Paul Murphy
Dublin South-West · People Before Profit-Solidarity · Ireland
“The Minister of State assured us we are bound by international law but then went on to talk about the fact that he wants to deploy troops outside the framework of international law. That is why the Government is getting rid of the triple lock. All the triple lock does is ensure that we only can send troops in line with international law.”
“The case for MetroLink south west is extremely strong. There are 350,000 people living between the Luas red and green lines. That is who will be served by this.”
“Hopefully the junior Minister will be able to clarify. The Minister, Deputy McEntee, said earlier to Deputy Ó Laoghaire, "The people I speak to do not like the fact that Russia has essentially removed, or will remove in the coming months, all our peacekeeping troops from UNIFIL".”
“I, too, want to ask about the senior Minister. This came up at the Dáil reform committee last week. It is very peculiar that a senior Minister is here and has answered previous questions on the triple lock today and then – no offence meant - we have the junior Minister answering these questions, which precisely prevents the continuation o…”
“Its defence is that we should not worry because the Government is only going to send them as part of an international force. I do not think anyone here thinks the Government is going to invade a country all by itself.”
“It is there in black and white in the programme for Government and the Government needs to live up to its commitment to do a new, properly independent feasibility study. I appeal to the Minister of State to ask the Minister for Transport to meet with the metro south west group which has been doing such excellent campaigning on this issue.”
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“He was told he should expect to receive his invitation to book his test in the week commencing 15 September 2025, almost an entire year later. Another told me just this month that he has accepted the many blockers put in front of him without any assistance from the State due to his level of income. He has completed the 12 lessons and has now been provided with an estimated driving test date of 12 January 2026, over eight months after he applied. The fundamental issue here is testers. We are paying the price for recruiting no testers last year. Yes, there is an increase in the number of testers this year, which is welcome, but it needs to be ramped up. I will finish on the point that, in addition, we do not need to force people to drive but instead offer public transport.”
“The target of ten weeks waiting time is a pretty sick joke for those who are waiting months to get driving tests that they absolutely need to be able to get around to do their jobs, collect their kids and do all of the things that, for many people, mean driving is essential in this country as it currently is. A year ago, the average waiting time was 15 weeks, not the target of ten weeks; in January, the average was 21 weeks; and right now the average is 23 or 24 weeks. Tallaght is reported as having the worst service in all of Ireland, having hit 35 to 43 weeks. I have been contacted by many constituents who are pulling their hair out and asking what they are meant to do when they have been waiting almost a year for a driving test. One person who contacted me said he applied in November 2024.”
“The Government has signed up to a directive requiring it to prepare an action plan to increase collective bargaining coverage to 80% - by the way the best way to do that is clearly by increasing union density and union membership - but then the Government says, "Don't worry; we don't actually have to reach that by any defined timeframe". This means it is signing up to it in the knowledge that we never actually have to do anything about it. It is quite revealing in that it reveals why the Government continues to drag its feet on it.”
“The voluntarist model, whereby employers are able to accept that workers - all workers - have joined the union but the employer does not have to deal with them, works for employers in low-paid sectors. It is part of the reason we have, relative to other European countries, the highest incidence of low pay. It is why we have such high rates of precarity. It is why we have fewer rights than workers in other European countries. That is facilitated by the Government's anti-union practice which is clouded in the language of voluntarism. The Government's language on the adequate minimum wages directive is interesting. It has now said that there is no obligation on member states to reach any prescribed level of collective bargaining coverage within any defined timeframe.”
“There is already legislation which compels duties of consultation and recognition on employers - the Universities Act 1997, the Education Act 1998, the Institutes of Technology Act 2006 and the Railways Acts 1924 and 1933 - which have not been challenged on their constitutionality. It is not true that this would be unconstitutional. On the idea that the long-standing voluntarist system has served us well over the decades, it was quite revealing that the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, stated the following: "A strong and well-functioning collective bargaining system [which we do not have, by the way] supports productivity and fair wages, especially in low-paid sectors".”
