Sinéad Gibney
Dublin Rathdown · Social Democrats · Ireland
“Unfortunately, those are still not entirely clear. Although the Windsor Framework did look to enshrine that policy of no diminution of rights and the non-divergence of rights on either side of the Border, that has not been clear in how it is going to play out.”
“I want to raise one specific sector. Within my portfolio, the culture sector is a good example of where we could see a much better offering in the joining together of the two economic activities. For example, we have a very vibrant production sector for film and television.”
“The other word that is important to bring into any economic discussion and fiscal discussion around a united Ireland is "holistic" because, unfortunately at times, I see the Government looking at the economy as a discrete part of society and neglecting things that fall outside of economic discussion, economic imperatives, and policymaking…”
“There are ways that we can see how our governance of this jurisdiction can be improved simply by the opportunities that will be presented by opening up constitutional change and the discussions that we are all going to have about how we govern ourselves right now and how we may govern an entire island of Ireland.”
“When the Minister of State referred to office roles in Brussels, was he describing roles in NATO headquarters? The international forces the Minister of State is describing are exactly like the coalition that invaded Iraq.”
“I look forward to coming back to the topic of the triple lock in a few questions' time. I have read with extreme concern the reports over the past week on the lack of support provided by the Department of Defence to Women of Honour, whose members are participating in the Defence Forces tribunal.”
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“Older people should not be working past retirement due to the threat of poverty. We have longer healthy years and we need to take advantage of this fact. Is rud maith é dár sochaí go bhfuil daoine ag maireachtáil níos faide agus go bhfuil siad níos sláintiúla. Ní cóir go mbíonn muid nó fostaithe ag rá nach féidir leo fanacht i bpost más mian leo. Ba chóir dúinn tacú le daoine ón gcliabhán go cré na cille. Life expectancy, and more importantly, healthy life expectancy, is higher than it used to be. It is important to address this fact in meeting the needs of everybody. We need a rebalancing of relationships. We cannot just use workers until they are all used up, or deemed to be all used up, and then discard them arbitrarily. We have positive duties on employers, and we need more of these, to provide reasonable accommodations.”
“Ensuring people can work if they wish to does not allow the State to abdicate the responsibility. Supports for older people are absolutely vital and in today's society, of course, many older people are renters in precarious housing and many are struggling with rising household bills in today's cost-of-living crisis. People, paid and unpaid, work hard all their lives. It is extremely important to acknowledge that much of the hard work that goes on in society is not even paid work. People care for families and loved ones. Sometimes they earn a living, but they always support their communities, their families and themselves. Important supports and services are there for people to thrive because people deserve the right to be secure and have their basic needs met. Again, this is not a privilege but a right.”
“Even putting that aside, and it is something no longer perpetuated by existing policy, there still are gendered issues in the existing framework. This is because women are more likely to have taken time out of working life. Women, also, of course, have caring responsibilities they take on disproportionately. They have working roles that have a contractual retirement age, and this can mean less of a pension, fewer savings and further disadvantage. Employment gaps also mean that getting another job to bridge the gap is harder. Helping people to stay in the labour market is not a substitute for a social floor. Níor chóir go mbeadh faitíos orainn dul in aois. Faraor, mar gheall ar ár bpolasaithe mar Stát, tá faitíos ar go leor daoine maidir le bochtanas agus iad ag dul in aois.”
“Mandatory retirement is often seen as a way to ensure a healthy and sharp workforce. We have, however, moved on from that as a society. This is because, once again, this view assumes incapacity in older people, which is simply just not acceptable any more. These are paternalistic measures not to people's benefit but to their detriment. Economic security in retirement is threatened by that gap in the last years of employment. I also wish to bring a gendered lens to this area of policymaking, because, of course, it is gendered. We have the existing gender pension gap because of some of the archaic and sexist policies we saw in our past, including the marriage bar, where women in their older years now are either at risk of or in poverty because of that gender pension gap and the lack of ability they had to accrue their stamps.”
