Type: Press

Labour spokesperson on Health, Alan Kelly has slammed Minister Simon Harris’ hypocritical stance on the Sisters of Charity and the National Maternity Hospital.  “Simon Harris seems to have forgotten about his tirade against the Vincent’s Hospital group at the Public Accounts Committee back in 2013. Back then, Minister Harris rightly criticised Vincent’s Private for using…

Labour Spokesperson on Climate Change Sean Sherlock has dismissed the Government’s intention to introduce its own bill to ban plastic microbeads as “time wasting.” “There is no reason for the Government to introduce their own bill,” said Deputy Sherlock. “We have been promised new politics, but nearly every time a private member’s bill comes up…

Commenting on the plans of Minister Simon Coveney to introduce a new law to allow local authorities to reduce commercial rates, Labour Party spokesperson Jan O’Sullivan has called on the Minister to act on the powers he already has under the Local Government (Rates) Act 1970. Deputy O’Sullivan said: “If Simon Coveney genuinely wants to…

Labour Women has condemned the announcement by the Department of Heath that the Sisters of Charity are to be the sole owners of the new maternity hospital, describing it as “an outrage and an insult to all women”. Speaking on the matter Chair of Labour Women Sinead Ahern commented: “Today we have learned that the…

Labour Party spokesperson on Health, Alan Kelly TD, has today slammed the decision to give the Sisters of Charity sole-ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital, a fully state-owned hospital. “Given the events of recent weeks, not to mention the failure of religious congregations to meet their share of the cost of redress, it seems…

Labour Party Leader, Brendan Howlin has said the Government’s latest progress report shows how little progress is being made. “The progress report published today shows how little progress this Government is actually making. Rather than providing some detail on the commitments which have been delivered, we have a set of bullet points which treat the…

As part of our pre-conference focus on the Future of Work – we caught up with SIPTU’s Jack O’Connor to talk about collective bargaining and how we can further strengthen rights in the workplace. Thanks to Paddy Cole for doing such a great job on the video. You can watch the video over on our…

Labour Party spokesperson on Children and Youth Affairs, Jan O’Sullivan TD has raised serious concerns about the roll out of the Government’s Affordable Childcare scheme. “In February, I warned the Government that there was no way the Affordable Childcare Scheme would be ready by September. “Back in February, officials from Minister Zappone’s department and POBAL…

Labour Party spokesperson on Education, Joan Burton TD has said today that another school year is nearly over but still no progress has been made on reforming school admissions policy, while many schools have already finalised their intake for next year. Meanwhile the Labour Party bill was blocked 10 months ago by the Government and…

Labour TD Jan O’Sullivan has said that Ireland is still not doing enough to tackle gender inequality in the workplace. It comes as employers in the UK have this month begun publishing figures on the salaries of their male and female workers for the first time, in a bid to reduce the gender pay gap…

Labour Party representative on the Water Committee, Jan O’Sullivan has said: “In farcical scenes following today’s last minute legal advice, the final report of the Water Committee was subject to extensive amendments reversing most of last week’s changes, that Fianna Fáil supported at the time. “The Labour Party still cannot support the final report on…

At next week’s Labour Party Conference in Wexford, the Labour Party will debate the concept of Universal Basic Income as part of the Future of Work policy paper discussion. Speaking ahead of the debate, Labour Party spokesperson on Public Expenditure and Reform, Seán Sherlock TD has said he is looking forward to discussing how UBI…

Labour Spokesperson on Education, Joan Burton TD, has today written to the Chair of the Joint Committee on Education and Skills, Fiona O’Loughlin, calling for hearings to be held into the circumstances, considerations and motives surrounding the agreement between the State and certain religious congregations of June 2002. 11th April, 2017  Re: Residential institutions redress…

Labour Party spokesperson on Workers’ Rights and Labour Affairs, Senator Ged Nash, has said we must find new ways to tackle precarious work and false and dependent self-employment with the rise of the gig economy. The sharp growth of work practices without clearly defined contractual relationships which are operating at the very edge of the…

Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin City, Labour Party Councillor Rebecca Moynihan has called for greater investment in cycling infrastructure. Cllr Moynihan said: “Labour is committed to good quality transport services that serve all areas and communities. We want to see our public transport networks converted to green vehicles and environmentally friendly fuels. “Currently, we are…

Labour Housing Spokesperson, Jan O’Sullivan TD, has called for Government action to address the issue of so-called ‘land-banking’, whereby developers are hoarding land in a bid to profit from expected house price increases further down the line. It comes after the Irish Independent today reported that concern about the practice was raised at the recent…

Commenting on the publication of the Fennelly Report from the Commission of Investigation (Certain Matters relative to An Garda Síochána and other persons), Labour Party Leader and spokesperson on Justice, Brendan Howlin said: “The state of affairs revealed in the Fennelly Report highlights in the most breath-taking way the chronically dysfunctional state of Garda management. “According…

Commenting on the revelations on RTE Prime Time tonight in relation to non-EEA fishers, Senator Ged Nash said: “The treatment of the non-EEA fishers as highlighted in tonight’s RTE Prime Time programme is disgraceful and unacceptable. “Last December, several months after the introduction of the Atypical Permit Scheme, I met a large group of Egyptian…

Labour TD for Longford-Westmeath, Willie Penrose has welcomed the acceptance of the amendment, tabled by the Labour Party to the Dail motion on our Defence Forces. The Government should now follow through on the proposals, giving PDForra access to the Labour Court and WRC; the immediate payment of the €15 daily armed allowance to those…

Labour spokesperson on Defence, Brendan Ryan TD has welcomed the acceptance of the amendment, tabled by the Labour Party to the Dail motion on our Defence Forces. The Government should now follow through on the proposals, in particular the immediate payment of the €15 daily armed allowance to those who served in the Mediterranean on…

Labour spokesperson on the Environment Senator Aodhán Ó Riordáin has said we need radical ideas to reduce our carbon emissions and tackle climate change. Labour’s 2017 Alternative Budget proposed a €100 million scheme over four years to install solar panels across our 4,000 schools. It’s the rooftop revolution that can help deliver the reduction in…

Labour Communications spokesperson, Seán Sherlock TD, has said that today’s Census figures highlight the gulf that exists between urban and rural broadband services. According to the figures, around 76 per cent of urban households were connected to broadband in 2016, compared with around 61 per cent of households in rural parts of the country. There…

Labour Party spokesperson on Education, Joan Burton has called on the Government to make moves to remove the baptism barrier from our education system following the publication of the 2016 Census. “Today’s census figures show that nearly 500,000 people say they have no religion – a large increase of 73.4% since the Census in 2011….

Labour’s Housing Spokesperson, Jan O’Sullivan TD, has said the 2016 Census figures released today, highlight the need to tackle the housing crisis. According to the figures, around 22 thousand more people were renting across the country in 2016 compared to 2011, with the average weekly rent jumping by 14.8 per cent. The figures also show…