Marie Sherlock
Dublin Central · Labour Party · Ireland
“That is why I want to see our local authorities moving from being just bystanders that license waste collection companies to actually controlling how the service is delivered.”
“That is why I want to pay tribute to all the people who are here today, including Stoneybatter Pride of Place, Phibsboro Village Tidy Towns and all the people working within their communities to keep them clean.”
“Panda’s parent company, Beauparc, sold for €1.3 billion in 2021 to an Australian investment firm. It is also co-owned by a US private equity firm. They are not in Ireland for the good of their health. They are here because they know they can make serious money. We know Greyhound’s parent company is registered on the Isle of Man.”
“The other important thing to say is that we did not hear any new ideas today, and I say that with the greatest respect to the Minister of State. We did not hear any ideas with regard to the profound challenges we have regarding our plateauing recycling rates and all the other issues that are there. That is disappointing.”
“I pay tribute to a lot of the work that many officials and workers in Dublin City Council do because, in some ways, their hands are tied behind their back. They recognise the issue with regard to landlord responsibility. I am very disappointed to hear the Minister of State's comments about landlord responsibility.”
“Dublin City Council was able to negotiate for the installation of ten-tonne compactors in the commercial areas, yet when it came to the residential areas, I understand the council tried to negotiate with the bin collectors on the roll-out of shared collection systems, but to no avail. That pretty much sums up our dysfunctional system.”
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“The reality is that, sadly, one in two people will get cancer in their lifetime in this country and one in three people will die from it. Ireland has the second highest incidence rate of cancer diagnosis in the EU. The number of cancer diagnoses is projected to grow by 47% between 2022 and 2040, so it is something we need to get right in terms of our services. To me, this conversation has to be about funding and how we organise our health services. We await the new national cancer health strategy next year. It is critical that ring-fenced funding is there and is rooted in prevention, particularly with regard to primary care and looking at those socioeconomic factors. Inequality is at the heart of the higher incidence of cancer among lower-income parts of our population and communities.”
“I thank Deputy Cullinane and Sinn Féin for introducing this timely motion on cancer services, which the Labour Party supports. I was going to give out that the Government is opposing this motion. It is disappointing that it has decided to nitpick at what is a very good motion. Surely to God, we should all join together to identify the very clear issues that exist at the moment. While it used to be the case that Ireland was a global leader with regard to cancer care, we are now a long way off that because of a lack of investment but also because of a lack of focus on how we organise our health service - not just our hospital services, but right down to our primary care GP services. This is why we are not getting cancer services right in this country today.”
“Sanitary towels were not provided for inpatients in hospital wards. They were not available or part of the hospital supplies. While the nurses and care staff were most apologetic, the supplies were not available. Across these hospitals, nappies are freely available to both adults and girls without question, and rightly so, but when it came to sanitary towels or products, they could not be made available. We all have to reflect on the indignity of the situation those young girls and women are being left in, particularly if they are immobile, non-ambulatory or do not have visitors for a number of days. That is absolutely unacceptable in 2026. We submitted a question to the HSE in respect of this matter. It responded by talking about sanitary products in the public toilets. We are talking about patients in wards, however. This must change.”
“I am going to read from a letter that reflects just how far we have still to travel, despite our talking of all the progress we have made in this country. It relates to the health sector. In the letter, a woman explains how, over the past two years, she has ended up staying in a number of Irish hospitals, both as a patient and as the parent of her teenage daughter. She spent a week in a major hospital in 2025, while her daughter spent a week in another major hospital in 2024, five days in a paediatric hospital in 2024, along with an additional five days in 2025. While the care in these hospitals was exemplary, she highlighted one issue. Her daughter was most unfortunate that she got her period at some stage during each of her long hospital stays, as did the mother. Between them, they have had five hospital stays over a two-year period.”
