Results 1-20 of 354 for long speaker:Bríd Smith

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Visa Applications (25 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: ...for Justice and Equality if there are plans to employ more staff or take additional steps to deal with the significant backlog of applications for visas, renewals and extensions that are taking a long time to process (details supplied); the steps her Department will take to reduce the unacceptable waiting times; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18477/24]

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

Bríd Smith: ...now, been campaigning? They are celebrating the scrapping of the Green Paper and campaigning for the optional protocol to be instituted. It cannot be rocket science. Why do we create these tortuous long pieces of work around something that for other countries seems to be very simple? I will tell the House why. It is because this Government has done everything it can to avoid being...

Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: ...' spokesperson for People Before Profit. There has been a real war on pensions, particularly defined benefit pensions, over the past ten years or so. The narrative is that we are living too long, and we cannot afford this, so we have to tackle it. Therefore, instead of longevity in life being something to celebrate and be excited about, and instead of making provisions for people to...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Disease Management (9 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: 1463. To ask the Minister for Health if he is aware of the long waiting lists to access the HIV preventative drug PrEP for those who cannot afford to obtain it privately or via the drug payment scheme; if there are plans to improve public access; if so, if he will outline these plans and provide a timeframe for same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14691/24]

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Waiting Lists (21 Mar 2024)

Bríd Smith: 276. To ask the Minister for Health if he is aware that there are currently very long delays in obtaining an appointment for a blood test at the Mater Hospital, with reports of nine weeks to be seen by a phlebotomist; his plans to address these delays, given the importance of blood tests in early health interventions; the reason for the delays; the timeframe for their significant reduction;...

An Bille um an Daicheadú Leasú ar an mBunreacht (Cúram), 2023: Céim an Choiste agus na Céimeanna a bheidh Fágtha - Fortieth Amendment of the Constitution (Care) Bill 2023: Committee and Remaining Stages (17 Jan 2024)

Bríd Smith: ...they are not going to last. They understand how much older people than me, although I am getting there, respond to a change in circumstances and environment. They know they are not going to last long. When change happens abruptly, it can be very damaging to their longevity or their possibility of existing for much longer on this earth. Families outside of the home when dealing with...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (17 Jan 2024)

Bríd Smith: ...right say Ireland is full but I will tell you what Ireland is full of: empty homes. There are 165,000 of them and the Government has never dealt with that. The homes have been lying empty for a long time under successive Governments of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, sometimes backed up by other parties that go into coalition with them. It is their policies that are creating the...

An Bille um an Naoú Leasú is Tríocha ar an mBunreacht (An Teaghlach), 2023: An Dara Céim - Thirty-ninth Amendment of the Constitution (The Family) Bill 2023: Second Stage (14 Dec 2023)

Bríd Smith: ...rights - all of the language that is already in there - and just restating it but on the other, we are saying that when they look after each other when they are frail and have disabilities and long-term illness, we will strive to recognise that - not that we will do it. It is full of contradictions. I am not here just to give out to the Government. I genuinely believe it is pretty bad...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (13 Dec 2023)

Bríd Smith: ...morning, they were refused a termination on the grounds of fatal foetal anomaly because it is "impossible", in the words of Marie O'Shea, who spoke to the health committee in October, to say how long that baby will live if it survived birth. Despite this we have a clause, section 11, in the legislation that will not allow for doctors to recommend a termination in very tragic...

Palestine: Motion [Private Members] (22 Nov 2023)

Bríd Smith: ...are innocent civilians being held hostage by terrorists. Women and minors are being released from prison, where they have been held without charge, without trial, in internment, for God knows how long - for as long as the Israelis want to hold onto them, at their pleasure. That is who is being released for the hostages that Hamas is about to free. The lie is already sinking in. The...

Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023 (Bill 54 of 2023): Report and Final Stages (15 Nov 2023)

Bríd Smith: ...to abortion in this country, which gives rise to the protests that are happening outside providers, whether they are hospitals, clinics, GP services or whatever. There has, however, for a long time been an amendment to the Electoral Act. In just my personal experience, there is a zone around a polling station that persons cannot go beyond to distribute leaflets encouraging people to...

Housing: Motion [Private Members] (7 Nov 2023)

Bríd Smith: ...councillors. Going back in their careers, they had a focus on their local areas. First of all, every development that is proposed by every developer is not necessarily suitable to the local area. Along the canal in Drimnagh, where the Luas creeps, there is a huge amount of built-to-rent development taking place, most of it by lucrative development companies and very wealthy individuals....

Financial Resolutions 2023 - Financial Resolution No. 4: General (Resumed) (11 Oct 2023)

Bríd Smith: ...a nurse working overtime will pay more taxes on their income than a landlord earning the same sum on a passive income from rent, with which they do not have to do anything. This budget shows a shocking disregard for the long-term crises in this country and it has failed utterly to deal with them. As I said, the devil will be in the detail over the coming months and we will see what...

Childcare Fees: Motion [Private Members] (3 Oct 2023)

Bríd Smith: When the Minister moved the amendment he painted a very rosy picture, and why would he not? Anybody who saw the demonstration last week outside the Dáil, which was not by a long shot only providers as there were hundreds of workers there, and listened to parents would have to recognise that there is a crisis in our childcare system. Many crèches have closed. The Minister said the...

Local Government (Mayor of Limerick) Bill 2023: Second Stage (20 Sep 2023)

Bríd Smith: ...and public representatives. I support the FÓRSA action. Some 85% of the workers across local authorities voted to take this industrial action out of utter frustration because a process that should have been dealt with long ago has ground to a halt. We are calling on the LGMA to sit down with FÓRSA and sort out why the grade drift that has happened to thousands and thousands of...

Health (Termination of Pregnancy Services) (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2023: Second Stage (Resumed) (11 Jul 2023)

Bríd Smith: ...pursued this issue, driving us all to keep coming back to it. While repeal was not an easy win and was hard fought for before being won, you could sit back and say it is done and dusted and we no longer have to worry about it. However, we were recently reminded during questions with Ms Marie O'Shea and her team at the Joint Committee on Health that protests against abortion providers,...

Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: From the Seanad (5 Jul 2023)

Bríd Smith: ...be glued to this. What is happening here is absolutely outrageous. I find it hard to believe the Minister will stand over this. I think this will damage his political and personal reputation for a long time. He will be known as the Minister who carried this through. Unfortunately, that is the way the body politic and political life works. It will stick with the Minister. Unless he...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Taoiseach's Communications (4 Jul 2023)

Bríd Smith: ...statistics show that. Does the Taoiseach agree with Dr. O'Shea that there is a possibility a future Taoiseach will have to make a State apology to women who are in these very tragic circumstances? How long will the Government continue to bury its head in the sand and refuse to deal with this situation?

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (28 Jun 2023)

Bríd Smith: ..., its silence on workers’ rights in this case is deafening. The Government simply replied to the union to tell it that it can take unfair dismissals case. We all know that that process will be long, uncertain and unlikely to mean reinstatement. I am asking the Taoiseach to commit to bringing in legislation that will protect union activists from dismissal where they organise in...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (20 Jun 2023)

Bríd Smith: ...he was happy to have led a Government that repealed the eighth amendment. However, he is not so happy to make changes to the legislation that are clearly needed. He said he would have to think long and hard before making any changes to the legislation. The Bill I put to the House that passed Second Stage here has now been referred to the committee by the Ceann Comhairle. I have written...