News

The Social Democrats have accused Taoiseach Leo Varadkar of crossing a line by appointing the country’s top civil servant to carry out a review of the discredited Strategic Communications Unit which used public funds on covert advertising for the Ireland 2040 plan. The party’s co-leader Catherine Murphy TD said: “Leo Varadkar has clearly crossed a […]

Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy TD has said the government needs to wake up to the disturbing findings of a new poll that shows more than two thirds of people consider the problem of corruption to be widespread in Ireland. Deputy Murphy was commenting on the latest Eurobarometer public opinion survey by the European Commission […]

The Social Democrats have called on the Taoiseach to publish instructions given by officials to agencies which placed Ireland 2040 advertisements in local and regional newspapers which look like news coverage. The party’s co-leader Catherine Murphy TD said: “The Taoiseach needs to publish exactly what instructions were given by the Strategic Communications Unit to Mediaforce […]

The Social Democrats will today make a formal complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority to raise concerns that government advertorials about Ireland 2040 have breached the principles of the advertising code which calls for ads to be ‘legal, decent, honest and truthful’. The party co-leader Catherine Murphy TD said: “In an era when there is […]

The Social Democrats have called on the Minister for Finance to intervene to block the sale of Permanent TSB mortgages to unregulated vulture funds. The party’s co-leader Catherine Murphy TD said: “This bank is 75 per cent owned by the State and the Minister for Finance must do what he can to protect homeowners by halting the […]

Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy TD has said that while many of the projects promised in today’s launch of the National Development Plan are laudable, she has serious reservations about the ability to deliver on them and she questioned whether or not there has been any joined-up thinking to link this plan with previous plans […]

Social Democrats Co-Leader Catherine Murphy has said the process leading up to the pending announcement later this week of the National Development Plan is fundamentally undemocratic and she called out Fianna Fáil for what she described as their attempts to straddle both sides of the fence on this issue. Deputy Murphy said that politicians from […]

On foot of today’s Daft.ie report showing record high rents in Dublin and other cities, the Social Democrats have called on the government to expedite the party’s Bill to give incoming tenants access to the amount of rent paid by their predecessors. The party’s co-leader Catherine Murphy TD said the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill 2018 […]

The Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy TD has today called on the government to immediately introduce nationwide rent caps as figures published by Daft.ie show that rents across the country have yet again reached an all-time high. Today’s Daft.ie report states that the average rent nationwide for the last quarter of 2017 was €1,227 per […]

AS ANYONE WHO commutes into and around Dublin will have noticed, we are experiencing a return to levels of traffic gridlock last seen over a decade ago. The cross-city Luas has added to the congested centre around College Green. Travellers on suburban rail lines must endure rush-hour journeys uncomfortably crammed into carriages. Even the Taoiseach […]