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			<copyright>Senator Rónán Mullen's website 2006</copyright>
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				<title>Protection of whistleblowers - especially vulnerable whistleblowers</title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/466.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[ This debate is particularly timely now, given the allegations coming from Rostrevor House nursing home and how allegations that workers at the home were treated after blowing the whistle there. However this issue has always been deserving of our attention.

For decades, we have heard about the devastating consequences of cover ups, abuse and corruption in Ireland. From the sexual and physical abuse of children graphically recounted in the Murphy report, to the abuse and maltreatment of former patients at our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda; from the scandal of the Hospital Sweep Stakes competition to the economic catastrophe wrought on this country through wrongdoing in our banks – we have learned that silence is not always golden. 
 ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:01:53 +0000</pubDate>
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				<title>Seanad Reform: More Urgent than Ever</title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/452.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[ Is it not the case that the real failure was that time and again, Seanadóirí failed to stand up for the privileges of the Seanad? They failed to stand up to party leaders. The next Seanad must not seek to be radical rather than redundant.

It must seek to be independent rather than redundant. We will not be well served by a future Seanad composed of members of the governing parties who seek only to do the wishes of the leaders of those parties. ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:37:46 +0000</pubDate>
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				<title>Failure of Opposition politics</title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/451.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[ Like many people, I watched in disbelief at the succession of events in recent days. Nothing pained me more then watching international news programmes and seeing the turmoil of our political events being featured in the manner they were. The only conclusion I can draw is that all the political parties put selfish, short-term political objectives ahead of the needs and interests of the people. The people were entitled to an orderly transfer of power but did not get that. When the Taoiseach announced that an election would be held on 11 March, there was the possibility that all parties, including the Green Party, could agree there was a programme of work to be got through and that this should happen first and foremost. Instead, one saw the weakness of the Green Party. While I have no issues with its members personally as people, their immaturity as a political entity has caused unnecessary chaos in recent weeks. ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:31:51 +0000</pubDate>
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				<title>Record of the Green Party &amp; Academic Freedom</title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/450.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[ Kennedy’s words, “let the word go out ... to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation,” remind me that the dead wood of the Cabinet is to be torched and that the torch will be passed to a new generation of Ministers for only a few weeks. ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:24:08 +0000</pubDate>
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				<title>Senator Mullen calls for referendum after European Court decision abortion</title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/449.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[ Were we to be really honest, we would accept that we have very little choice regarding the tough things that must be done in the next few years. Moreover, I am afraid that it flows logically from this that much that will be said in these Houses will be superfluous. While Members will be engaged in much conversation that is necessary at one level, at another level it will be quite superfluous because the same decisions must be taken anyway. In the next couple of years we will face the test of whether we can get on with the business of improving the country, particularly in ways that do not involve major cost, and avoid getting caught in the headlights of the economic crisis. ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 17 Dec 2010 17:29:59 +0000</pubDate>
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				<title>Prime Time Prime Scandal</title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/448.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[ Last night we saw people who were little better than pimps procure incompetent, untrained and, in some cases, uncaring people to take care of older persons in their homes. We saw people who were supposed to spend an hour with someone spend sometimes as little as 15 minutes providing completely inadequate care. For how long did the health authorities know this was going on? ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 17 Dec 2010 17:19:39 +0000</pubDate>
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				<title>Mental Heath Promises </title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/447.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[ Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stait. I am especially pleased the Minister of State, Deputy Moloney, is here given the topic I have raised relates to mental health. This matter relates to the need to confirm that the mental health budget will be spared in the proposed cuts to the health budget and, in particular, that the specialist rehabilitation teams envisaged under A Vision for Change and constructed thereunder to look after the most vulnerable patients with severe mental illness will not be disbanded or disturbed in their work. ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 17 Dec 2010 17:15:41 +0000</pubDate>
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				<title>Renewable Energy</title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/446.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[ The European Commissioner, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, pointed out recently that when we take in Ireland’s maritime territory, we could be considered to be the third largest country in the European Union, with the continental shelf around our island being one of Europe’s largest seabeds. She stated that although much remains undiscovered, this underwater land mass presents vast opportunities for the Irish economy and places Ireland in pole position to be at the cutting edge of marine innovation. 

 ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:38:25 +0000</pubDate>
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				<title>Banking on Economic Recovery</title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/445.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[ While we acknowledge the many good things our membership of the EU has secured for this country, it is only honest for us to note that we are dealing in some cases with forces that do not have our best interests at heart. At a time when we are not borrowing and we have sufficient funds to last until next June, why are we suddenly coming under pressure to take the bailout route? I was struck by a point made by a commentator to the effect that when we had our own currency our banks were assisted by our Central Bank, but now we are depending on the European Central Bank. While I accept the European Central Bank has been putting money into our banks, I suggest that it needs to see this problem as its problem as well as our problem. We have already heard the comments of Chancellor Merkel, which could be considered to be unhelpful to our interests. We are famous for our negotiating ability. It will be important for Ireland to work with its allies and to push back against attitudes that might serve the interests of larger and more powerful countries in the EU, rather than assisting us in our immediate crisis. ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 13 Dec 2010 10:39:32 +0000</pubDate>
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				<title>Chaplains' Damning Verdict on Prison Reform</title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/444.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[ What does the Leader think of what the prison chaplains have said in recent days? When the State’s prison chaplains say current prison policy is a disaster, they have to be taken seriously. When they say conditions in many prisons are an insult to the dignity of any human being and an affront to the basic tenets of decency, does the Leader not think we should take them seriously? ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 13 Dec 2010 10:24:09 +0000</pubDate>
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				<title>Wrong Approach to Prison Overcrowding</title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/443.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[ The issue of overcrowding in prisons has been to the forefront of the media spotlight in recent weeks following the publication and release of 18 separate reports on conditions in Irish prisons, of which 14 had been commissioned by the Department and a further four were carried out by Judge Michael Reilly, Inspector of Prisons and Places of Detention. The findings of the vast majority of the reports were highly critical of conditions in the prison system. I wonder why all of the reports were released simultaneously, in spite of the fact that they had been presented to the Minister on a staggered basis throughout the year, the earliest of which was in April. ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 13 Dec 2010 10:19:30 +0000</pubDate>
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				<title>Not Just an Economic Crisis - The Impact on Mental Health</title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/442.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[ I have had the good fortune never to have suffered from depression. That said, I went through a difficult period during my first year and a half of college. One might call it growing pains. I experienced something that came close to depression and it took me ages to settle down. My mother told me I should get out, do something for someone else and get involved in a voluntary organisation because, if I did, I would realise how much I had to be thankful for.  ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Tue, 07 Dec 2010 10:40:41 +0000</pubDate>
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				<title>Seanad Reform: Beyond a Joke</title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/440.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[  wonder whether this debate is an exercise in futility as this is the third such debate since I was elected in 2007. On the first occasion the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, spoke confidently that by Christmas of that year legislation would be brought forward and that in the next election to the Seanad, so far as the university seats were concerned, there would be a wider pool of graduates. ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:07:17 +0000</pubDate>
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				<title>Straitéis 20 bliain don Ghaeilge - tabhair deis do mhúínteoírí  freastal ar chúrsaí  sa Ghaeltacht  </title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/439.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[ Ba bhreá liom fáilte a chur roimh an Aire. Tá áthas orm go bhfuil an díospóireacht seo ar siúl sa Seanad. Ba mhaith liom fáilte a chur roimh an tríú tuarascáil agus ba mhaith liom tréaslú le gach duine a d’oibrigh go dian chun í a ullmhú dúinn. Is léir go bhfuil na moltaí ar fad a rinne an comhchoiste ar fheabhas agus ba chóir go nglacfar leo ina n-iomlán chun an straitéis a láidriú. Ba mhaith liom díriú isteach ar roinnt de na moltaí, ach sula ndéanaim sin, luafaidh mé rud a tharla dom inniu.
 ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 05 Nov 2010 16:59:53 +0000</pubDate>
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				<title>The Returning Irish</title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/438.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[ Although we face tough times it remains the case that we must apply rules fairly. This morning the Joint Committee on Social Protection had a debate about the application — I should say misapplication — of the habitual resident condition. In this context we are talking about the returning Irish who experience bad service, misinformation and fobbing off, particularly at local level where they are dealing with community welfare officers. ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Thu, 04 Nov 2010 16:30:07 +0000</pubDate>
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				<title>Animal Welfare Must Not Be Forgotten </title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/437.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[ Were we to be really honest, we would accept that we have very little choice regarding the tough things that must be done in the next few years. Moreover, I am afraid that it flows logically from this that much that will be said in these Houses will be superfluous. While Members will be engaged in much conversation that is necessary at one level, at another level it will be quite superfluous because the same decisions must be taken anyway. In the next couple of years we will face the test of whether we can get on with the business of improving the country, particularly in ways that do not involve major cost, and avoid getting caught in the headlights of the economic crisis. ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Thu, 04 Nov 2010 16:24:08 +0000</pubDate>
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				<title>Mullen condemns “corrupt” attempt to restrict conscientious objection at Council of Europe</title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/434.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[ Senator Rónán Mullen has today tabled numerous amendments to a controversial Council of Europe report that would restrict rights to conscientious objection to abortion, under the guise of protecting healthcare.

 

 ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Fri, 08 Oct 2010 13:28:21 +0000</pubDate>
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				<title>Revolution needed in Irish End-of-Life care</title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/433.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[ We may not wish to admit it, but as legislators and as a society in general we are sometimes guilty of overlooking those whose voice is meek or who may have no voice at all. We are accustomed to hearing calls to “protect the vulnerable” and to “respect the dignity of all human beings”, yet we are not always willing to follow the logic of these moral principles. This is especially true where a given context provokes feelings of unease and uncertainty. And so it is with the context of death and dying where our own anxiety about these issues may prevent us from giving sufficient thought to the reality that right now thousands of Irish people are living their end-of-life. 

 ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:10:58 +0000</pubDate>
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				<title>Mammy dies and Chelsea scores</title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/431.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[ Senator Rónán Mullen today issued a sharp critique of the standard of end-of-life care in Irish hospitals, in advance of his Private Members’ Motion this evening calling on the Government to bring end-of-life care to the centre of health policy.  ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:44:54 +0000</pubDate>
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				<title>Focus on end-of-life care must shift from hospital to home</title>
				<link>http://www.ronanmullen.net/430.html</link>
				<description><![CDATA[ Senator Rónán Mullen will introduce a Private Members’ Motion next Wednesday 29th September calling on the Government to bring end-of-life care to the centre of health policy.  ]]></description>
				<pubDate>Mon, 27 Sep 2010 10:19:06 +0000</pubDate>
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