“While employers may have a reason, this does not make it the only reason, and does not even make it always a legitimate reason. It is extremely important to have fairness in this process and to recognise the imbalance of power where there is an individual versus an employer. Again, I heard the Minister mention in his opening comments the increased threshold because this is individual rather class-based in terms of the Employment Equality Act 1998, and this is to be welcomed. This is, of course, a decision that has a much smaller impact on the employer than the employee. This is something else we must remember. It cannot be arbitrary. My next point is that people are living longer and if they want to continue to work, then they should not be prevented from doing so.”
“Again, my own experience in that programme helped me to learn it. One of the places we can immediately go to see age-based discrimination is a greeting card shop. What we see when we look at the cards celebrating birthdays of all ages is this negative attitude towards ageing. We all hold an essentially negative attitude towards ageing. People who work in this sector, however, will tell us again and again it is much better than the alternative. We must challenge ourselves as a society to remember growing old is not a bad thing but a very good thing. It also does not mean decreased capacity. In the context of this issue, where I am talking about decision-making being within the ambit of the employer or, preferably, a more balanced one, objectivity is key.”
“We avoid poverty and deprivation, and this makes people happier and healthier. We also reduce the stress of making ends meet until people reach 66, which is such a horrendous thing to have to face when you are reaching the end of your working life. Second, we need to end this assumption that the age people can work until is a decision that should be left wholly to employers. Ba chóir go mbeadh oibrithe iad féin in ann an rogha dul ar scor a dhéanamh dóibh féin. This is all about choice, and others have spoken about this aspect already. We really welcome this legislation as part of the picture of making choice available for people regarding when and how they retire. Obviously, this must be relevant to the particular area and nature of work people have been employed in. Age-based discrimination is a real thing.”
“My first point is that older people are facing major issues accessing the job market. If we do facilitate them doing so, we will really reap the benefits of them staying in employment. It is difficult to start a new job at 65 when just one year away from a State pension. It is also difficult to survive without income for that period. It really brings about enforced hardship, which is what I would call it, without any objective reason. In 2023, for example, 20% of 50-to-64-year-olds were living in deprivation or consistent poverty. Keeping people who do not wish to retire in employment, where possible, does benefit us all. We have this double whammy where we get the income tax and we save on the social welfare payments at the same time in respect of people who otherwise would be getting them if not facilitated to keep working.”
“Helping people to stay in the labour market is not a substitute for a social floor. We have longer and healthier years and we need to take advantage of this situation as a society and public policy should address pension and retirement sustainability. In the Minister's opening comments, the two priorities he put forward concerned the economic sustainability of a pension plan and supporting older people. I advocate switching these priorities around. It is our obligation as a State and as policymakers as well as the Government's to support older people into their older age when they do not have adequate income to support themselves. Of course, this must be economically sustainable, but even reordering those priorities is something the Social Democrats would welcome.”
“Obviously, the world of work is just one of the ways in which I truly believe we need to do this. The key points I wish to touch on today are that older people face major issues accessing the job market, but we reap the benefits of them when they are in employment. We also need to end this assumption that the age people can work until is a decision that should be left wholly to employers. Across industries, retirement gaps cause grave worry and real issues for workers. Several years ago, my own mum ended up in this one-year hiatus situation. In reality, most of us in this Chamber, and outside it, will know someone who has been in this situation of having this gap. We are living longer and if people want to work, then they should not be prevented from doing so.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak on today's legislation. I will set out some of they key principles that inform the Social Democrats' policy positions on retirement and pensions. I had the privilege of working in this area a few years ago when I ran a digital literacy programme for older people in a previous job. People use that word "privilege", but I genuinely did find it a privilege to learn about ageing in that context. It really opened my eyes and it was quite transformational for me to see how much we hold on to these assumptions, stereotypes and negative concepts around ageing and how freeing and liberating it is on an individual level, as well as potentially on a societal level, to reframe our thinking around ageing and how we, as a society, support, value and cherish older people throughout our lives.”
