Motion (10 Apr 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: We in the Labour Party welcome this proposal. The issue of human trafficking is one to which, historically, the State has not given due attention. It must be said there have been a good few initiatives, mostly from EU level, in recent years that made some headway. I think, for example, of the EU directive on preventing and combating human trafficking and protecting its victims, which was...

Accommodation for International Protection Applicants: Motion [Private Members] (21 Mar 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: I really do not know what to say after those contributions from Sinn Féin. I am disappointed I have to say this, because I sat through contributions a couple of weeks ago in respect of arson attacks and I really expected better from Sinn Féin. One contribution did not mention arson at all. It was all about the immigration system, consultation and all the rest of it. Many of the...

Accommodation for International Protection Applicants: Motion [Private Members] (21 Mar 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: -----with what the Minister has to deal with now. We did not have the same numbers. We did not have racists in the Dáil in the same number as the Minister has to deal with, or in the Seanad, but I did have a partner in government that was unsympathetic, which is what the Minister has. I also had to deal with - I have to say this - a permanent government that is institutionally racist....

Housing Targets and Regulations: Motion [Private Members] (6 Mar 2024)

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin: I thank all those who have contributed to our debate on housing today. It is the great civil rights issue of our time, the ability to live in safety and security. We thank the Minister of State for not opposing the motion and for his comments on the Labour Party. The Minister of State referred to solutions on a European level. I believe that is where the housing Minister is now. We...