News

The Social Democrats support the increase in the Living Wage rate – but stress that there also has to be a focus on reducing the cost of living. Party co-leader Róisín Shortall TD said: “I welcome the increase in the Living Wage for 2017 to €11.70 per hour. The experts who calculate this increase say […]

The Social Democrats will today table amendments to a Fianna Fáil Dáil motion on bin charges. The amendments seek to ensure that bin companies will not be permitted to obtain waste licences or permits without publishing their financial accounts in Ireland. The amendments also call for the introduction of a national waiver scheme for customers […]

AN AUSTRALIAN POLITICIAN made global news recently for breastfeeding her child while speaking in parliament. It’s worth taking a minute to look behind the vaguely titillating headlines. Australian Greens politician Larissa Waters was categorically not the first female politician to feed a child in her place of work. What’s unusual about the situation was not […]

The Social Democrats have said the government’s appalling record on tackling corruption has led to it being rebuked today by the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption body, GRECO. The party co-leader Róisín Shortall TD was commenting on a GRECO report which found that Ireland’s level of compliance with its recommendations were “globally unsatisfactory”. The anti-corruption body […]

Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy has said that the numbers of people awaiting a decision on Social Welfare payments is out of control with some payments having an average of 18 weeks for a payment to be awarded. Deputy Murphy said people who had applied for payments such as parents with special needs children; disabled […]

The government’s school admissions bill completely fails to deal with the problem of children being denied access to their local primary school due to their religion, according to the Social Democrats. The party has tabled amendments to remove the schools ‘baptism barrier’ – a discriminatory practice which the government’s Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016 […]

The government’s abysmal record in tackling the housing and homeless crisis is exposed once more today with new figures showing that households are spending almost a fifth of their budgets on housing, Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy said this morning. Deputy Murphy was commenting on CSO statistics showing that the proportion of household expenditure on […]

  The new Taoiseach must halt the appointment of the former Attorney General as a judge and come before the Dáil next week to answer questions on all the circumstances surrounding the filling of the Court of Appeal vacancy, the Social Democrats’ co-leader Róisín Shortall TD said today. Deputy Shortall said: “This issue is a […]