On prevailing side: this member voted with the winning side in 82 of 671 decisive votes (8 abstentions excluded). Read it as a government-or-opposition indicator rather than a measure of influence — the figure is near 100% for members supporting the government of the day and near 0% for those opposing it.
This is the point of the site: contributions keep the party held on the day, not the one held now.
| Party | Recorded as | Contributions | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| SD | Social Democrats | 1,282 | 2020-02-20 – 2024-11-07 |
Membership spells on record: LAB 1992-11-25–1997-05-15 · LAB 1997-06-06–2002-04-25 · LAB 2002-05-17–2007-04-30 · LAB 2007-05-24–2011-02-01 · LAB 2011-02-25–2012-09-26 · IND 2012-09-26–2015-07-15 · SD 2015-07-15–2016-03-09 · SD 2016-03-10–2020-01-14 · SD 2020-02-08–2024-11-08
I am telling the Minister that the HSE is proceeding with those cuts. Is he going to take any action to stop those happening? They will have real implications for the clients of disability organisations.
That is not true.
The Social Democrats welcomes this legislation and the establishment of the new Department. It is a good move. The guiding principle in regard to education across all levels must be seen as a means of achieving a fair society and ensuring that people have the opportunity to reach their potential. Everybody, regardless of background or means, should have the same opportunities for further and higher education. It is not just about equality of opportunity. The objective should be to aim for equality of outcome becaus…
The main purpose of the Bill before us today is a positive development. It is a proposal that across the board we would all agree with. It is regrettable and ill-judged that the Government would slip-in this amendment to provide for a pay increase for the super junior Ministers. It is regrettable that the Government is dividing the House in the context of this legislation. A salary of €124,000 is a very good salary. Adding €16,000 plus to that salary is an indication of how out of touch the Government is with the m…
I have a number of questions about and comments on the Estimates. I join others in saying that it is disappointing that the senior Minister has not seen fit to turn up for this debate in order to account for spending within his Department. This session has been scheduled for some time. It is disrespectful to the House and to Opposition spokespersons that he is not present for the scheduled debate. I want to raise an issue that has come to the fore recently, namely, the role of the Secretary General of the Departmen…
That is not much use to us. I asked the Minister of State the rationale for the top-up payment for those.
At the outset, I congratulate the Minister formally on his appointment and wish him well in the job. He certainly has spent a good bit of time studying the area. From the Social Democrats point of view, we will fully support him if he is ambitious for the health service and if he delivers and makes progress on Sláintecare in a reasonable timescale. If not, we will criticise him. I hope it will be the former rather than the latter. There are two issues I want to raise before dealing with the Bill. Yesterday, I got f…
On behalf of the Social Democrats, I wish to extend our deepest sympathy to the husband, daughter, family and friends of the late Ruth Morrissey on her tragic passing. She was a woman who was failed as a result of the negligence of the State. Regrettably, the apology to her has come too late. What is the current strategy being pursued by the Government in respect of Covid-19? Until recently, the State followed public health advice, went into lockdown and largely succeeded in avoiding complete catastrophe. There hav…
What is the Taoiseach's strategy now?
With all due respect, delaying phase 4 is not a strategy. I asked the Taoiseach what the Government is actually doing now which will make the numbers go down. This seems completely ad hoc . We cannot revert to lockdown every time the numbers go up. Last Tuesday's official letter from NPHET to the Government was very clear about foreign travel. It said that there has been a 12% rate of travel-related cases, but more importantly, NPHET took note that there have been several clusters associated with that travel-relate…
But the Government is not doing anything about the red list.
The Government has actually eased the restrictions in the past two weeks.
It did.
It is very far from quarantine.
What is the Government doing-----
What is the Government doing that is going to make things change, to get the numbers to go down?
The numbers are going up. How is the Government going to get them to go down?
The Government is not doing anything differently-----
-----which will allow that to happen.
I support that call. We were notified of the arrangements for Friday and the Business Committee agreed to them. People have made arrangements to be here on Friday. If there is a clash with the Seanad, I suggest that we rejig the order on Friday to facilitate the Minister to go to the Seanad. There are two other items on that day. We should go ahead with it given the urgency of all the issues surrounding Covid.