“Consequently the court concluded "the right to bargain collectively with the employer had become an essential element of freedom of association." A year later, Demir was cited in another unanimous decision of the European Court of Human Rights upholding the right to union recognition and collective bargaining as integral to freedom of association. The way the Government is suggesting the right to freedom of association is protected is now effectively being characterised by the European Court of Human Rights as theoretical and illusory, lacking in legal validity.”
“The European Court of Human Rights had a similar position to the Government, which is that workers have the constitutional right or the right protected under the European Convention to join a trade union but that does not imply that the employer is compelled to negotiate with workers collectively. However, that court decision changed things. I am quoting here from a very important pamphlet from Daryl D'Art. A human right, the court held, must be interpreted "in a manner that renders the right practical and effective not theoretical and illusory".”
“Compelling cases were made by Deputies Lawlor and Gibney. I want to add to that something the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, said at the end when she spoke about rights that are "guaranteed in a number of international instruments the State has ratified and which it is, therefore, bound to uphold under international law." I draw attention to the European Convention on Human Rights and a decision in Demir and Baykara v . Turkey in the European Court of Human Rights which has enormous relevance here. Up until that case, the European Court of Human Rights had effectively held that the right of workers to bargain collectively did not constitute an inherent element of freedom of association.”
“That is correct and is precisely the point of the Bill, because the voluntarist system of industrial relations that has existed through decades is one that has worked in the interests of employers, not in the interests of workers. The Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, in the opening statement set out what he said were compelling reasons for the Government's opposition to this Bill. Effectively two were mentioned. First was the suggestion we often get in this place that it is unconstitutional and second was the reference to how great the voluntarist system is. In response to the suggestion that it is unconstitutional, Deputies Lawlor and Gibney addressed this point very well. This is a paper tiger that the Government hides behind to avoid acting. There is no basis or relevant rulings to suggest it will be unconstitutional.”
“I thank all colleagues in all the Opposition parties who supported our Bill. I just point out that we will finish ten minutes early. The reason is that the Members of the Lowry group who fought so hard to get their time to speak on these matters presumably do not consider it important to come and speak about trade union rights or maybe they are embarrassed because they will be voting against trade union rights later on today. I agree with one thing the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, said in her response, namely, that the "approach set out in this Bill would undermine the voluntarist approach to industrial relations that has existed down through the decades".”
“We need to match the effort of those workers in Amazon in this country, fighting to build unions and get organised, with a legislative framework that gives them the right to be in that union and compels the employer to deal with them.”
“That will increase even further. We know it is renowned for poor working conditions. It denied and then was forced to retract the denial of workers in America being forced to pee in bottles because they are not provided with appropriate breaks, toilet facilities and so on. Huge wealth is being made off the backs of exploited workers in poor conditions. All those workers in Ireland could join a trade union and Amazon could say it is not dealing with them. This is a company that spends about $10,000 a day on fighting unions and trying to keep unions out of its shops. It spent over €10 million in 2022 and 2023 on trying to defeat unionisation.”
“It introduces mandatory trade union recognition, so that when 20% of a given set of workers join a trade union, the employer is legally mandated to engage with that union through the industrial relations process. That is what it is about. It is very simple. It is about a basic element of democracy in the workplace. It is a measure that is supported, in a recent Ireland Thinks opinion poll, by 70% of people in this country. An example of a situation it deals with involves the second biggest company in the world, Amazon, owned by the second richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, a notoriously anti-union individual and employer. The richest man in the world, Elon Musk, is also a notoriously anti-union individual and employer. There is a pattern. We know that Amazon is expanding in Ireland. It now has 6,500 workers.”
