March 15, 2010 RSS

Labour Bill highlights rights of child to care and responsibility of both parents

The Bill we are publishing today will bring our law and practice into line with the reality of life for many thousands of families in Ireland.

The emphasis in our Bill is not on competing or conflicting rights of parents, but rather on the rights of the child to the care and responsibility of both parents - married or not.

Largely because of the peculiarly strong Family provisions in Article 41 of the Constitution, we have failed to recognise that very many people nowadays live in stable and loving relationships and families which are not families in the traditional sense.

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Permanent link | Posted in Equality • Social & Family Affairs

March 12, 2010

Government's response to Labour Bill 'very disappointing'

This week on behalf of the Labour Party I presented a Bill during private members Time that would have allowed hard-pressed businesses in the retail sector get fair and decent rent.

This follows many meeting I have had with retailers across the country who are locked in to lease agreements that have upward only rent reviews.

What this means is that every time the rent comes up to be reviewed it can only be increased because of legislation governing commercial rent agreements.

The retail industry in Ireland employs over 300,000 people and is the single biggest private sector employer.

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March 10, 2010

Harney has been a hopeless Minister for Health

Yesterday the news broke that more than 58,000 x-rays were not examined by a radiologist in Tallaght Hospital and according to the Minister for Health she was made aware of this problem in December but only realised the full scale of the problem yesterday.

Labour Leader Eamon Gilmore TD raised the issue during Leaders' Questions and called on the Taoiseach to appoint a new Minister for Health and Children during his forthcoming cabinet reshuffle.

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Permanent link | Comments (0) | Posted in Health • eamongilmore • leadersquestions

From Blackberry to baby bottle

Just in case you miss it our own Cllr Claire O'Regan was one of the new mammies interviewed for today's Irish Independent feature 'From Blackberry to baby bottle'.

Claire was one of our new representatives who did well in the Local Elections and elected to Dublin City Council in her first attempt last June. In December she welcomed baby Maeve and in the article she talks about the lack of maternity provisions being one of the barriers for women in Irish politics.

You can read it at the following link.

Permanent link | Comments (0) | Posted in

March 09, 2010

Gilmore calls on Taoiseach to support Labour's plan to reduce commercial rent

Throughout the country retail businesses are being pushed to the wall having been locked into leases which were negotiated in better and more promising times.

The issue of upward rent reviews was raised during Leaders' Questions this morning in advance of the same issue being debated in Private Members' Time this evening in the Dáil.

The Labour Leader Eamon Gilmore TD urged the Taoiseach to support the Labour Party Private Members' Motion which will allow the downward revision of commercial rents.

Eamon said: "In every shopping street and centre in the country, retail businesses are pushed to the wall. They are trying to get costs down, custom through the door, to survive and to keep people in employment.

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Permanent link | Comments (0) | Posted in leadersquestions • eamongilmore

March 08, 2010

Happy International Women's Day

Labour Deputy Leader Joan Burton TD along with Labour Women marked International Womens' Day by donating to a UNIFEM project which builds shelters for women fleeing violence in Haiti.

Katherine Dunne, Labour Women Chair said, "Women are second-class citizens in Haiti. The minimum legal age for marriage is 15 years for women. Rape was only made a criminal offence in Haiti in 2005. Like domestic violence, women associate rape with shame. There are little protections for girls and women.

"In Haiti, women come last. After the earthquake the situation is even worse with shelters gone, family protection gone and schools gone. With this donation Labour Women want to help and also highlight the dreadful situation with violence against women in Haiti.

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Permanent link | Comments (0) | Posted in joanburton • labourwomen

March 03, 2010

No urgency from Government on jobs - Gilmore

With an impending reshuffle Leaders' Questions this morning in the Dail saw Labour Leader Eamon Gilmore demand the Taoiseach establish as part of that Government reshuffle a Minister with a dedicated responsibility for employment.

"There is an urgency in the employment issue and getting people back to work. From the Taoiseach's earlier reply, neither he nor any member of Government appears to appreciate or understand this urgency. We can only judge the Government's performance by results."

Eamon told the Taoiseach that the Government's policy on jobs is not working, we have record levels of unemployment and little or no action on the part of the Government to deal with it.

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Permanent link | Comments (0) | Posted in eamongilmore • leadersquestions

March 02, 2010

Government's policy on banks is not working, Gilmore

"The Government policy on the banks is not working," the Labour Leader Eamon Gilmore TD told the Dail during Leaders' Questions this morning.

He spoke of how Ireland is now in its third calendar year of recession and a year since the Government announced its policy to establish NAMA. We challenged the blanket guarantee at the time and advocated nationalisation instead. Now commentators are speaking of how nationalisation is inevitable.

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Permanent link | Comments (0) | Posted in Finance • eamongilmore • leadersquestions