Results 1-20 of 1,314 for at speaker:Mick Barry

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (14 May 2024)

Mick Barry: I congratulate the students at Trinity College who have forced their college to begin divesting from Israel. They have achieved more from their actions than has been achieved by the Government. I note that students at UCD have followed their example. I also congratulate the dozens of staff and students at UCC who have now formed the UCC BDS to organise action with the aim of forcing UCC...

Ceisteanna - Questions: European Council (14 May 2024)

Mick Barry: I understand that the special European Council had some discussion on economic matters, including the position of small business and supports for small business. I also understand that the Taoiseach is bringing forward a package tomorrow. There are a few points I wish to make about that. I will start by saying hands off the minimum wage and hands off workers' sick leave. I am open to the...

Ceisteanna - Questions: European Council (14 May 2024)

Mick Barry: 5. To ask the Taoiseach to report on his attendance at the recent special meeting of the European Council. [20873/24]

Ceisteanna - Questions (Resumed): Departmental Programmes (8 May 2024)

Mick Barry: ...the Before 5 childcare facility in Churchfield on the northside of Cork city closed suddenly last August. Before 5 had served the surrounding communities for 50 years. Three months ago, the organisation chosen to restart a not-for-profit facility at the site wrote to the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, among others, identifying the need for fresh...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (8 May 2024)

Mick Barry: ...us" is the motto of the movement for disability rights. The Government's failure to respect this principle led to its decision to launch a Green Paper on disability reform without proper consultation. Its failure to respect that principle meant the Green Paper was doomed from the start. When the Taoiseach was elected, we were told it would open up a new era for disability rights. There...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Special Educational Needs (2 May 2024)

Mick Barry: The Minister of State used a lot of statistics in his reply. I am not going to use statistics. I am going to give him the words of a parent in the form of an extract taken from a letter that was sent. This parent had to move her child out to another school. She wrote that her family is being literally ripped apart and that instead of dropping her three children to school, she is now only...

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate: Special Educational Needs (2 May 2024)

Mick Barry: How many children with autism in the town of Ballincollig have been let down badly by the State and the Government? I know of 21 straight off the bat. They are the boys who attend the Scoil Eoin primary school, who are forced to struggle along in mainstream classes when special classes are what they need. This was recognised three years ago by the National Council for Special Education,...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (2 May 2024)

Mick Barry: Yesterday, Mr. Fintan Hourihan, chief executive of the Irish Dental Association told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health that he found it profoundly worrying that a decision was made to cancel the building of a new dental school and dental hospital in Cork. A new dental school and hospital would bring a multiplicity of benefits. Number one, it would be a big improvement on the current...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (1 May 2024)

Mick Barry: The Irish Property Owners Association issued a call on Monday for the abolition of rent pressure zones. It was backed by the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers whose chief executive, Mr. Pat Davitt, said, "many, many landlords are renting ... their properties way, way under the rent". They are not getting market rent for their properties and, "The market needs to relax and...

Ceisteanna - Questions: An Garda Síochána (30 Apr 2024)

Mick Barry: There are currently delays of up to four or five months to obtain an appointment for an Irish residence permit at the Cork city immigration office at the Anglesea Street Garda station. This is causing havoc for people from outside the European Economic Area, including problems with employers and landlords and with opening bank accounts. For some, it makes it impossible to travel home for...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (24 Apr 2024)

Mick Barry: Access to safe, clean water and sanitation is a human right. It is a right that has been compromised for thousands of Cork city households. For the best part of two years now, brown and orange, dirty, discoloured water has poured from those taps. Eight days ago, the Tánaiste asked Uisce Éireann for a clear timeline for solving this problem. The public has heard from Uisce...

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

Mick Barry: After 43 years, there is at last some measure of justice. What a massive vindication for the families who refused to take no for an answer and refused to be ground down by the system. Everybody knows that the verdict is down to their steadfast campaigning on behalf of their loved ones. Everybody knows that the political and judicial establishments put every obstacle possible in the way of...

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (18 Apr 2024)

Mick Barry: Last week, the Taoiseach promised a new era for special education and appointed a Minister of State to deliver progress. This week, in Glanmire in Cork city, we see the National Council for Special Education break a promise to give a second special education class to the Brooklodge National School for this September. In Ballincollig, parents are being forced to take children with autism out...

Disability Justice: Motion [Private Members] (17 Apr 2024)

Mick Barry: I wish to make some summing up remarks on the debate we have just had. Many of the contributions from the various Deputies centred on the issue of the Green Paper. It is clear that a wide variety of Deputies in this House are pleased about the fact that the Green Paper has been scrapped, thanks to the pressure the Government was put under by the disability campaigners first and foremost....

Disability Justice: Motion [Private Members] (17 Apr 2024)

Mick Barry: I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes that the Department of Social Protection's Green Paper on Disability Reform: — proposes to introduce three "tiers" of payments depending on a person's supposed ability to work; — was published with no consultation with disabled people, and is opposed by a wide range of disabled people and their organisations; - will do nothing to...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Meetings and Engagements (16 Apr 2024)

Mick Barry: 25. To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on his attendance at the recent Munich Security Conference. [12451/24]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: General Scheme of the Employment (Restriction of Certain Mandatory Retirement Ages) Bill 2024: Discussion (10 Apr 2024)

Mick Barry: This is a really interesting discussion and some really important points have been brought up. For me, the point about the 65-66 trap, where at the moment you have to go onto the dole, is something that needs to be spoken about a lot more and needs to be fixed by having access to the pension at 65. Very interesting points have also been brought up about the four-day week, and there needs to...

Ceapachán an Taoisigh agus Ainmniú Chomhaltaí an Rialtais - Appointment of Taoiseach and Nomination of Members of Government (9 Apr 2024)

Mick Barry: I want to correct the record of the Dáil. Earlier, I mistakenly said that the shortest-serving Taoiseach in the history of the State was John Bruton at 924 days. It was actually the Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin, at 904 days. Maybe it just seemed longer. A couple of weeks ago, Deputy Michael Ring made the comment that Fine Gael has been too left for too long. If he...

Taoiseach a Ainmniú - Nomination of Taoiseach (9 Apr 2024)

Mick Barry: Deputy Harris has chosen a song from the 1970s as his new theme song, Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet". It is a great song, but I can think of one or two other tunes from that decade that might be more appropriate. For example, I can think of The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" from 1971. It might sum up the mood of the electorate a little better, and it does contain...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Youth Services (9 Apr 2024)

Mick Barry: 1679. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he accepts that students in Youthreach require midterm pedagogical breaks at least every six to seven weeks, as is the case in second level schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13626/24]