“This means that, rather than waiting until age 55 - according to Government policy, they should then seek other work - they are asking themselves at the age of 40 whether they should seek other work. This is leading to the issues we are seeing with recruitment and retention in these crucial services that our communities rely on.”
“I appreciate the liability of the State in terms of pension services but the fact that the supplementary pension has not been a feature since 2013 shows that these uniformed services are a casualty of that policy. Besides the moral obligation we have to these workers who have provided crucial services to our society in the course of their careers, I would also speak to the retention issues that this drives. In a recent survey of more than 2,000 members of the services recruited after 2013, fewer than 1% were not concerned about their pensions and three quarters of them did not believe that they could serve until the mandatory retirement age, partly due to the pension issue.”
“The stopgap of bringing it forward to the age of 62 is welcome but it is not enough and the Minister knows this because, as an Opposition TD, he tabled a motion in 2019 related to the Defence Forces that highlighted this issue. Will the Minister please tell me what he is actually going to do to help those firefighters who are retiring at the age of 55?”
“I will jump on one phrase the Minister used. I know it has been essentially a policy that Government spokespeople have used. It is that people are "able" to work after the age of 55. I raised this question on the back of a meeting I had with Dublin firefighters and their union representatives last week. They spoke to me about the specific dangers that their vocation introduced into their lives. They simply have lower life expectancies and poorer quality of life after retirement and higher incidences of cancer and addiction. Recent research from the World Health Organization, WHO, backs this up further. It is not good enough that we are simply saying to firefighters and people in those uniformed services that they can just work after that age.”
“The changes to the public service pension scheme in 2013 essentially created, first, an anomaly and, now, something that has crystalised into policy in respect of fast accrual. Has the Department taken any steps to address issues with the fast accrual single public service pension scheme for members of uniformed services recruited after 2013, specifically the lack of a supplementary pension until they reach State pension age? Has the Department any plans to address these issues?”
“We therefore need to make sure that storms such as this one do not cost people further, and certainly that they do not cost people their livelihoods. The lesson we now need to learn from this is that we need to be better prepared, to be more climate resilient and to provide reassurance to ordinary people that they will not be left in the dark and thousands out of pocket by an act of nature ever again.”
“Tá mé thar a bheith buíoch díobh. Rinne siad scoth na hoibre ag am iontach deacair. The assistance schemes have to be more reliable and effective than what we have seen rolled out recently. People generally, certainly in my own community in Dublin Rathdown, are really understanding of the disruption these weather events bring and of the disruption that is required for the State to roll out the measures in response. However, they start becoming very worried and very stressed when there are severe delays in the provision of that assistance. When there is uncertainty about what help is available to people, they feel as if they are completely on their own. It is already difficult to run a business, keep a farm going and make ends meet.”
“Again, we are not asking anyone to control the weather, but the science is telling us that the weather is becoming more and more severe. We know that emissions are continuing to rise globally, so this is not going to change. We need to act now to upgrade infrastructure, to deal with the grid shortcomings we have and to invest in these prevention schemes and mitigation measures that will actually mean these storms can be weathered by our communities and our people. We need to protect homes and communities from the change in the climate overall. I too acknowledge the incredible work done during the storm by communities and front-line workers. Thousands of front-line workers, including those from ESB, Uisce Éireann and EirGrid and council workers, worked incredibly hard to get us back to normal. Their efforts must be commended.”
“When we think about the impact of the recent storms in particular on communities, lives and livelihoods across Ireland, we have to consider those workers, for example, who did not get paid during closures, the small businesses and farms with many losses from those closures and the damage to their property and machinery. We think about the older people and people with disabilities who felt vulnerable, isolated and forgotten as they had to seek power to charge up their medical equipment and to keep their homes warm. My constituency of Dublin Rathdown was thankfully spared from most of the major damage, but we know of the significant damage to people's homes across the country from Storm Éowyn and other recent storms. What we believe in the Social Democrats is that there is a need to build climate resilience.”