“It continued, "Under Irish law, there is no requirement for an employer to recognise trade unions for the purpose of collective bargaining." The Government says that workers have the right to join trade unions but employers have the right not to deal with those trade unions. It is all premised on this illusionary equality between employees and employers, whereas bosses have the cards here. If you do not work, you cannot provide for your family. It is why we have a situation whereby workers have historically combined and have won minimum wages, have the won the weekend, have won 40-hour weeks and so on. It is why workers need to combine and act collectively, but the Government says to employers not to worry, that they can simply ignore the workers and do not need to engage with them. That is the purpose of this Bill.”
“I asked if he was aware that large employers in receipt of Government contracts, Abtran and RelateCare, which are anti-union employers, with Abtran refusing to engage with the industrial relations machinery, are refusing to recognise trade unions or engage in collective bargaining, and what the Minister of State is going to do about it. The answer I got is the answer that I presume we will get in the speech from the Minister in 13 minutes' time. It stated that we have a "voluntary system of industrial relations that is premised upon freedom of contract and freedom of association. ... The Government fully supports the right of any worker to join and be active in their trade union. Employees have the right under the Constitution to form associations and trade unions" and an employee cannot be discriminated against.”
“A key reason the balance has shifted with more and more of the wealth created going to corporations is this attack on trade unions, which was heralded by Thatcherism, Reaganism and so on. The consequence is that while workers in the 1970s were getting 55% of the value that was being created, that has been driven down to 40%. Even under the current regime, workers should join trade unions and transform them into being fighting, democratic organs. We should be clear that we have a Government that is working against workers getting organised in trade unions. I got an answer to a question to the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, recently.”
“Even with the terrible legal regime in this country and the horrific elements of the Industrial Relations Act 1990, all the evidence shows that if you get organised in a trade union, you will be able to combat bullying and discrimination, improve the atmosphere and safety in your workplace, and increase your wages. All the evidence shows that being in a union gives a premium of at least 10% in wages and a series of other benefits. The benefits of high levels of unionisation go outside of the workplace. The evidence shows that where there are higher levels of unionisation, there are lower levels of inequality, including wage inequality, across the economy. With higher levels of unionisation, a greater share of the value created by workers goes to the workers themselves as opposed to going to profit.”
“When there were no Dáil sittings for an extended period when the election was called and then when Government negations were going on, they were not paid at all. The rates they are paid are about half of the normal freelance rates for camera operators and the other work they are doing. It is scandalous but shows this is rife in terms of bad working conditions for workers. Those same workers are faced with grocery and energy prices that are still sky high and rents rising at a rate of approximately 10% a year. The best way for workers to deal with all of these challenges is to get organised into trade unions and to fight for better terms and conditions.”
“On top of that, one in ten workers experience bullying or harassment, there are conditions of precarity and employees here work longer hours and have fewer holidays and less protection against dismissal than their European counterparts. That is rife and part of the so-called voluntaristic model of industrial relations the Government trumpets, which tries to make it difficult for trade unions to organise workers and for workers to get organised. I will provide an example. The people operating cameras for the Oireachtas right now are an example of the kind of conditions of precarity. These are workers doing a job. They should be directly employed by the Oireachtas but they are not. They are outsourced.”
“Just saying that people on the minimum wage should have the very basics of what they need to survive is no longer a commitment by the Government. That was kicked out. The Government has also kicked out something this Dáil voted for, namely, to end the outrageous situation of so-called sub-minimum wages and super-exploitation of young people who are legally paid even less than the minimum wage. We have a Government that is consciously working against the interests of workers and for the interests of big corporations and the likes of Michael O'Leary. This is the situation in a country where we have immense wealth. We are one of the richest countries in the world, yet we have the highest rate of low pay in the European Union. One in five workers is low paid, representing more than 420,000 workers.”
