Results 121-140 of 174 for long speaker:Mary Seery Kearney

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Regulation and Funding Issues Facing Workers in the Early Years Sector: Discussion (5 Oct 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: ...and know they can get a mortgage or pay the rent. Early years professionals need to be honoured for the professionalism and the role that they have in our society. I hear tell of the JLC taking a long time. Do the witnesses have any information that could illuminate when we might have an outcome? What outcomes would the witnesses want beyond remuneration, which should be well beyond the...

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Regulation and Funding Issues Facing Workers in the Early Years Sector: Discussion (5 Oct 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: ...see it and as we are articulating it in advocating to the Minister, this is about either a youth work support or else a childcare support. It does not matter where the funding stream comes from as long as it is immediately plugged and there is recognition of the need for it. Aligned to that, a couple of weeks ago the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and...

Seanad: Housing For All - a New Housing Plan for Ireland: Statements (29 Sep 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: ...for All plan. I am a member of the joint Oireachtas committee and have valued having an input into this plan and the journey that the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, in particular, has travelled along with us over the past year in the work that we have done on that. I, too, take offence at Senator Fitzpatrick's reference to a lost decade. It is a disingenuous comment that is completely...

Seanad: Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters: Primary Care Centres (29 Jun 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Mary Butler, to the House. As long ago as 2018, the probability of the Drimnagh primary care centre was being mooted and referenced in published articles. In December 2019, the then Minister for Health, Deputy Simon Harris, and Minister of State, Catherine Byrne, announced the primary care centre for Drimnagh on the site of the Mother McAuley Centre...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Younger People in Nursing Homes: Discussion (24 Jun 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: ..., who contemplates suicide; and Liam, who describes his room as his world. We have discussions as politicians, officials and people doing jobs, but there are real people whose lives are moving along while we talk about action. They are front and centre. Mr. Tyndall has brought their voices to the table. This committee should ensure that it brings them to the table at some point. That...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Children's Experiences during COVID-19 Restrictions and Lockdowns: Engagement (22 Jun 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: ...Coming back to LilyRose, her statement that she is not a vector is a powerful one. With the evolving information, the news and so on, everything has changed. March of last year feels like a very long time ago. It is now perhaps easy to forget that in the beginning that was the message that was put out regarding children. Reflecting on it today, it is striking to hear LilyRose put it so...

Seanad: Aviation Sector: Statements (21 Jun 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: ...into the country wander around Dublin city so it is not just about aviation and the people employed in the sector, although we need to move on this. They have been on the sidelines for a very long time. One of the most vocal spokespersons on behalf of this sector is a former captain, Sarah Louise Gibbons, who is a relative of mine. She has spoken very articulately about how her world...

Seanad: Gender Pay Gap Information Bill 2019: Committee Stage (21 Jun 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: ...and that disparity is known. Many of the contractors and the cleaning contractors I have encountered would be in the context of temporary agency workers who are assigned or row in, and as long as they are not under a Swedish derogation type model, which would be the exception, they also have comparable rights to a directly employed employee. There are certainly other things under the...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (15 Jun 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: Four weeks ago I raised the plight of long-term patients in hospital who are waiting to get home and the fact they are allowed no visitors. I thank the Leader for writing a letter to the Minister for Health. I followed up on the issue with him in the meantime, asking that long-term patients in hospital should be afforded the same visiting rights as those who are in nursing home care. There...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2021: Discussion (15 Jun 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: ...Chair. There is a period where there is an opportunity to register a non-contact preference, which is set as three months. I noted in one of the submissions a desire that this would be for much longer. My fear, however, is that the period we establish is a period for which there would be a stay on the right to access information. I would welcome a comment on the effects of lengthening...

Seanad: Gender Pay Gap Information Bill 2021: Second Stage (14 Jun 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: .... I thank him also for acknowledging the great work of Deputy David Stanton as well. What is extraordinary is that we have to legislate for gender equality where pay is concerned. We should have long since moved past the stage where women must prove their worth and that they are of equal value in the workplace. However, the finding by the EU that there is a 16% disparity in pay between...

Seanad: Civil Legal Aid (Exclusion of Value of Free or Partly Free Board) (Amendment) Bill 2021: Second Stage (31 May 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: ...of litigation are so high. Senator Martin referenced defamation actions as being particularly difficult to initiate. If one is waiting on legal aid to initiatie a defamation action, it will be a long wait and outside Statute of Limitations. A number of the speakers spoke about fees in their contributions. I am mindful that in a context in which we are talking about setting aside HAP...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (25 May 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: ...pass to visit for at least one hour per week. That would be really important and valuable. It is important we highlight and address as a priority the plight of people who are in hospitals for a long time, who are receiving no visitors and who have no means of communication with the outside world. I call on the Leader to communicate the matter to the Minister for Health on behalf of the...

Seanad: Affordable Housing Bill 2021: Second Stage (Resumed) (24 May 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: ...while they save as much as they can for a deposit. Couples are delaying the start of their families due to the cost of providing housing. They cannot afford it. Affordable rental in the form of long-term tenure in the cost rental dwellings planned and assistance in purchase, either through the shared equity scheme or local authority affordable purchase schemes, are welcome developments....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill (Resumed) (18 May 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: ...pre-legislative scrutiny sometime in the autumn, this will be before both Houses of the Oireachtas and will be enacted into law. After that, when do we expect to break ground in Tuam, mindful that a long period has already elapsed? Time is of the essence. We also have the issue of perhaps the implications of further decomposition so I would be interested to hear about a timeline.

Joint Committee On Children, Equality, Disability, Integration And Youth: Children's Unmet Needs: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health (Resumed) (11 May 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: ...another group that is headed up by a woman called Vanessa Hughes. They have children who are perhaps seven years of age and have only had four weeks of occupational therapy. They are engaged in a long process. There are changes in staff. Each time there is a change in staff within the HSE or the provision of services, they have to start again. There is lack of continuity of personal...

Seanad: Education (Leaving Certificate Examinations) (Accredited Grades) Bill 2021: Second Stage (7 May 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: ...for their exams but, on Friday night, a family member was classified as a close contact of an infected person, meaning the students could not go. We need some sort of contingency. While we are a long way down the road, there is the vaccination roll-out and so on, we must ensure that such devastation does not occur for a student at the height of the exams. I wonder about the legacy of...

Seanad: Water Quality: Motion (19 Apr 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: I very much welcome the motion. The Green Party motions are always very long and informative and we learn a good deal from them. I thank Senator Garvey for it. It is very good, comprehensive and reflects the programme for Government on which our three parties came together and agreed to move forward together. I also welcome the White Paper. There is a great deal in it. I hope the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of a Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill: Discussion (14 Apr 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: .... I begin by thanking Catherine Corless especially. Our State owes her a serious debt of gratitude for bringing this horrific history to light. I agree with her that this has gone on for too long and that now is the time for action. I note that several of the submissions for today's meeting talk about us acting or moving quickly. I believe this pre-legislative scrutiny will give the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: General Scheme of a Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill: Discussion (14 Apr 2021)

Mary Seery Kearney: ...how the babies died, I am curious as to how we could proceed investigating in the absence of individual exhumations and identities. This may be an inhibitor. In my head I imagine this to be a long process, and that we would have to have an exhumation, an identification and then an inquest of some sort. Perhaps she will elaborate on that. On Ms Corless's points regarding local...