Sinéad Gibney

It is wonderful to hear all the analysis and statistics that are proving what a lot of us believe, which is that we have an economy that values a certain type of work. This type of pilot shows us there is other work that happens in society that should be just as valued and, when it is valued, we all benefit from it. It really is wonderful to hear that. I welcome the six-month extension but, like D…

I do not think we should confine this to artists; that is my entire point. I also push back on the suggestion of renaming of it. The concept of a "basic income" is something that has been championed for many decades now as a way to provide certainty and a safety net for many people who live with precarious labour. I mentioned farmers. There are seasonal farmers who have to spend months of the year…

It spoke about retaining a reference to the concept of a "basic income".

The relationship that many of us have with our pharmacists is often a very important one. To demonstrate that, there is only a handful of people on my Christmas baking list beyond my family, but my pharmacist is right up there at the top. I really welcome that in recent years we have seen the expansion of the role that pharmacies play in communities. They can be such a hub for support for many peo…

I thank my party colleague Deputy Quaide for bringing forward this motion. As a member of the Social Democrats, I am very proud to put it forward. I realise that the issue has been debated many times in the House, but we have a clear commitment from the Government to abolish the means test and we have a clear rationale for how to do that, yet the Government chooses to continue to hedge and dodge w…

I will pick up where I finished my speech on the Sumud flotilla yesterday. I was emphasising a point I have made again and again on this floor. This Government has a unique mandate, given to it by a population that is unwavering and unequivocal in our support for Gaza. Sadly, the Minister of State's Government has squandered this by not acting. We have heard the right words from it, but it has not…

The power of sport for inclusion, integration and community in Ireland is undeniable. Our towns, villages, cities and suburbs are all home to sports clubs that have become vital social hubs for people of all ages. In my constituency of Dublin Rathdown, sports capital funding, in conjunction with the time and dedication of volunteers, has meant that grassroots sport in our area has been able to sw…

It is reported in the Irish Independent today that at a recent launch of teen accounts Meta's head of safety essentially said parents are now responsible for what their children and teens view online, including the harmful things their teens view online. Our Government and the tech regulators in this jurisdiction are asleep at the wheel. The social media platforms are running rings around them. Wh…

I too welcome this joint motion and express my solidarity with everybody aboard the flotilla. I welcome the families of those Irish people on board those 40 boats. I will use my time to recall why these people are on the flotilla in the first place. Across those 40 boats, there are people from all over the world including politicians, artists, activists and ordinary people. They are united by a lo…

2. Deputy Sinéad Gibney asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment whether there are concerns in his Department regarding due diligence on the granting of licences for dual use goods, particularly in light of plans to expand Ireland's role in the dual use market, per the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50822/25]

In the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity the Minister outlines progressing the interests of Irish SMEs in the dual-use area, specifically citing defence research and development and the European Defence Fund. Is the Department equipped to deal with an increase in licence applications and the due diligence required to facilitate the dual-use licence system?

I thank the Minister of State for the detail. My key concern in this area is that while the Department continues to emphasise dual use as, including perfectly legitimate ICT products, it also emphasises military applications and plans to extend this industry in Ireland. I welcome that applications are risk assessed but with this emphasis on military and defence applications of these goods there is…

I hope that is the case because, even in the previous answer to Deputy Conway-Walsh, we hear this emphasis on streamlining and making more efficient the administrative burden on businesses. However, this is a really serious area and one that needs to go in the other direction. In data released to me in answer to a parliamentary question, figures showed significant increases in the value and number…

Last weekend I was delighted to attend a ceremony celebrating a centenary of light, 100 years of LauraLynn providing palliative care for children, celebrating beyond the establishment of LauraLynn to the legacy bodies that it worked with, the children’s Sunshine home and, indeed, Ella Webb who started treating children with rickets in 1925. Tá mé comh bhródúil. I am very proud that all this work h…

I am delighted to have this opportunity and a little surprised that there is not more interest from speakers across the House on this really important issue. I will cover some of the things we talk about when we think about what a social enterprise is, the contributions they make to society and to our economy and then some of the gaps that I believe still exist in this strategy. I really welcome t…

I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion. If we were to look for another way to express the concept of storing up problems, I do not think there are better words than "child poverty" and "child homelessness" to capture it. The lasting inequality and lifelong implications the Government is storing up because of its failure to deal with these crises will live with us for generation…

I welcome the opportunity to discuss this topic this evening, but like others I am frustrated, because it is another instance where we discuss something yet the regulatory vacuum still exists. This is our generation's version of big tobacco and it is preying on our children. Big tobacco is marketing to children on purpose and it is no secret the sale of e-cigarettes or vapes has boomed in recent y…

The housing disaster is spiralling out of control. This year has seen the lowest commencement figures in a decade. The Central Bank has just revised its forecasts for this year downwards. To paraphrase, it is saying that this Government has no hope of reaching its housing targets. Meanwhile, not-for-profit housing organisations are telling us that they have never seen such chaos and they are blam…

4. Deputy Sinéad Gibney asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Defence the consultation he has had with rank and file members of the Defence Forces in relation to the potential changes to their terms and conditions in the general dcheme of the defence (amendment) Bill 2025, which has recently concluded pre legislative scrutiny, particularly in the context of potentially more dangerous operational par…

The general scheme of the defence (amendment) Bill 2025 represents a fundamental change to how we deploy troops overseas. For the many decades that Ireland has been participating in peacekeeping it has been under the exclusive banner of the UN. When people sign up for the Defence Forces, it is with a reasonable expectation that overseas service will be in a blue beret. Has the Minister consulted w…

I notice that the Tánaiste did not use the words "General Assembly" when he was describing how broken the triple lock is, so I do think we are still ignoring the fact that there is a facility within the triple lock to actually consult with the General Assembly. I would also point out that all previous Acts refer to this international United Nations force, not an international force. It is defined …

No one is denying the difficulties of the Security Council but the Tánaiste has given no effort to actually describe how the General Assembly could be engaged to fall back. It is in the Defence (Amendment) Act 2006. It is part of the triple lock and the Tánaiste is completely ignoring it. Constantly referencing other countries denies our history. It denies the Nice and Lisbon treaties and how we a…

As we have heard today and as will be on "Prime Time" this evening, it has been reported that the location data of tens of thousands of Irish people is being sold online. This data tells the buyer where people live and their place of work even if it is some sensitive location like a military base or a women's refuge. It tells them when people went to the doctor, where the park is that they take th…

I listened to the Minister's opening comments. I lost track of the number of times he said the phrase "rules-based system". In talking about international protection, some of the words I did not hear in his comments, or when the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy, provided more focus in his comments, were "compassion", "trauma-informed", "gender-specific accommodation" or any of the actual compassio…

We have had two months away from each other and in that time, the genocide in Gaza has continued unabated. The Israeli campaign of ethnic cleansing has taken the lives of journalists and doctors and continues to take the lives of innocent Palestinian men, women and children. We have seen developments in recent days at European level. Over the summer, we have seen states take action and we need to …