“than Peter Burke." Michael O'Leary, of course, is a notoriously anti-worker and anti-trade union employer. The investment and support of Michael O'Leary has paid off. So far, in just over 100 days of this Government, anti-worker measure after anti-worker measure has been pursued. Previous commitments have been dropped, such as the extension of sick leave, which we were promised at the time. We wanted to stitch the increase in sick leave into the legislation but the Government argued there was no need and that we should not worry because it would do it. It is now being delayed, with Fine Gael proudly trumpeting to business that it is delaying it. There is also the delay of the promised living wage.”
“I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." The general election campaign for Fine Gael got off to a very bad start because a video emerged of Michael O'Leary launching the election campaign of Deputy Peter Burke, now the Minister responsible for this area, including, unfortunately, workers' rights, saying the things Fine Gael and its supporters say to each other when they think videos are not on and these things are not going to be public. Michael O'Leary endorsed a Government led by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and said: "Let's put two parties back in government that can deliver". He also said: "We need a government that delivers for enterprise ... it’s vital that we elect a government that gets shit done ... I can think of nobody here, certainly in the current government, who demonstrates more action, more energy ...”
“Has the Government discussed what the impact of this will be as regards the North? I particularly ask about the health and social care workforce because 70% of health workers newly recruited in the North last year were from outside the UK and the EU. Will this have any impact on cross-Border workers?”
“We must never accept the Tory or media narrative that often scapegoats and demonises migrants. "Problems of low pay, housing and public services are not caused by migrants – they are caused by a failed economic model." Keir Starmer wrote that in 2020. However, after Labour took a hammering in the recent elections, the British Prime Minister has reversed course. Mr. Starmer has not reversed course on the so-called "welfare" reform. He has not reversed course on the attacks on disabled people. He has reversed course by joining in with Nigel Farage's scapegoating of migrants. He delivered an incredible speech yesterday echoing Enoch Powell's notorious "rivers of blood" speech in which he talked about the danger of Britain becoming an "island of strangers" and said that there would be a big reduction in migration.”
“Does the Taoiseach agree the councils should be compulsorily purchasing properties that are left vacant for long periods of time? Do not allow these to sit vacant during a housing crisis. Bring them into public ownership and use them to provide housing to the very many people who need it.”
“The collapse of the houses at the canal yesterday encapsulates the scandal of dereliction and vacancy in this country. There are 160,000 vacant properties, 50,000 of which have been vacant for six years or more. Despite the immense housing crisis and the fact that over 15,000 people are living in emergency accommodation right now, the Government has done very little to address this. These homes were owned by the Construction Industry Federation, the lobbyists for the builders in this country. They were left empty, left to become increasingly derelict over time, until such a point that they collapsed yesterday. They were put on the derelict sites register only in June 2023 but it does not appear that anything else has happened with them since then.”
“More than 14,000 children are now waiting for assessment of needs. The Government is breaking its own law for 90% of the assessment of needs that are carried out. They are not carried out within the six months legal timeframe. You have an incredible situation where a 14-year-old, Cara Darmody, feels compelled to sleep outside for 50 hours to fight for the rights of her brothers. She really should not have to and we should have time on the Dáil schedule next week for a joint motion to say the Government and the State are going to stop breaking their legal obligations and provide the funding and resources to ensure every child gets the assessment of needs in the time he or she needs to have it.”
“Okay. I am interested to hear the answer. What was reported is that if people refuse to remove a face covering they could then be arrested. It certainly seemed like an attack on the right of people to protest, particularly disabled people, who subjected the last Government to one of its biggest defeats in terms of a row-back on the Green Paper on disability reform. Many of them - people who are immunocompromised - have to wear face masks to allow them to be out in crowds. They need to wear face masks and should not have their right to protest restricted. This comes along with proposals for body cameras and facial recognition technology. Again, it is reported that this is in preparation for the EU Presidency when the Government expects protest from the "extreme left".”
“Proposals were reportedly brought to Cabinet this week to criminalise people who wear face coverings on protests. Anyone wearing any type of face covering, be it a disabled person wearing a medical face mask or a religious person wearing a face covering, can be ordered to remove it by the Garda.”
