I bet you I have been on more protests outside the Russian embassy than you have.
Sentiment score: -0.29
The programme for Government refers to work-life balance, quality of life, quality employment and it even contains the phrase "a secure future for all living things", which is quite a noble ambition. I want to shout out for a group of workers very close at hand who do not have any of those things. They are the majority of people who work for Oireachtas TV, who broadcast proceedings from this Dáil Chamber, the Seanad Chamber and the committees but who are only employed on the days that we sit. That means that over the course of the year, they earn about €12,000. Imagine trying to exist on €12,000. Imagine over the last three months, as the Government was debating who would be in government and then forming that Government, not having any work and not knowing when they were going to be able to work, being laid off during the summer, at Easter and at Christmas but having to be always available to work for the company, whose name is Pi Comms. I am not sure, and maybe the Taoiseach will confirm the details, but I think the company gets €5 million or even €7 million per year for the contract. All of the equipment is provided directly by the Oireachtas and all the paperwork is done by the Oireachtas, so the only overhead that we can see for the company is to pay the workforce, who are on miserable earnings and have very few hours. There are five permanent workers but the majority of them are living in poverty. Given the role they play in projecting out the democracy of this country and the importance of that, they should have decent jobs and proper retainers and should not have to live in poverty in this precarious existence.
Sentiment score: 0.01
Does the Taoiseach agree with me?
Sentiment score: 0.36
We do not have a place on the commission but the Government has a place.
Sentiment score: 0.00
I just thought I would start the ball rolling.
Sentiment score: 0.00
It was only raised with me last week.
Sentiment score: 0.00
Will the Taoiseach support them?
Sentiment score: 0.40
About a week ago, I raised the plight of tenants in Sallynoggin who have been living in council houses for years with infants and children where there is mould all over the walls, all of the time, water running down the insides of the walls and rodent infestations. The tenants are still being forced to live there. It has been earmarked for redevelopment but the point is that the tenants want out of there because the conditions are terrible. People are getting pneumonia.
Sentiment score: -0.26
Sallynoggin. Since I raised this, the people are still in there and still looking to get out. By the way, the Rialto Action Group took a legal case against Dublin City Council some years ago because these kinds of conditions are a breach of the European Social Charter. The group won the case. The Sallynoggin case is similar. These people's rights are being breached by the local authority. Since I raised the case here last week - it was televised and so on - I have been inundated with messages from people living in similar conditions of damp, black mould and rodent infestations in local authority housing. It is not good enough. At the very least, there should be an instruction from the Minister for housing that such people will be prioritised to be rehoused, particularly where children are involved. Some are being hospitalised or they have to go to doctors. They are getting medical testimony saying they should not be living in these conditions, yet they are still not being rehoused. Something needs to be done about this as a matter of urgency.
Sentiment score: 0.04
It is not very stable for tenants.
Sentiment score: -0.27
Impose minimum standards.
Sentiment score: -0.30
I am talking about rehousing people when they are in those conditions.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The Government should impose minimum standards.
Sentiment score: -0.30
Classical economists Karl Marx and David Ricardo, on different sides of the political spectrum, agreed that all wealth is derived from labour. One of our biggest problems is skills shortages in every sector of our economy, whether it is construction, the health service, education or retail. The reason is increasing numbers in their tens of thousands of young people are bailing out of the country because they cannot afford to live here. If we are talking about competitiveness, this is the biggest challenge. I do not like competition as the basis of an economy but let us say we need the economy to function in order----
Sentiment score: 0.01
Society is not a football game. Perhaps the Taoiseach thinks it is. We need our housing to be affordable for young people and to remove financial barriers to education that drive many of our young people out.
Sentiment score: 0.00