“I too welcome this motion. Gabhaim buíochas le Sinn Féin as ucht an rún seo a chur os comhair na Dála. I wish to speak to three main points in my comments. I will discuss the impact that these weather events are having on communities, lives and livelihoods across Ireland, our need to build climate resilience and what we really want from assistance schemes in order that they be reliable and effective. The key message is that we are not asking the Government to control the weather. We understand that is not possible, but we have a collective responsibility in the Dáil to protect people from the elements and the impacts of climate change, which are worsening by the day.”
“How can we be neutral when we facilitate the transfer of these weapons, many of which are destined to be dropped on densely populated areas of Gaza and which will annihilate the maximum number of innocent civilians. We have long called on this Government to do more than use strong words when it comes to the genocide in Gaza and to act instead. It turns out that it has been doing so by green-lighting weapons transfers. Will the Taoiseach indicate if he has concerns and if he intends to do anything about this?”
“Since 2016, there has been an almost 70% increase in the number of aircraft permitted to bring weapons of war through Ireland or on Irish-registered aircraft. A significant number of flights carrying weapons destined for Israel have travelled through Irish airspace without permission. One would have to wonder, given the carte blanche that apparently exists in the relevant Department, why those flight operators did not simply apply for exemptions because the likelihood is that any such requests would immediately have been rubber-stamped. Since 2016, the Department has refused just 1% of the 9,848 applications it received. This is damning and represents a complete undermining of our neutrality.”
“What we do with that is the test of every generation. Tá súil agam go mbeimid in ann bóthar níos fearr a roghnú agus go bhfuilimid dáiríre faoi na ceachtanna seo a fhoghlaim. While the removal of outdated laws from our Statute Book is welcome there is still much work to do to provide us with a modern, updated Statute Book. We face many choices of what we do and who we become as a nation even now. I hope we choose well and with this Bill coming before the House that we are serious about learning the lessons of the past.”
“These are reminders that without the checks and balances of recognising our common humanity and the rights of all, we can see laws that bring about grave injustices, that the trade, goods and money that flows across this world can seem so innocuous reaching our shores but is dyed in the blood of those far from our borders; that the control, particularly of women and LGBT people, as immoral and sinful is still something we tackle today in the oppression that they face. On the other hand, the 1856 proclamation of thanksgiving that peace in Europe was restored at the end of the Crimean war, is a reminder that we must strive for peace, that it is the ordinary people who are caught up in the crossfire of warring countries and that we have seen the scourge of war in Europe across the centuries.”
“Meetings organised by Daniel O'Connell on home rule were being prohibited. Most of the people affected by these warrants and orders would not see self government in their own lifetime. It is important to consign colonial laws to history. It is also important that we do not forget them. Is fúinn atá sé foghlaim ón stair. These statutes have so much to teach us. They paint a picture of our past which at times can seem so abstract. In this Bill there are proclamations requiring slaves in the East Indies to submit to the law, ports being declared proper for importing goods from the East India Company; proclamations prohibiting vice and immorality and encouraging piety and virtue.”
“I wish to first call out the key role the Law Reform Commission has played in bringing this Bill before us. Its work is not normally or necessarily headline-grabbing but represents a vital and painstaking role in keeping our law under review and researching law with a view to reform. Our Statute Book should be reflective of the laws that govern us and free of historical instruments that simply no longer apply. Making that happen is expert, arduous and technical work and a true act of public service. Táim fíor-bhuíoch as an obair sin. This Bill shines a light on how much has changed in a relatively short space of time. We see mentions of people being sentenced to transportation, prohibition of vice and in 1846, prayers against famine. It also gives a snapshot of a nation which was increasingly struggling for its independence.”
“-----there is no debate happening. Moreover, his respect for debate obviously does not extend to the Irish people. All we are asking for is that this crucial part of our neutrality tradition is simply put to the people. I urge this House again to adopt this motion, put it to the people and defend our triple lock.”