“Not only are women earning less per hour, but far too many of them are forced to work fewer hours because of a lack of childcare or the burden of having to care for older people. This is an issue we talk far too little about. We talk a great deal about childcare - my colleague Deputy Wall will talk about that in a moment - but many women holding down jobs are also caring for older relatives. Almost 30% of women in this country work part-time hours, some by choice but many out of necessity. That has a real impact in the context of less than average pay within a company and accessing promotions. Far too many women are condemned to the low pay, part-time employment trap. We must change that. I appeal to the Minister of State to crack on with the gender pay transparency legislation.”
“Critically, it will mean that pay, as opposed to an individual’s work history, will be attached to a role . That is particularly vital for women who are returning to the labour force or coming from part-time roles. It is a bit rich to talk about gender equality in this Chamber while the Government appears to be willing to incur fines because it does not want to transpose this key legislation. We want to hear from the Minister of State as to where the legislation is at. Women on average pay earn 24% less than men. There is a lot of talk about hourly pay, but no one looks at their hourly wages. Rather, they look at their weekly earnings and their ability to deal with the cost of living from those earnings.”
“As the Minister of State knows, the pay transparency directive is supposed to be transposed into domestic law by June. What is the Government so afraid of in this regard? We are hearing that the Government is not going to transpose the directive by the deadline but, rather, it will bring forward its own stand-alone legislation. However, we have not seen the heads of Bill yet. We must ask why that is the case. Why is the Government capitulating to employers’ demands to put off transposing this important legislation that will pull back the veil on pay arrangements within workplaces and ensure that workers can apply for jobs with some idea as to what the pay range will be, as opposed to turning it into a bald negotiating exercise where workers must go in and suggest what they are worth?”
“However, that planning application, in part due to the ineptitude of the Government and the Department of Health, failed to be approved by An Coimisiún Pleanála. The Government and the Department failed to listen to the hospital about the decade-old co-location policy. I am relieved that the Government has abandoned its plans to move the Rotunda Hospital out to Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown. We need to ensure that the critical care wing is built as soon as possible. It is 20 years - two decades - since there has been any serious investment in maternity facilities in this country. There are massive delays with regard to the National Maternity Hospital in Elm Park, but we cannot forget the Coombe Hospital and the Rotunda in particular when it comes to that vital investment. I will raise two issues, the first of which relates to pay.”
“I welcome that we are marking International Women’s Day, albeit belatedly. I pay tribute to the women who work in our communities, workplaces, trade unions and right across this country to try to make it a better place. It is almost 120 years since the strike by textile workers in New York that lit the fuse, effectively, to start marking International Women’s Day. I also extend my condolences to Deputy O’Reilly and her family on the loss of her mother last September. The Labour Party marked International Women’s Day this year by standing with the staff and families of the Rotunda Hospital at the Garden of Remembrance, looking on at where work on the critical care wing should be progressing.”
“This Sunday is International Women's Day. Five years ago, the Labour Party introduced legislation to afford workplace leave to women experiencing early miscarriage or those going through fertility treatment. It passed on all Stages in the Seanad and on Second Stage here in the Dáil, and I was struck by the enormous and heartfelt cross-party support. The then Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, commissioned research and very clear recommendations were made that early miscarriage is a workplace issue. Does the Tánaiste believe that women should be afforded workplace leave if they experience an early miscarriage? Will this Government legislate to give effect to providing women with that leave when it matters most?”
“It is not good enough just to say that we will solely listen to the clinicians in this country, because there has been an issue that they have not been providing the services that women have needed here. There is a circle to square. It is not acceptable that the centres that have been used are excluded, and I hope they will be added.”
“I appreciate that. Hopefully, we will agree that there has been an issue in this country in that the clinicians operating here have not fully understood endometriosis, so there have been barriers to referring on. There is a challenge in this regard. NWIHP has to have the confidence to be able to put centres on a list. The reality, though, is that women have had to find centres using their own wit over the past number of years to get the appropriate care. If any lesson is to be learned from this experience, it is that we need to listen to them in terms of where they have got the appropriate care. These are the women who have gone before and are currently seeking assistance now.”