“I will give the Tánaiste another suggestion, which actually came from the now Taoiseach. Micheál Martin said last September that there had to be consequences for airlines that do this, that they should not be allowed to-----”
“We can see the Tánaiste's studied, deliberate and false ignorance, pretending that he does not know what is going on and suggesting we need to have aircraft to inspect commercial airlines in the sky over Ireland. What is he suggesting? Again, it is very simple. I am really happy to give these waybills from the aircraft to the Tánaiste that repeatedly show that thousands of tonnes of weaponry have gone through Irish airspace on the way to be used in a genocide in Gaza. This is not a mystery; the airlines admit it. A few months ago, the previous Government had some sort of examination in the Department of Transport. What happened to that examination? The Tánaiste wants to know my practical solution. My practical solution is that the Minister for Transport should prosecute the companies. It is the law. They are currently breaking the law.”
“Will he keep saying the world needs to act, that we need to do more and cannot stand idly by, and then continue to precisely stand idly by while weapons go through Irish airspace to be used for a genocide?”
“This aircraft departed Memphis just over an hour ago, and its flight plan indicates it will enter Irish sovereign airspace this afternoon. [...] FedEx has designated the three packages - which we understand are Lockheed Martin F-35 combat jet components - as ... (ITAR) goods. The F-35 is a weapon of war used by the [IDF] to kill civilians - including journalists - in Gaza. The Tánaiste knows about it. Why does he say he does not believe it is happening? Is he claiming he has not received this evidence? Or is he saying that he has received this evidence but that he thinks the airlines are somehow, for some reason, lying about having weapons and munitions on their planes? Is the Tánaiste going to act?”
“How could the Tánaiste say these things? The Ditch has informed him, and I am very happy to pass over a folder of waybills from the airlines themselves. We do not need to investigate it; the airlines themselves are declaring that they are carrying weapons. These have been sent to the Tánaiste repeatedly, not just after the fact, but in advance of the fact. One of the receipts I have here from FedEx clearly lists the tracking number and flags it as international traffic in arms regulations, ITAR, goods. On 23 October 2024, The Ditch emailed the Tánaiste, stating: We wish to advise you that FedEx flight FDX4 ... from Memphis to Cologne is carrying at least three munitions of war packages for delivery to Nevatim IDF Air Base in Israel.”
“Multiple airlines are doing it repeatedly, namely, Lufthansa, Delta Airlines, FedEx, Challenge, Silk Way Airlines and EL AL. They are flown without permission from the Irish State. It is a criminal offence which carries a three-year prison sentence for the owner or hirer of the aircraft. The Tánaiste is not just turning a blind eye to it; he is gaslighting us about it. He told the Dáil last June that "no ... Irish sovereign airspace is being used to transport weapons to the conflict in the Middle East." Last Friday, on "The Late Late Show", the Tánaiste said he does not believe that Irish skies are being used to transport weapons to Israel. Now he tells the Dáil that it is hard to have the level of knowledge that we need to have about these flights.”
“These are the Tánaiste's words: Children are starving. Basic painkilling medicine cannot be accessed. Hospitals are being bombed and the scale of death and destruction in Gaza is almost unimaginable. It is certainly unconscionable. Famine is a real risk for many Gazans and children are even dying as we speak ... We cannot and will not stand idly by and let this happen. These are the Tánaiste's words, but standing by is exactly what the Government is doing regarding the thousands of tonnes of weaponry flown through Irish sovereign airspace since October 2023 to the Israeli military, namely, F-35 combat jet components, munitions from Lockheed Martin and IMI Systems, missile launchers, Smith and Wesson handguns, ammunition primer, detonator, detonating fuses and teargas. I could go on.”
