Draft remarks on Social Welfare & Pensions Bill 2013:

Though the working age is going up, incrementally, our working lives still are shortening. People are starting work later as they receive more education, with the expectation of retiring earlier and living longer. How is a shorter working life meant to financially sustain a lengthening non-working life? And when you take changing demographics in to consideration, despite baby boom blips, it’s like constructing an inverted pyramid. It will not stand…

Read my full speech on the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill here or click here to watch.

Dublin City Council has advised that the River Dodder Flood Alleviation Works at London Bridge have been extended to 1^st September 2013. This prolongation of the road closure has arisen by delays with relocating existing services (mainly ESB) within the bridge. Moving services requires outages of that service and this is not under Dublin City Council’s control.

There has also been some delay due to the tops of the stone blocks, which form the bridge arches, being higher within the bridge than anticipated. This has required careful grinding down to a height that facilitates the placement of the reinforced concrete strengthening slabs without structurally weakening the arches.

Further information may be found here.

You can call Dublin City Council on 2224804 or 2225479.

On Friday the Dáil debated the Brighter Evenings Bill 2012, which was brought to the House by Deputy Tommy Broughan TD. The Bill requires the Minister for Justice and Equality to produce a report on the costs and benefits of bringing the clocks forward by an hour. This would allow for longer and brighter evenings and would bring Ireland into the Central European Time zone.

I very much support this idea. In fact when I was elected I commissioned a research paper on this very issue because of similar moves being made in the UK. Aside from what decision our closest partners make in the future, I very much believe the pros far outweigh the cons and I do not believe the cons have sufficient weight behind them to stop us from proceeding in this direction.

I would like to see this legislation proceed further. There are known benefits around energy costs, tourism, health and fitness, business and trading with the EU and the BRIC countries. All of those things need to be fleshed out in detail.

I believe we should be ready with legislation, in particular, if our partners in the UK decide to make such a move we should not be afraid to try new things. It is a very simple idea and it could have great benefits for the country.

Please click here for my contribution.

Science week is currently underway and is running until the 18th of November.

Events are happening throughout the country. For a full schedule click here.

Opening Statement and full debate video below

Agreeing to pay a proportion of one’s salary in to a central fund in the form of tax is a cornerstone of the social contract. We agree to come together collectively and to select a few people to run things, and we pay over some of our earnings for those people to administer on behalf of all of us. It’s a pretty basic tenet of society.

It follows then that we have a right to know how the government is spending our taxes, and the government has a responsibility to tell us. Which it does. And in more detail now than it ever  has previously. But I believe we can and should go further.

Whether people feel they should be paying more or less tax, we all insist that the tax we do pay is spent efficiently and appropriately. We trust that it is. But every time we hit another pot hole on the road or hear of a government project running over budget, that trust is called in to question.

Some people will always complain about how their taxes are being spent because there will always be a difference of opinion about the policies the government of the day is pursuing. That is politics.

To read the rest of my speech click here: Speech in full

To watch coverage on the RTE One O’Clock News clickhere

To watch my opening remarks click here. To watch part 2 of the debate click here for part 3 click here and for part 4 click here

The app version of the website Dublintown.ie is today available  for iphone and android.

This free app acts as guide for places and events happening in the city centre.

For more information click here.

If we really want to save the state some money in education we could save €63 million euro next year by not giving pay rises to all of our teachers. We could save a further €50 million by not paying teachers extra to watch pupils in the yard during the lunch break. The difference here is that these would be actual savings, that wouldn’t target any one sector of the education system but would be universal and fair. Unfortunately we are not allowed to discuss increments and allowances, even though neither payment is covered under the Croke Park Agreement.

Paying teachers that teach in fee-paying schools isn’t a subsidy from the State, it is a subsidy to the State, from private incomes and households.

Fee-paying schools in Ireland receive circa €100m from the government. This pays the teachers in those schools salaries for teaching the pupils and nothing more. The parents pay for the schools themselves and all the resources. By doing this they are taking this financial burden off the State – they are saving all of us money.

Based on Department of Education figures, this saving is worth around €91 million euro to the government, and it is paid by individuals who have decided to spend additional money on their children’s education. Some will by choice make big sacrifices to do this. But crucially it is their choice. With each child they send to a fee-paying school the State saves €3,500 euro. And that is after the initial payment from the taxpayer is taken in to account.

Removing this subvention for secondary schools will not save the State money; in fact, it would likely cost all of us a lot more. As an argument from cost-saving then it is flawed.

The Ringsend Slí na Sláinte walkings routes will be launched by Cllr Kieran Binchy on October 17th at  11.30am.

The launch is taking place in Ringsend Park and will be followed by a short walk along the new route.

Businesses and sole traders who have been refused credit from banks can from today apply for loans of up to €25,000 from County and City Enterprise Boards. To see if you qualify click here: Micro Finance Loan Fund Guidelines

To download an application form click here: Micro Finance Loan Fund Application Form

Congratulations to Mark James Kelly and Eric Doyle, pupils of Synge Street CBS, who won joint first prize in the EU Young Scientist physics category in Bratislava.

The boys’ project involved simulating how objects respond to gravity in certain environments and has earned them the top prize of 7,000 euros.

Mark and James were the winners of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition earlier this year which led to them representing Ireland at the EU Competition.

For more information on the competition and a list of winners see here.