“The reality is that we do not have numbers because they have not been properly coded in terms of who has been travelling abroad up to now and where they have been going under the treatment abroad scheme. That has been a real problem. The second key issue I have a concern with is that the surgeons on the list are very much gynaecologically-focused but endometriosis is a whole-of-body inflammatory condition. My concern is that the list is very narrow, while being very long.”
“The meeting last September was hugely important, and very welcome, but there was a large degree of alarm weeks later when the scheme was published that the names repeatedly mentioned at that meeting of the surgeons operating on women in Romania and Greece were not on the list. I have a very real concern that there is a lot of confusion about the most appropriate persons to treat complex endometriosis and that there is a large degree of deterrence, and women are not going to apply to the scheme or maybe they have engaged with the Department to ask questions about surgeons who are not on the list, and, ultimately, will be excluded from the new scheme.”
“My question is regarding the endometriosis surgery abroad interim scheme. We all want women to be treated in Ireland, and I know there is progress being made towards that. However, we can all agree we are some distance away from being able to see that in Ireland, both in terms of diagnosis and care. My question concerns the number of people who have applied under the new scheme and the number who have been treated, which is probably a small number. Since the new scheme was published I have had quite a number of people approach me because they are confused.”
“Crucially, for the children who are waiting for treatment, we need to see much more dramatic interventions by the Minister and the HSE to ensure those waiting lists go down much further and that, particularly for those long waiters, there is very significant action to address what is an absolutely unacceptable position for them. It is appalling that we are eight years on from those Government commitments being made and we have that extent of long waiters still in the health system.”
“From freedom of information requests to the Department, we know that conditions such as adolescent idiopathic scoliosis are deemed to be non-complex. Are we creating two classes of children with scoliosis here? A child who just has scoliosis might be as dramatically impacted as a child who has multiple conditions. We need to ensure that all children suffering from scoliosis will be included in the public inquiry. There is already a crisis of confidence in this public inquiry before it has ever got off the ground. The Minister needs to do significant work to reassure the families and the advocacy groups that they will get the public inquiry they need and deserve.”
“On the public inquiry, there was a very powerful moment last November. It seemed like an enormous breakthrough that the Government agreed to a public inquiry and we in the Labour Party very much supported that. However, we have gone from an agreement that first suggested that a mediator would be put in place to now having a facilitator. I am sure Mr. Farrell will do an excellent job for what the Minister intends but there is a difference between a mediator and a facilitator. I believe there has been a shift from that initial commitment to parity of esteem and of input between the Minister and the advocacy groups into the terms of reference of this review. Many of the families feel that the power and input they were initially promised will not now materialise. There is also concern about the term “complex scoliosis”.”
“They cover process, culture, management and oversight and in order to give confidence to those families we need to ensure that all those recommendations, at the very minimum, are enacted. The Nayagam report, when fully published, will give an insight into what happened and why. However, families have been waiting over two years for that report and it is not acceptable that they still have not had any contact with Mr. Nayagam himself and have had no sight of the report. I know there is ambiguity about when Mr. Nayagam will talk to the families but the families thought they would have been contacted by now. It is not acceptable that the families would not have had insight into their cases. They have been called back, but they have no insight into what Mr. Nayagam is saying about those specific cases.”
“That has to change. The Minister spoke earlier about the equity of access review, which was instigated last year. That was supposed to happen at the end of November; we now hear it will be published in April. There has been a delay on this and that is crucial for the children who are waiting and who need procedures in the near future. We need to see the reports on that. There has been a whole raft of reports about the scandals in CHI over many years now but it is now nearly 11 months on from the HIQA report. The HSE told us last month that 12 of the 19 recommendations have been implemented. CHI has implemented many more of the recommendations. What is holding up the full implementation of the HIQA recommendations from 11 months ago?”