“We have had concerns within the neutrality space within Ireland about this creeping change and the Government has proven again and again that it is willing to dent and damage our neutrality but this is not a creeping change. This is a mammoth step away from neutrality. As a new TD, four months in, the level of cynicism the Government displays is depressing. I refer to the fact that it says on one hand that it supports neutrality and will on the other hand absolutely shred it to pieces by dismantling the triple lock and by increasing the cap from 12 to 50, quadrupling the number of personnel who can be sent overseas by a Minister without any debate. The Minister of State talks to us about debate but the Government has had a whopping total of two Government representatives in the House today, and not even two at the same time.”
“It is very clear that those origins of the European Union as a peace project are drifting further and further into our past as we see the militarisation. However, I see that there is conflict. We recognise that there is conflict. We are not blind to what is happening in this world but it is a choice to follow down the path of militarisation or to stay true to our commitment as a country and a State towards peace, human rights and diplomacy. We need to be the annoying voice within the European Union to remind it of its origins and our commitment as a union towards peace and security. I will finish on the fact that the Minister of State put this forward as this adjustment, this tweak.”
“-----to not mention that this is fully functioning. Will the Minister of State please allow me to finish my points, with all the respect that he talked about for debate? I also want to pick up on the issue that the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, raised about us not supporting European Union membership, which is the most preposterous statement for him to make. We, of course, as the Social Democrats, support European Union membership. Moreover, the European Union supports our neutrality. It is the choice of this Government, and of Fine Gael as a member of EPP Group, to blindly follow the pathway towards militarisation that we are seeing happening in Europe. We also heard the Minister of State, or perhaps that was his colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, speaking about the peace project that is the European Union.”
“Another issue I have to pick up on in the contribution of the Minister, Deputy Byrne, is that he said there had been no peacekeeping missions approved. There have of course been peacekeeping missions renewed-----”
“-----today and last week in the debate on the international security on trade, the Minister of State has said twice that this was in the general election manifesto. It was not. The triple lock is not mentioned in the Fine Gael manifesto. It is mentioned in the Fianna Fáil one but it is mentioned in the context of reform. What the Minister of State is proposing is simply not reform. That is clear.”
“The Minister of State continues to wave the flag of concern over the UN Security Council veto but he has not in any way acknowledged that it is not the blockage that he says it is to our triple lock. Furthermore, he has given no evidence of attempts to fix the issues he says exist with the UN Security Council. What are they? What has he actually done to try to amend it? Another fact check I would like to put out is that-----”
“I will pick up on some of the points made by the Minister of State and his colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne. The latter set out a very visceral story about his experience in the UN in 2022 where he had a concern because he did not know whether or not there was going to be a veto. I believe this was about Operation Althea. He did not finish the story. There was no veto. He also did not respond to what I put out as the clear mechanism that can satisfy the triple lock in the event there is a veto or concerns over Security Council vetos, namely, the General Assembly. It is in the capstone doctrine and in our Defence (Amendment) Act 2006. Nobody has answered this.”
“This country has a long-standing tradition of peacebuilding, peace-making and peacekeeping. We punch above our weight in terms of diplomacy, human rights and peace. We need to invest in our Defence Forces to maintain that reputation and we need to act as champions for peace on the global stage and as a member state within the European Union, and we must retain the triple lock. I urge the House to support this motion and put the question of the triple lock to the people. Tá dlí idirnáisiúnta agus an tsíocháin faoi ionsaí agus caithfidh muid troid ar ais anois.”
“If we reject the support and oversight of the international community, we are rejecting the principle of multilateralism and we will lose our credibility as a good faith actor - credibility which has been built up over decades. Finally, I wish to speak to our long-standing tradition of peacekeeping. Of course, we have the longest unbroken record of peacekeeping in the world and we are very proud of that record. On behalf of the Social Democrats, I thank the Defence Forces for the work they do in maintaining the work of peacekeeping in difficult locations all over the world. As the House will hear from my colleagues, we support the Defence Forces and the maintenance of our peacekeeping work. This is not a head-in-the-sand approach. It is not blind idealism. It is a practical look at the facts before us.”