“Gardaí physically assaulted pro-Palestine protesters outside NATO HQ in Dublin, viciously breaking a man's ankle. They strip searched women protesters from Mothers Against Genocide, a form of sexual assault. The Government is bringing in new laws to allow gardaí to use facial recognition technology and to criminalise the wearing of face masks on protests so people can be easily identified by police. The Government says it will need these draconian powers for the EU Presidency in Dublin next year. The Government knows the EU is authoritarian and anti-democratic and therefore will need these powers to suppress protest against it. That is why we need to rally against militarism, against the increasingly oppressive direction of the EU and in defence of peace this Saturday at 2 p.m.”
“In other words, it stops Micheál Martin and Simon Harris from currying favour with Trump, von der Leyen, Macron and Merz by sending Irish soldiers to fight and die in offensive imperialist wars. In preparation for abolishing the triple lock the Government here is cracking down on the right to protest. The same is happening across the EU. In France, one of the most prominent Palestine solidarity organisations, Urgence Palestine, is under threat of being banned. So is the anti-fascist organisation, Jeune Garde antifasciste. In Germany, protesters are banned from speaking as Gaeilge on pro-Palestine demonstrations and Irish citizens are threatened with deportation as a result of their pro-Palestine solidarity. Far from standing up against this repression, the Irish State is eagerly joining in.”
“It is a great power block and, increasingly, an imperialist military alliance in which Ireland, a post-colonial, neutral state should have no part. The EU is pressuring member states into billions of euro worth of increased military spending. This money will not be used for defence. It will be used for imperialist military interventions alongside the US and NATO. That is why the Government wants to abolish the triple lock. If the increased military spending was just for defence then there would be no need to abolish the triple lock. The triple lock does not prevent the State using troops to defend itself at all. It just restricts the Government from sending troops overseas without UN approval.”
“There are 290,000 children in Gaza who are starving and 70,000 have been hospitalised for severe malnutrition. Three and a half thousand little children under five face imminent death by starvation, according to the health ministry. All the while there are large stockpiles of food a mile away from where the children are starving to death. How can the EU and European states continue to arm Israel? How can the EU continue to be Israel's largest trading partner while Israel continues to commit such atrocities? Why is the EU so supportive of Israel's genocide that it will not act even when Israel attacks a humanitarian ship 14 miles off the coast of Malta? The EU's silence and its complicity in genocide makes a mockery of the claim by the EU to be an institution of peace. It is not.”
“Last week, Israel attacked an aid flotilla bound for Gaza with drones in international waters against people who were bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza. That is shocking, but for Israel it is not unprecedented. Fifteen years ago, ten people were killed aboard the MV Mavi Marmara as part of the freedom flotilla. Fourteen years ago, when I was an MEP, I participated in the freedom flotilla. Our first boat was sabotaged and later, when we got to sail, we were surrounded by Israeli warships, boarded, and brought to an Israeli prison. Then, as now, the aim of the flotilla was to break the siege of Gaza and provide humanitarian aid but the humanitarian situation is a thousand times worse. For more than 20 months, Israel has been carrying out a genocide. Starvation is a weapon of war for Israel just like bombs and bullets.”
“Last week I asked for a debate on the Government's housing policy or lack of it. Since then, the Government's credibility has collapsed even further with the debacle over the housing tsar. We need an emergency debate this week on housing. Does the Government agree that it is untenable for Brendan McDonagh to remain as head of NAMA when he has been using different aliases in legal documents submitted to the Land Registry and in planning applications and when he is charging more than €10,000 a week to rent a property short term without planning permission in a rent pressure zone, RPZ?”
“The problem is that the Tánaiste must not have got this memo because when I asked him about it during Leaders' Questions earlier, he said the quiet part out loud. He gave an answer for keeping sub-minimum wages that was all about reducing business costs. That is an illegal justification and the Tánaiste should withdraw it. In February, the Minister of State said the Government would decide on this after the economic impact assessment. Now it does not even have an economic impact assessment and it is already withdrawing it. It should stop the excuses and set a date for abolishing sub-minimum rates.”