“Their courage and fortitude in continuing that campaign is enormous. We have made very little progress, notwithstanding everything that has been said, over the past 12 months. The waiting list has reduced by just eight children in that time. During the month of January alone, there were fewer surgeries compared with January 12 months ago. The number of children with confirmed admission dates has fallen. The children categorised as active has gone up but they do not have a date. The number of long waiters has gone from 26 to 45 over the course of the year. I do not doubt that efforts are being made, particularly by the HSE, and we have seen that money has gone into this, but there are very serious questions about the progress being made. The families I talk to feel a lot is being talked about but very little is happening on the ground.”
“We welcome the announcement of the inquiry into Michael Shine. My party colleague Deputy Nash will speak more about that and about the update on the sodium valproate scandal that has taken place in this country. I will confine my remarks to the scandal that has taken place with regard to children, those suffering from scoliosis or spina bifida and those with orthopaedic and urology conditions. I have been my party's health spokesperson for only 12 months and we have been in this Chamber a number of times making statements on these issues in recent months. I pay tribute to the advocacy groups and parents who have to do so much to look after their children and also fight for justice for the children who have not been so fortunate to make it, who died, or those children whose lives have been impacted forever.”
“I raise with the Taoiseach the serious concern that unless the Government makes a clear statement on the future location of the Rotunda Hospital, the ambiguity will jeopardise any future planning application by the Rotunda Hospital. For women and babies, we need that clarity and a lack of ambiguity from the Government.”
“Can and will the Taoiseach and the Government provide a clear statement on the future location of the Rotunda Hospital? We are now two and a half weeks on from the decision of An Coimisiún Pleanála. The rejection of the critical care wing proposal boiled down to two main reasons, which were conservation and the 11-year-old policy of colocation with Connolly Hospital. We all know that nothing has been done to make that colocation happen. Nothing is being planned at the moment. Yet we see replies to parliamentary questions from the Minister for Health that still reference Connolly Hospital in relation to the Rotunda Hospital. Department of Health officials were tying themselves in knots last Wednesday at the Oireachtas health committee hearing.”
“We are calling for a debate on the termination of pregnancy legislation. I want to pay tribute to Deputy Whitmore's niece, who spoke so powerfully this morning about her own experience of fatal foetal anomalies. It is eight years since that legislation was passed. The Government dragged its heels on the review. There has been no action on Marie O'Shea's recommendations, which are now three years old. For women and their families across this country, it is absolutely unacceptable and we should have a debate in this country on the Government's position.”
“There is a lack of a plan and a lack of action on the part of this Government with regard to mental health services. For years, we have had soothing words that there was going to be an increase in support. The reality is that mental health is the poor relation of the health service, and that needs to change.”
“Everything the Tánaiste has said is nothing new in that it is already contained within the service plan for the HSE for this year or last year. The reality is that there has been no response to the appalling revelations. I am shocked, as I hope other people are as well, but we are not hearing that urgency from Government. The reality is that not every bed within the Central Mental Hospital will be open by the end of this year and there is no plan to open every single bed. That is absolutely wrong. The reality is that the State has failed to invest over many years. Last year, €95 million was spent on exporting some of our most seriously ill patients to the UK - a 20% increase last year - all because of the failure to build here. This is the week in which we see an actual cut in the HSE capital plan this year compared to last year.”
“There is a lack of joined-up thinking between mental health services and a lack of communication with families and, ultimately, people are losing their lives. What is the Government's response to this horrendous situation of using the prison system to effectively treat and detain people who are seriously mentally ill? Will the Government proceed with a programme for Government commitment to build approved health centres within the prison system? To be frank, that is the completely wrong approach. Will the Government prioritise diversion over detention for seriously mentally ill people in this country and place diversion on a statutory framework?”
