In the Dáil under the Order of Business I told the Tánaiste that I am not satisfied with the government’s progress on establishing a taskforce to focus on regenerating the North Inner City of Dublin.   In the wake of a spate of gang-related killings, I visited the North Inner City with Joe Costello where…

A study by the Nevin Economic Research Institute has shown that almost three quarters of people earning the minimum wage in Ireland are women. The disproportionately high number of women earning the minimum wage clearly demonstrates the need to introduce a living wage to help tackle the gender pay gap. This government has completely taken…

The Government’s Housing strategy leaked today and due to be published next week contains a lot of measures but no clear direction. It contains sops to the construction industry, for example upfront payment for Part 5 social houses and the use of public land for mixed tenure development, the majority of which will be for…

New research from the ESRI suggesting that young people find life much tougher than the over-65s comes as no shock to the young people reading it. Grace Williams, Labour Youth National Chairperson said on the report: “It has been clear for some time that young people are finding it difficult to navigate an increasingly expensive…

Speaking in the Dail today, Alan Kelly asked Health Minister Simon Harris to provide an up-to-date list of section 38 entities which receive funding from the HSE and for a full breakdown of the funding each organisation received from 2013 to 2015. He said: “I’m calling on the Minister to publish all HSE audits of…

On the Order of Business today, Senator Ivana Bacik expressed her concern regarding the proposal to introduce a scheme of income contingent student loans to fund third level education, and called for a debate on the report of the Expert Group on Future Funding for Higher Education chaired by Peter Cassells. Senator Bacik said: “It…

A news report in the Guardian this week suggesting that the latest draft version of the TTIP agreement could all but end European efforts to save energy and switch to clean power, is very worrying. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/11/leaked-ttip-energy-proposal-could-sabotage-eu-climate-policy According to the piece, the EU will propose a rollback of mandatory energy savings measures, and remove obstacles to…

It is welcome that the Cassells report is proposing that whatever funding model is chosen for third level education, that part time students would be funded in the same manner as full time students. The report also proposes an extension of student supports to part time students. Part time third level students, many of whom…