“These excuses are, to put it plainly, complete nonsense. They are all excuses that the Low Pay Commission examined. The Low Pay Commission commissioned the ESRI to do a report and went through each of these excuses, knocked them down and said there was no basis for this based on international evidence. For example, the UK used to have a lower rate of minimum wage for those under 25. That was abolished and it had zero impact in terms of these measures. The reason the Government and employers are tying themselves up in knots to come up with ridiculous excuses for keeping sub-minimum wage rates is that the EU directive on adequate minimum wages requires sub-minimum rates to be "in pursuit of a legitimate aim". Under EU law - the Low Pay Commission is clear on this - reducing business costs is not a legitimate aim.”
“to give a 16-year-old an adult wage without clear guidance and support, which is not an employer's job creates poor money habits. They usually lack bills and expenses, and may favour gratification before learning how to budget, save and create sustainable spending habits. Therefore, if they got €13.50 an hour, they would blow it all on gratification, heaven forbid. Bosses are now concerned about young workers moral development as well. A third excuse was that employers would not employ as many young people if they had to pay them the full minimum wage and - I am not making this up - that that would be bad for youth mental health. So we have early school leaving, self-gratification and mental health all put forward as excuses for keeping sub-minimum wages. Of course there is no evidence for any of this.”
“I also asked the Minister this morning, and the Taoiseach later on, about the Government's scandalous decision to abandon the abolition of sub-minimum wages for young workers despite the clear recommendation of the Low Pay Commission that they be abolished. The Minister's excuse was that, if young workers were not paid less than the minimum wage, they might leave school early. It is apparently out of concern for their future prospects that caring bosses pay young workers as little as €9.45 an hour for doing the exact same work as anybody else. If they got €13.50 an hour, they would drop out of school, apparently. That excuse was examined and addressed by the Low Pay Commission and dismissed. Another excuse we heard from ISME at the Oireachtas hearings last year was that: ...”
“Michael O'Leary had a secret private dinner with Paschal Donohoe in February 2022 when the latter was Minister for Finance. It was not disclosed under lobbying laws and was not listed in the Minister's diary. Apparently, Fine Gael Ministers and Michael O'Leary just enjoy one another's company. Companies as well, perhaps. The reason this is relevant is Michael O'Leary lauded Peter Burke as the man who had to be in to "get shit done" on behalf of enterprise. This Government has pushed a pro-Michael O'Leary and pro-big business agenda, accelerated in the past number of weeks, at the expense of workers.”
“It is a shame that the Minister is not here. I hope he is listening. I do not know whether he or the Minister of State is doing the sum-up and reply at the end. I have some questions for him. This morning, I asked what interactions the Minister had with Michael O'Leary, who launched the former's election campaign, since taking office. I have just received the written answer, and the interesting thing is it states he has had no "official" interaction with him, which raises some eyebrows. I listened back to the tape of our engagement earlier and the Minister said he had no interaction with Michael O'Leary "in connection with any of my work". That leaves a very big question for me about whether that means he has met him unofficially and is covering it up. We know that Fine Gael and this Government have form on this.”
“The refusal to provide a clear timeline with dates to abolish the means test is fundamentally a sexist policy of the Government that places women in a position of continued dependency on their male partners. Economic independence is vital for gender equality, especially at a time when finding affordable housing is the main impediment to women leaving abusive relationships. That is another reason we should abolish the means test.”
“I worry that this is one of those promises made during the general election campaign that is then watered down in the programme for Government and that will end up falling by the wayside. In the past few weeks, a number of commitments made by the Government have been abandoned under the guise of the Trump tariffs, by saying that now is not the time for extending. I worry that that is where we are going to end up. The Minister may not have the figures in front of him, but of the almost 100,000 carers, I wager that a significant majority of those are women. There is no getting away from the fundamentally gendered nature in our current society of this work and that is linked to the undervaluing of this work by the State.”