“We need to move away from a system where the only access to mental health supports is through the prison system. Conor Ryan from "RTÉ Investigates" told the story from Cloverhill Prison of how people were being refused access to psychiatric units within our hospitals and only finding that help within the prison system. We need to move to a system of diversion. Recommendations in the Henchy report are now 50 years old but have not been implemented by the State. These are life and death issues, not just for the patients but also for their families. In recent weeks, I spoke to the family of Maud Coffey, who lost their sister two years ago, and to the family of Natalie McGuinness. The thread is very clear.”
“A high-level task force report on mental health and addiction from 2022 contains some really good recommendations but there was no progress report last year, which is the year some of those recommendations were supposed to be implemented. It seems when it comes to the crunch there is little or no action. We all know this system did not emerge today or yesterday. It emerged over many decades. We now need a complete change of approach. We need to move away from using detention as a tool of control. Last year, the Mental Health Commission said there had been 62% reduction in the use of seclusion practices and restriction practices in psychiatric institutions. That is great but the reality is that many of those people are now being held in our prison system.”
“In the words of Professor Charles O'Mahony, who contributed to the programme, Ireland is effectively using the Prison Service to warehouse people with severe mental illness. Our country has replaced one form of detention in psychiatric institutions for many decades with another, the prison system. That is wrong. There are around 340 psychiatric patients being held in prisons across this country, with dozens of acutely psychotic people waiting for admission to the Central Mental Hospital. We know that one third of the beds in the Central Mental Hospital remain unopened. We heard just this week from the HSE that it hopes that ten beds will open by March but it could not be confirmed.”
“Two weeks ago, "RTÉ Investigates" aired two programmes on the appalling treatment of some of the most vulnerable and seriously mentally ill persons in this country. It made for harrowing viewing. It is unconscionable that the State effectively condemns mentally ill persons who come into contact with the law to indefinite remand, without access to the appropriate medication or treatment, and all because of the lack of appropriate care in the community. In the wake of these revelations about the state of our adult psychiatric services and the reliance on our prison system to deal with and treat these people, what is the Government response? To be honest, I have heard no urgency nor any update by way of response to what is a scandal of this State.”
“This is a real issue in certain communities, although not in every community across the country. The key thing is that, if we have more people on the ground, we can begin to resolve all of the issues we have with regard to our acute hospital system, including the Mater being the GP service for many people in the inner city because they cannot access a GP. The other key issue I will raise today has regard to the GMS scheme. It is effectively weighted towards women of child-bearing age and the older population. The national average life expectancy is about 82 but, in one GP practice in my constituency, Summerhill Family Practice, part of the GP Care For All network, it is just under 60. That speaks volumes about what is happening on the ground.”
“Part and parcel of that is access to GPs. In the community I represent in the north inner city, there is one GP for every 3,500 people. In Cabra, there is one for every 3,000 people. In other parts of the country, it is not an issue. If you ring up to look for a GP appointment you will get one within a few days. I know of a 50-year-old woman who went to her pharmacist and was told she had shingles. She rang her GP for an emergency appointment and was told she would get one the following week. A man came to me last year who should have presented with very worrying symptoms of prostate but, because he was being given appointments two weeks out, he kept on putting it off because of work and other commitments. He should have been able to pick up the phone, say he had a problem and be seen in a timely manner.”
“That is why we brought forward that Bill last year and why it is scandalous that the Government is now opposing our amendment, which would ensure that the HSE would take responsibility for at least looking at where GPs are located across the country. We can have all the motions in the world about the need to improve GP services but we will not ensure we have a proper number of GPs in place for the communities I represent in Dublin Central and for communities in Kildare, Limerick, Cork city and elsewhere if we do not change the legislation to ensure the HSE takes direct responsibility. The reality is that not every community is the same. The Pobal deprivation index states that people in some of the most deprived communities are four and a half times more likely to have poor health outcomes compared with the average community.”
