Type: Speech

Dáil Statement by Brendan Howlin on post-EU Council Statement, 27 March 2019 When it comes to our statements on EU Council business, we might be better served in having separate Brexit statements and then statements on the actual business of the EU Council. Naturally, we have an enormous interest in the latest Brexit developments. But…

Usually at this stage when we stand up in here we commence by saying we welcome the opportunity to speak etc. Well on this occasion I don’t. In fact I think this motion, which will ultimately be defeated is a distraction and not timed well and if anything lets the Government off the hook. Having…

Decency, Justice and Equality are Labour’s core values. Today we are talking about what these values mean when it comes to children and young people. When Labour’s leader, Tom Johnson, wrote the 1919 Democratic Programme of the First Dáil, he stressed that “the first duty” of Government was towards the education, development and welfare of…

Speaking at the Politics Society of Trinity College tonight, 29th January, Labour Party Leader Brendan Howlin outlined his views on the future of Northern Ireland after Brexit. In his remarks Deputy Howlin spoke extensively on the future of the Labour movement there, and the implications of the recently announced partnership between the SDLP and Fianna…

Remarks at the Centenary of the First Dáil, Mansion House, Dublin 21st January 2019. Brendan Howlin TD, Leader of the Labour Party Ireland is one of only a handful of countries that has sustained a democratically-elected Parliament, uninterrupted, for a century. I’m proud of the role that the Labour Party has played to improve the…

Speech by Brendan Howlin TD, leader of the Labour Party On the occasion of the Centenary of the Democratic Programme, Gresham Hotel, Dublin, 19th January 2019   We are here to remember. But not out of historical curiosity. We are here to honour the struggle to achieve a better life for working people. That was…

Speech by Labour Party Leader Brendan Howlin on Government’s Brexit Preparedness  The British Parliament has voted overwhelmingly against the Withdrawal Agreement. We are now in a period of acute uncertainty. Many of the possible options require time to develop. But we do not have that time. There is little over two months to go until the…

Many important discussions took place at the EU Council meeting last week. There are a host of policies that need to be advanced.   On economic policy, we need the next seven-year financial framework and reform of the Single Market to strengthen the EU’s Social Pillar and to support people and communities that are being…

December 1918 was a time of great change in the world, and in Ireland. The ‘Great War’ had just ended. 19 million dead, and more again injured. There had never before been warfare on this scale, or with such brutality.   The price paid in blood accelerated the already legitimate claim by working people for…

Technology is advancing relentlessly. Every year, workers, businesses and consumers have to adjust to new ways of working. Some jobs decline and new occupations emerge. Businesses have to adapt. The downsides of that technology include its veracious appetite for energy, which is too reliant on fossil fuels which have caused climate change and the destruction…

I’d like to start by telling you an old story that illustrates the Labour perspective: A young girl asks her father, “Why is it so cold in the house?” “We don’t have any coal”, he says. “But why is there no coal?” she wants to know. “Because I lost my job”, he replies. Still unsatisfied,…

I want to thank parties on all sides of this house for assisting Labour’s Bill to pass through all stages in the Seanad: the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Gender Pay Gap Information) Bill 2017. I hope that we can see this Bill pass through the Dáil speedily as well. The Government has spoken…

Brendan Corish was my political mentor. He shaped my earlier political years, sitting at our own kitchen table in William Street here in Wexford. My father, John, was Brendan Corish’s adviser and election agent. And, of course, I was named after Brendan. ◊◊◊ When I became politically active, I was Brendan Corish’s Director of Elections…

Speech by Joan Burton TD, addressing the Oxford Union on the motion ‘The House Believes Ireland is Ready for Reunification’. 22nd November 2018; The United States has Mount Rushmore in the legendary Black Hills of Dakota where the sculptures of famous Presidents are carved into the rock face. Perhaps in the future, Ireland will create…

Wexford last year, Now Dublin. The last Wexford-Dublin fixture I was at, Wexford did some lovely hurling, with 22 points over Dublin’s 2 goals, 14. But, I’m willing to concede a small victory to Dublin tonight. Here, at our first ever one-member-one-vote conference, We have an even larger attendance than at Wexford. And we have…

Speaking in the Dáil on Statements on the Disclosures Tribunal, Labour Justice spokesperson Séan Sherlock made three key points: Ministers must account fully and accurately to the Dáil. That the Tribunal accepted the sworn evidence of all TDs. That the Policing Authority must be retained for openness and accountability. Deputy Sherlock went on to say:…

Ireland has three demands in relation to Brexit:· Certainty that we will retain an open border with Northern Ireland,· Guarantees for the rights of all Irish citizens in the UK,· And a close East-West trading relationship between Ireland and Britain.The first two issues form part of the Withdrawal Agreement currently under negotiation. The main focus…

I am always delighted to speak at events hosted by Labour Women. Labour Women is one of the dynamic core sections of the Party. It plays an important role in connecting Party members across the country and providing Party women with ways to advance issues of shared concern. Issues like: pay inequality, Reproductive health and…

There was much fanfare from Fianna Fáil that the budget this week was going to be a Housing Budget. It wasn’t. The amount of extra money announced was minuscule in the context of what is needed and most of it is directed towards landlords and developers rather than those who need homes. It falls so…

Yesterday, what we heard from Minister Paschal Donohoe was a budget without a purpose.We heard a weak, spiritless and conservative budget. There was no vision. And there should have been one. Budget 2019 is not like recent budgets.This was the first budget since 2007 where the Government genuinely had real scope to bring about positive…

If it looks like an election budget, if it sings like an election budget, if Leos’s choir cheers it like an election budget, well then it is an election budget. As I listened today I couldn’t help feeling a sense of déjà vu. It was Minister Pascal Donohue who was delivering the speech but it…

Labour’s spokesperson on Housing, Jan O’Sullivan TD was today speaking in Dáil Éireann in support of the cross-party motion to enact emergency measures aimed at addressing homelessness. This followed the large ‘Raise the Roof’ housing demonstration outside Leinster House.  Deputy O’Sullivan said: “Today must make a difference.  “It must make a difference for the thousands of people who are…

The Labour Party has a strong track record when it comes to supporting business, trade and enterprise in Ireland.   Labour in the last Government provided a €500 million Jobs Fund, plus tens of thousands of training places, … And took measures to boost Ireland’s exports, which grew by 28% during our time in office,…

Thank you for the invitation to speak today.As I’m coming from an Irish perspective,it won’t surprise anyone here that one of my main preoccupations at the moment is Brexit.Other than the United Kingdom, no country will be as greatly affected by Brexit as Ireland.In speaking to you today,I am motivated by the spirit of internationalism…