“As a result, our voice carries weight not only in Europe, but also in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. It means that we do not just split off into those regional blocs. Indeed, within our own regional bloc, there is respect within the European Union for our neutrality - respect that is now threatened not by the triple lock but by the failure to fund our Defence Forces and the willingness of the Government to be carried away on a defence tide. Tá áit tuillte ag Éirinn i measc na náisiún mar thír atá i gcoinne cogaidh agus atá sásta seasamh suas in aghaidh cumhachtaí móra ar mhaithe leis an gcine daonna.”
“In connection with that, I also want to speak to the raising of the cap, because that is a crucial part of our triple lock and raising it so drastically, from 12 to 50, will alter the ability of the Dáil and the people to debate any deployment of troops overseas. At a time where peace projects are being put on the backburner globally, in Europe, America and beyond, the UN remains the international body which is foundationally committed to peace and the rule of law. It is worrying to see such bitterness to oversight of a body whose mission is to project future generations from the scourge of war. When I think of our place in the world, I think of multilateralism. We have garnered an international reputation for peacekeeping, for looking out not just for the global north, but for the global interest.”
“It is clear from the Defence (Amendment) Act 2006 and the capstone doctrine of the United Nations that the General Assembly is available to satisfy the triple lock where we see a deadlock and a veto threatening that peace at Security Council level. What really rankles with me is when the Government states that the potential veto of a UN Security Council member is a threat to our sovereignty. The people I think of when I hear that are those whose actual sovereignty is under threat – people in Gaza, people in Ukraine and people in conflict zones all across the globe who really understand what that means and who do not trivialise it.”
“That is why we have brought this motion. We should be able to agree on the basic democratic principle that a measure brought in to give people reassurance in the context of the Nice and Lisbon treaties and to secure their vote for those treaties should not be removed without their say. I will speak now to exactly what is the triple lock. It is, of course, the Government, the Dáil and the UN mandate and the role they have in the approval of the deployment of personnel overseas. I want to speak specifically to that UN Security Council mandate, which the Government raises repeatedly as its key issue with the triple lock. I believe that is a red herring.”
“It is really important to note the specific tradition and root of Irish neutrality which is that respect for diplomacy, peace and multilateralism. It has allowed us to build up a stellar reputation across the globe and, arguably, was a key part in Ireland having gained a seat on the Security Council on several occasions. In the early noughties, during the development of the Nice and Lisbon treaties, it became clear that our neutrality was under threat. The European Economic Community was becoming a closer forged community and it was clear that there was a pathway towards a military alliance as well as everything else and that would threaten our neutrality. The triple lock was developed in reaction to these events. We know the Government does not agree with us on neutrality. It has been very clear on that.”
“We saw the fuelling of US planes in Shannon which were carrying military weaponry and personnel overseas and we have seen the transport of munitions through Irish airspace - something which carries through right to this very day. However, it is a tradition which has been rooted in the commitment we have in this country to peace and diplomacy. During my research for today’s motion, I looked at the other histories of neutrality around the world. It is important to note that, for example, Switzerland is associated with neutrality, but what people do not often acknowledge is that Switzerland has a long tradition of the manufacture and sale of arms and weapons. Switzerland’s neutrality is arguably more influenced on the basis that it wants to be available to as many clients as possible.”
“I acknowledge the contribution of our Senator, Patricia Stephenson, who has been central in shaping our positions in regard to defence, neutrality and, indeed, the triple lock. Ní rud nua é neodrachas na hÉireann. Is rud fíorthábhachtach é dár bhféiniúlacht, dár sábháilteacht agus dár n-áit sa domhan. We have always been militarily neutral and as we all know, that does not mean that we are politically neutral. What it means is that we have a commitment to peace and diplomacy. Our neutrality has not always been perfect. It has been tested over time and it has not always withstood those tests. For example, during the Second World War we treated prisoners of war very differently depending on which country they came from.”
