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Holly Cairns TD, Social Democrats spokesperson on Agriculture, has criticised the lack of commitment from the meat processing industry to immediately close individual plants in the event of further outbreaks of Covid-19. Holly said: “At today’s Special Covid-19 Committee hearing, I asked representatives of the meat industry to clearly state if individual plants would be […]

Social Democrats TD for Dublin Central, Gary Gannon, has called on the Minister for Education and officials from her department to appear before the Oireachtas Special Covid-19 Committee to provide a progress report on the Government’s plan to reopen schools at the end of this month. Deputy Gannon, who is the party’s spokesperson on Education, […]

Gary Gannon TD, Social Democrats spokesperson on Education, today called on the Minister for Education to reassure Leaving Cert students that the predictive grades debacle in Scotland could not happen here. Deputy Gannon said: “Students and parents in Ireland will have watched the controversy over predictive grades in Scotland with understandable concern. We are just […]

Holly Cairns TD, Social Democrats spokesperson for Agriculture, said today that the country is paying a high price for the failure of the Government to regulate the meat industry and called for an immediate plan to be put in place to prevent further outbreaks within the sector. Holly said: “For some time I have been […]

Róisín Shortall TD, co-leader of the Social Democrats, said that today’s announcement of localised restrictions in three counties highlighted the ongoing need to closely monitor all high-risk settings and called for increased scrutiny of working and living conditions associated with meat processing plants. Deputy Shortall said: “While this may be a sign that the testing […]

Holly Cairns TD, Social Democrats spokesperson for Agriculture, has renewed her call for a task force for the meat processing industry following the emergence of new Covid-19 clusters in a number of plants. Holly said: “While the health and wellbeing of the workers must be our main priority, ongoing outbreaks at meat processing plants have […]

Social Democrats TD for Cork South West and spokesperson on Further and Higher Education, Holly Cairns, has welcomed the publication of health guidelines for the safe resumption of on-campus activity in third level institutions but said further clarification was needed from the Government in some areas. Holly said: “The publication of the Implementation Guidelines for […]

Róisin Shortall TD, co-leader of the Social Democrats and spokesperson on Finance, has expressed concerns at today’s announcement by Bank of Ireland of 1,400 job losses. Deputy Shortall said: “Even though redundancies in the banking sector had been anticipated, the scale of the job losses proposed is staggering and will see staff numbers reduced from […]

Social Democrats TD and spokesperson for Social Protection, Gary Gannon, has criticised the further suspension of an employee’s legal entitlement to claim redundancy if they have been laid-off or put on reduced hours for a set number of weeks. Deputy Gannon said: “This decision is a worrying erosion of statutory redundancy rights. Under the Redundancy […]

Róisín Shortall TD, co-leader of the Social Democrats, has expressed surprise that there are no measures contained in the Government’s announcement on Phase 4 to address the fact that 90% of people travelling into Ireland are from non-green list countries. Deputy Shortall said: “This worrying figure will almost certainly rise now that five countries have […]

Róisín Shortall, co-leader of the Social Democrats, has paid tribute to John Hume, who passed away earlier today. Deputy Shortall said: “John Hume’s contribution to peace and reconciliation on the island of Ireland will be his enduring legacy. He will be remembered as a humanitarian, civil rights champion, risk taker and key architect of the […]

Figures for passenger numbers coming into Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports by country of origin released to Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy TD show the scale of the problem which the Government has ignored for too long. Catherine Murphy said: “The numbers of people coming in from countries that are not on green lists in […]

Social Democrats Housing Spokesperson and Dublin Bay North TD, Cian O’Callaghan, has expressed concern at the latest homelessness figures. Deputy O’Callaghan said: “The latest figures show that 8,699 people are homeless. Despite an increase in the availability of properties due to Covid-19 and the emergency ban on evictions, the overall homeless numbers have fallen by […]

Róisín Shortall TD, Social Democrats spokesperson on Health, has called on the Government to immediately act on the recommendations contained in the Interim Report on Covid-19 in Nursing Homes, which was published today. Deputy Shortall said: “This report highlights the glaring gaps in the system which led to so many deaths of people in our […]