“Last year, my office spent six months trying to get information on the number of GPs across every community health network area from the HSE. It was shambolic. Some areas were really on the ball. Other areas did not know. It took six months to put that data together. I am delighted to hear that the Social Democrats are using that data. I am sure anybody with intellectual integrity in the party will credit the source of that data. The key thing is that the Department does not know where the unmet need is and does not have an ongoing overview of where GPs are located across the country. That is wrong.”
“At that time, free GP care was provided for those under four or six. If we do not increase the number of GPs on the ground along with expanding universal access to GP care, which is at the core of Sláintecare and which we are passionate about, we will end up replicating the inequalities of our hospital system. People will end up paying to leapfrog the GP system. We need to make sure we have more GPs on the ground. There have been initiatives on the part of the HSE and the Department of Health such as the arrangement with South African doctors and the increase in the number of GP training places. However, it is incredible that the Department of Health still does not have a clear idea of the unmet need for GPs or a precise picture of where GPs are located across the country.”
“It was supposed to be published last year but we have yet to see it. Where is it? Will the Government please publish it? I will move onto a second key thing. At the height of our rushing through of Covid-related legislation, back in 2020, I stood in this Chamber as a Senator when the then Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, legislated for free GP care to be expanded to those under the age of 12. That is still not in place six years on. Billions of euro have been generated for our public finances and yet the Government has not managed to get its act together on this. Expanding access to free GP care is one thing. We in the Labour Party are passionate about it. The then Minister of State, Kathleen Lynch, introduced free GP care over ten years ago. That was the starting point.”
“I thank Deputy Pádraig Rice and the Social Democrats for bringing forward this really important motion. This issue has been very close to my own heart for a number of years. It is something we have spent a lot of time talking about over recent years. While there has been a little bit of progress with regard to the chronic disease management programme over recent times, the fact remains that the Department of Health does not have a consistent overview of the first point of access to the healthcare system in this country, that is, the GPs. That is wrong. It is an anomaly we see in hardly any other country across the European Union but we see it in Ireland because we have a public system of hospital care and an effectively private system of GP care. The Government has been promising a strategic review of GP care for a number of years now.”
“I move amendment No. 1: To insert the following after "and investment in analytical capacity": "; further recognises that: — the inverse care law and unequal access to GPs is giving rise to stark inequalities, delayed diagnosis, poorer health outcomes, and increasing upward pressure on the hospital system; — recent extensive research by the Labour Party on GP-to-patient ratios has highlighted significant inequalities, and found that there is one GP per 1,390 of population in Clontarf in Dublin 3, yet in Cabra in Dublin 7, the ratio is one GP to 3,060 of population; — suburban areas of significant population growth are struggling with a lack of GP services, with East Meath having one General Medical Service GP for every 5,090 people, a divergence of 3,331 from the national average; and — the 2025 Economic and Social Research Institute projections, of national demand and workforce requirements for general practice in Ireland, also show there will be a demand increase of at least 23 per cent by 2040, requiring up to an additional 761 to 868 General Practice Nurses, alongside increased GP numbers; and therefore, further calls on Government to support the passage into law of the Health (Availability of General Practitioner Services) Bill 2025, to provide for a direct statutory link between the HSE's assessment of the level of need for primary care services in specific areas, and the level of service provided.".”
“On her talk of a new central referrals system, the reality is it excludes autistic children, assessments of need and children under the age of eight. There are serious problems with the central referral system. What assurances can the Tánaiste provide to the families who are currently engaging with CAMHS and the families who will need CAMHS in future years? There is huge concern about the quality of service at the moment.”
“I read the report of the north Kerry CAMHS review last night. It paints a picture akin to a Wild West, with no oversight, accountability or support and incredible god-like decisions. There are very serious questions that need urgent answers. How can it be the case, that with such harm done there is not a single full-time psychiatrist in north Kerry at this point in time? How can anyone with confidence go the HSE now and say they want their case reviewed? When there are a number of psychiatrists contributing hours, how can people expect they will be treated seriously? On the actions the Minister set out yesterday, can the Tánaiste assure us there is now a red flag system in real time that will flag anomalous prescribing patterns?”
