I too want to be associated with the words of sympathy to Tras Honan's family. It was great to have her in our presence last year when we were celebrating the centenary of the Seanad. I extend my sympathies to all her family and friends. Like so many others who live very close to the inner city of Dublin and who know many who attend the school and crèche where the young kids were caught up in the stabbing, we have been shattered by the events and the horror that was inflicted on those kids lining up, a routine that…

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, for coming to the Chamber. My question this morning relates to the establishment of the assessment hub in CHO 9 on the north side of Dublin. As the Minister of State is all too aware, when it comes to children with additional needs in this country, the word that appears in almost every single conversation is “wait”. There are waiting lists to be assessed, then there are waiting lists to access services and then they must wait for the education system and the health sy…

I thank the Minister of State for her comprehensive response, and for her last comment. She hit the nail on the head with regard to the challenges many of us, as public representatives, daily come across. I talked about the lack of joined-up thinking between education and our health system. I am grateful for the detail provided by the Minister of State. One of my outstanding questions concerns the extent to which this represents new staff or the reallocation of existing staff within CHO 9. We talk about overall sho…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I thank Fianna Fáil for bringing forward this important motion. As the Minister of State knows, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment has already published a report on the impact of artificial intelligence within enterprise and workplaces and has issued a set of recommendations. That follows on from a series of campaigns by a number of trade unions, in particular the FSU, calling for a particular focus on how employers are using AI for surveillance, ma…

Last Friday, we got word that Ireland is one of three countries the European Commission is referring to the European Court of Justice for failure to implement the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act which was enacted by both the Dáil and Seanad in April of this year. The Labour Party has previously been critical that seven months since the enactment of that Bill, the Government has failed to commence key sections to provide a legal framework for workers regarding flexible and remote working. In some …

I raise the issue of public service broadcasting. Finally, we have the strategic vision for RTÉ. There are probably lots more questions than answers in the 30-page document we got yesterday. What is clear is that we are going to have a much-reduced organisation over the next five years. Certainly, taking one in five workers out of RTÉ is going to have a drastic impact on content and the operations of RTÉ. In saying that, the independent sector needs to be supported. There are recommendations to ensure the sector pl…

I second the motion. I thank the Minister of State for taking this motion. I thank my colleague, Senator Moynihan, for all the work she has done as housing spokesperson for our party, the Labour Party, particularly in fighting dereliction and vacancy. While we need homes built across this country, we also know that a mass amount of properties are being wasted and could be brought back into use. Across every street and road in our urban villages, inner city and towns - in Dublin and across the country - there are si…

I raise the Supreme Court ruling of 23 October in the case of the Revenue Commissioners v . Karshan (Midlands) Ltd. t/a Domino's Pizza. This was a landmark judgment in the fight against bogus self-employment in Ireland. Across this country, many workers are forced into bogus self-employment arrangements in order for their employers to save on PRSI payments. It deprives workers of their rightful entitlements as employees and their social welfare entitlements. It cheats the State out of tens of millions of euro in lo…

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber. My question relates to the increased cost of business scheme which was announced as part of budget 2024 by way of response to rising costs for businesses and the increase in the minimum wage. Most of us recognise employers face increased costs. I question the untargeted, once-off and exclusionary nature of the support. I understand non-ratepayers will not qualify for the scheme. I would rather see the Government moving away from the once-off payments and thin…

On the Minister of State's last comment, I hope he is looking at State contracts. We have an endemic problem with low pay in Ireland. If we are serious about ever changing that, we need to look at how the might of the State and the State procurement budget of more than €17 billion is used. I very much welcome that this scheme is not going to cost the local authorities a penny. The Minister of State's predecessors will have heard many of us talk, during the height of the pandemic, about the exclusionary nature of so…

I too want to raise the situation in Gaza. A lot of words have been used in the past ten days and, of course, the World Health Organization came out today to describe the situation as a human catastrophe. We need to reflect on what those words really mean - a deprivation of the most basic means to subsist, a lack of water, a lack of electricity and hospitals facing the prospect of closing over the next 24 hours. It is outrageous that we are seeing the Israeli Government perpetuate a collective punishment on all of …

I thank the Minister for coming to the House. I am glad we are having these statements and I pay tribute to those who have organised them this evening, but I have listened to the debate in the Dáil and the debate here and there is a surreal disconnect between what the Government and the Minister are saying and what everybody else in both Chambers is saying. There is a surreal loyalty to the process and to what I and many others consider to be a deeply flawed report and its recommendations. I read the Minister's rep…

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber to take this. My question today relates to the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023. Why, more than six months after the President signed this Act into law, are parts of this legislation not operational? As of October 2023, we still do not have a statutory right in force for domestic violence leave, a right to request remote work, a right to request flexible work, powers granted to Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, officers in the case of…

I thank the Minister of State for his response and for taking back the representations. However, the people I referenced in the examples I gave, and the many others who are looking very keenly for this framework and code of practice, will not be reassured because no dates were given in his reply. I appreciate there has to be engagement with ICTU and IBEC but the pace of progress is far too slow. The other key element is that other important parts of the Act, such as domestic violence leave, have not yet been commen…

I thank the Minister of State for taking this question today. It is directed to the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, who controls public expenditure in this country but who is also a Minister in the constituency this question is relevant to. On many streets in Dublin, and particularly in Dublin's north inner city, we see dereliction and vacant buildings. Despite the brilliant effort of many groups to bring unity and energy to our communities, the reality is that dereli…

I thank the Minister of State for the reply. Let me be clear that my interest and that of others involved in campaigns over the year is not only in conservation and admiring a relic of the past but in having a living building for the present and the future. I hear what the Department is saying with regard to the possibility of a different economic analysis. To be frank, it feels a bit tortured that this has not happened up to now. However, if the door is open to analysing the use of the building on the basis of dif…

The Labour Party will always be supportive of any measures to try to bring greater accountability and transparency to An Garda Síochána. While I see that there are initiatives in this Bill to try to improve the internal controls and internal governance within An Garda Síochána, it reads like this is at the expense of the external oversight. In particular, we have very grave concerns about the potential dilution of the function and role of the Policing Authority in terms of its job as the overseer of An Garda Síochá…

I thank the Taoiseach for coming to the Chamber. We are just two weeks away from budget 2024. The State is now in a position that every other Government in the history of the State could only dream. It has surpluses that are the envy of other EU member states. Even when corporation tax revenues are excluded, the public finances are expected to generate surpluses in the coming years. Although inflation and central bank policies to try to deal with inflation have wreaked havoc on the living standards of working peopl…

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber for this debate. I pay particular tribute to Senator Fiona O'Loughlin, who has shown incredible leadership in the Irish Women's Parliamentary Caucus in looking at a number of issues. In particular, I pay tribute to the Senator and the others involved in the caucus for organising a day of conversations with many groups. It is particularly important that we have the caucus bringing this motion to the House today. It is a very detailed motion with specific asks t…

Hundreds of early years providers and their staff are protesting outside today, and there are thousands more across the country who did not want to close their doors and others who did not believe they should have to close their doors, all of whom who are extremely frustrated with the situation in the early years sector. Early years workers and providers are telling us they are fed up with the pay. A proposal of €13.65 per hour is on the table, which is simply not acceptable if we are to try to aim for a decent lev…