“Is mór an onóir dom an rún seo a chur ós comhair na Dála inniu. The Government has made clear its intention to dismantle the triple lock. It has brought forward proposals to remove the UN Security Council mandate, the UN mandate itself from the triple lock. It has proposed to quadruple the number of military personnel who can be deployed overseas from 12 to 50, without the mechanism even kicking in. We, the Social Democrats, are using our time this morning to simply ask the Government to put those plans to the people in the form of a plebiscite on the triple lock. This morning I will talk about our long-standing history of neutrality in this country, our place in the world, how it is connected to multilateralism, the role of the UN within that multilateralism and our long-standing tradition of peacekeeping.”
“I move: That Dáil Éireann: recognises: — Ireland's long-standing policy of military neutrality, our strong tradition of peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance abroad, and our strong international reputation in diplomacy; — the importance of safeguards and oversight in ensuring Irish military deployments are in line with our policy of military neutrality; — the importance of democratic consultation in shaping Ireland's future defence policy; and — the Government plans to remove the current Triple Lock mechanism and raise the number of troops that can be deployed without Dáil oversight to 50; acknowledges: — that the Triple Lock mechanism requires (i) Government approval, (ii) Dáil approval, and (iii) a United Nations (UN) mandate through the General Assembly or Security Council for the deployment of more than 12 Irish Defence Forces personnel overseas; — that the Triple Lock mechanism was introduced to safeguard our military neutrality during the adoption of the Nice and Lisbon Treaties; and — that the UN mandate has played a significant role in shaping Ireland's approach to international military engagement; and calls on the Government to: — hold a national plebiscite, to take place before any legislation to amend the Triple Lock mechanism is brought before the Dáil, to allow the Irish people to express their view on whether a United Nations mandate should remain a requirement for Ireland to deploy peacekeeping troops overseas; — ensure that the plebiscite presents a balanced and informed choice, reflecting the role of the Triple Lock mechanism in Ireland's approach to international deployments to date, the considerations around its impact on peacekeeping operations in the future, and any scope for the removal of the Triple Lock mechanism to result in potential non-neutral military deployment; and — commit to respecting the outcome of the plebiscite and ensuring that any subsequent policy decisions reflect the will of the people while upholding Ireland's commitment to military neutrality, multilateralism, and international cooperation.”
“We have much to do in simply acknowledging what is contributed by family and informal carers to our economy and society and all the value that provides, and in talking about it in the context of artificial intelligence, AI, because one of the few areas of labour that will not be displaced by AI is care. We cannot automate care or the caring of those around us. That applies to the teaching and nursing professions as well. If we were forward thinking, if we could be progressive in identifying, nurturing and valuing care, we would see a lot of gain in society.”
“I urge the Minister and the Government to progress this as quickly as possible so that people can get out from underneath poverty and the pressure they are under to advocate for themselves while providing this service. That all says to me that we have a much bigger conversation to have about care. It is also a gendered issue. Overall, care is either unpaid or underpaid and unfortunately these issues will all be symptoms until we deal with it. It even flows from our Constitution in which, although we name-check care, it is done in a terribly gendered and archaic way.”
“Single parents are one of them, as I mentioned. It will be single parents day tomorrow for the record so I give a particular shout-out to all the single mums and others parenting alone. When we think about this motion and what flows from it, one of the big issues that is prevalent, and many people raised it with me during the election campaign, is the means testing of carer's allowance. What we are doing is punishing people for providing a service our society needs badly and which serves communities and families everywhere. People are at their wits' end. Although we saw a lot of talk about this during the election campaign, I have concerns about the speed at which it is being addressed.”
“I had even started my career so I was able to put my life on hold for 18 months and take care of my daughter before I returned to my career and got on with my life as a new mum. Many young carers and young adult carers have to put their lives completely on hold. Their lives are so disrupted that they cannot continue with their education, social lives or friends and simply being children is no longer available to them because of the care responsibilities they take on. That is purely the result of a failure by the State to provide the quality public services that should underpin a modern progressive society that is the bedrock of a social democracy. We see time and again the failure of disability services, healthcare services and respite services in all quarters of society which is putting immense pressure on various groups in society.”