Children benefit from meeting and getting to know children from various backgrounds and religions. Diversity in our schools is an opportunity for our society, not something we should feel threatened by. All members of this house will have heard the anecdotal evidence of parents feeling forced to baptise their children to secure a school…

Launching the Labour Party’s ‘Richard O’Carroll Empowerment Bursary’, Chairperson of Labour’s 1916 Commemoration Committee, Senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, has invited students to apply for the bursary awarded for the upcoming 2016-17 academic year. The bursary, worth €2,000, is named after the leader of the Labour Group on Dublin Corporation who was killed during the Easter…

Following the visit of the Taoiseach and some of his Cabinet Minsters to the North Inner City last week, the Taoiseach has invited public representatives to meet him in Government Buildings tomorrow, Monday 20 June 2016.  It would be churlish not to welcome the Taoiseach’s visit and  to accept in good faith his personal commitment to take…

I welcome today’s publication of TASC research showing that ‘flexibility’ is being imposed by employers on more and more workers, across a range of different industry sectors.  The research complements and updates findings in the report I published last November on zero and low hours contracts and their impact on employees.  While last year’s study…

Labour Youth is deeply saddened to hear the news of the death of Jo Cox yesterday following a brutal attack in her constituency.  National Chairperson of Labour Youth, Grace Williams commented: “It was very upsetting to learn of the news of the death of Jo Cox. It is alarming to hear that any political activist…

We were so saddened to hear of the death of Jo Cox MP yesterday and we send our sincere condolences to her husband Brendan, her two young children and all her family and friends.  We would also like to express our condolences and solidarity to our sisters in the Labour Women’s Network in the UK…

Labour Equality members are deeply shocked and saddened by the death of Jo Cox MP. Jo Cox was a staunch and courageous advocate for social justice. She stood up for peace in Syria and advocated for the innocent children affected by the conflict. We do not fully know the events which lead to her death….

The dramatic increases in standing charges that some waste companies seem intent on imposing on customers from next month, were never envisaged when I signed the Statutory Instrument to give effect to the new charging structures. In fact, I made it perfectly clear to the waste companies at the time, both in public and in…