“The critical thing I want to communicate to the Minister for mental health is that when I speak to GPs in my area who cover some of the most disadvantaged committees in the country, they tell me they dread and even put off referring children to CAMHS because of the high level of rejection, because of the waiting times and, crucially, because of the urgency of need. They have to find other pathways. Some of those children are under eight years of age and need services. We need to see assurances for those families.”
“Listening to Mary, the parent of a child included in the north Kerry CAMHS review, made for harrowing listening on "Morning Ireland" and would have sent a chill down the spine of any parent whose child has moderate to severe mental health difficulties. We await the publication of the report today. We also need to hear what the Government is doing about the wider CAMHS service. As of November, 1,800 children were waiting six months or longer for CAMHS therapy. These are children with moderate to severe difficulties who need therapy now, not in many months. The south west, my area, Dublin north east, the west and the north west have some of the longest waiters.”
“It is regrettable that this Government is so narrow-minded and insular with regards to all the opportunities that remote and flexible work can afford.”
“The Government cannot, because it is at sixes and sevens as to what to prioritise at present, yet transport is the second highest emitter. If we are serious about climate action and reducing emissions, we have to get more people off our roads, ensure less congestion in the communities that I represent and ensure that workers have flexible and remote working arrangements. I thank all my colleagues here who have been fighting for this, not only this year but over the past four years since the Labour Party started talking about it. While there were real signs of positivity in 2020, and I recall the then Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, talking about the potential of remote work but that has all since retreated.”
“They are having to live many miles away and commute for hours every day just to get to their work. It is about opening up workplaces to people who face enormous barriers trying to access the labour market. Ireland has a shameful record in having the highest number of jobless lone parents and jobless disabled persons compared with every other EU member state. We have had words, strategies and all sorts of actions from Government over the years that have amounted to nothing and yet there is a piece of work that could be done in the workers' rights space in affording people access to remote and flexible work from day one of employment and this Government has refused to do that. It is about reducing emissions. Of course, we see the disaster. The Government has not even bothered to issue its climate action plan.”
“We feel really strongly that if the Government is serious about cutting emissions from commuting, if it is concerned about getting more disabled people into the workplace and if it is concerned about lone parents and getting them into the workplace and ensuring greater gender equality, the answers are staring the Minister in the face. Our Bill is about keeping more workers in full-time employment. There is an irony here that between 2020 and 2021 there was actually an increase in the number of women in full-time employment. We all know the reasons for that. They were working from home and they were able to get the balance right. Our Bill is about recognising the enormous inequality, particularly for young workers, that is being perpetrated by this Government in that workers cannot buy or rent homes close to their workplaces.”
“The reality is that if you do not have a child under the age of 12, access to remote and flexible work arrangements remains a perk for good behaviour in this country, and that you have to be in the workplace for six months. It means that access to remote and flexible work is down to luck, rank or pay. Of course, we know that on average the better paid employees are, the higher the rank, the greater the autonomy and the greater the possibility of accessing remote and flexible work arrangements. We feel passionate in the Labour Party about levelling the playing field in workers' rights and ensuring that every worker, where it is appropriate to their job, is afforded a real right to flexible and remote work.”
“That was promised by the previous Government. There has been neither sight nor sound of the sub-minimum national minimum wages and the outrageous situation where adults are effectively paid as children in workplaces. The Government hypocritically laments the lack of construction labour, yet does not do anything about construction pay, and in respect of the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, we only have to look at the WRC cases over the past two years to see that, in the words of one employment lawyer, the legislation is a "toothless tiger". With 72 cases taken, 12 found against and one found for, we need not see anything more.”