I have Pride in Labour

With the festivities of Dublin Pride weekend beginning tomorrow, I wrote this short piece about Labour’s role in achieving an Ireland based on equal citizenship regardless of sexuality or gender identity:

Pride for me has always been about people. It’s a human celebration and a statement that our society will only really be equal when all our citizens have the same rights.

As legislators, we work often behind the scenes over many months, to bring about positive change to our society. 

Over the next few months, the Dáil will look at key pieces of legislation for LGBT people, addressing issues around adoption and the modern family unit, equal rights in employment and official recognition of gender identities. 

While there is no doubt that Civil Partnership has been a major advancement for gay and lesbian couples, it falls short of full constitutional equality which is critical for the status, standing and dignity of all lesbian and gay people. 

A referendum on equal marriage in 2015 will allow each and every one of us to vote for equal citizenship and make a statement that we value the rights of gay and lesbian Irish people.

Prior to this referendum, the Children and Family Relationships Bill will address important issues like adoption rights, surrogacy and IVF, and will ensure our laws reflect the blend of Irish families that exist in our society today. 

This Bill will mean the children of lesbian and gay couples will be afforded the same rights as all other children.

As a teacher for 13 years, I recognise the ‘chill effect’ of Section 37.1 of the Employment Equality Act. Under the Act, religious-run educational and medical institutions can effectively discriminate against employees or prospective employees who do not ‘fit in’ with their ethos.  

This is not reflective of modern Ireland and I am very proud to be part of the Labour group of TDs and Senators that published a Bill to protect individuals working in our schools and hospitals against discrimination.

For far too long, the ‘T’ has been left silent in debates on LGBT rights. The Gender Recognition Bill, for the first time, will give our transgender citizens full legal recognition of their gender identity. 

Trans people have not been recognised or even acknowledged in our laws and this Bill is a statement that the State fully respects and recognises each citizen’s gender identity. If not for Labour in Government, I believe this important reform would not be happening and transgender issues would remain in the shadows of our society.

The Labour Party has championed LGBT issues when no one else would, and pushed for greater LGBT rights when it was not popular to do so. 

We were the first party to form an LGBT campaigning group and we have consistently been to the forefront in creating a more inclusive and equal Ireland. 

Labour in Government will continue to be a progressive voice on LGBT issues.

I am proud of this tradition and I’m proud to walk with my Labour friends and colleagues in Dublin this Saturday.

I would like to wish everyone a very happy Pride weekend!

CHANGE IN LAW WILL TACKLE ONLINE BULLYING AND ABUSE

Yesterday I welcomed 30 recommendations from the Internet Content Governance Advisory (ICGA) Group, which include proposals to tackle bullying and abusive messages sent online.

Many parents are concerned about the effects of bullying and harassment of their children online and the wide availability of harmful content.

Changing Legislation

One particular problem from a legal side of things has been that abusive and bullying messages sent through social media websites like Facebook and Twitter were not specifically dealt with under existing legislation.

I welcome the specific recommendation from the ICGA today to amend the Communications Regulation (Amendment) Act 2007 to include ‘electronic communications’ for the first time in terms of sending ‘offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing’ messages.

This will be an added protection for children and young people online.

Local Online Safety Campaign 

In my own area earlier this year, I launched an online safety campaign with local young people. This included conducting surveys with students and hosting a public meeting for parents, youth organisations and students to discuss how we as a country should deal with these issues.

Hosting a Public Meeting in St Kevin's Secondary School in March

I made a submission to the ICGA group following this public meeting meeting specifically around improving education and information for parents and children from a younger age and about encouraging social media companies and service provides to introduce greater protections for young people.

Other recommendations

Some of the other recommendations today will go a long way to addressing those concerns, such as including internet safety and digital literacy in the primary school curriculum, launching the National Council for Child Internet Safety and an awareness campaign for parents giving them more information to ensure their children are safe online.

Minister Pat Rabbitte set up this group due to growing concerns from parents about harassment and bullying of their children at any time of day, on computers, tablets and the smart phones in their pockets.

Minister Pat Rabbitte has now set up an implementation group across several Government Departments to make sure each of the recommendations are brought in as soon as possible.

Parents want their children to feel safe online and these recommendations will go a long way to achieving just that.

More information: 

- The Internet Content Governance Advisory Group’s full report – including 30 recommendations for 5 Government Departments – is available here: http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/Broadcasting/ICG/

Equality must be at the heart of allocating Special Educational Resources

The proposals announced this week by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) on allocating teaching resources for students with special educational needs are a profound and positive step. 

The current scheme of allocating learning support to schools in my opinion is wrong, and has always been wrong. A scheme that allocates the same resources to all schools irrespective of the needs of an individual school perpetuates inequality. 

It creates an uneven playing field between parents who can afford to pay for a diagnosis and those who cannot. No child's educational outcome should ever be based on a parents’ ability to pay, but yet this is exactly what the current model allowed.

The new model of allocation of learning support to schools is a seismic shift in special education policy in Ireland, and will ensure that all children regardless of their financial background will have appropriate educational resources to support them to reach their real potential.

This model will ensure that the 11,000 resources teachers in our system will now be allocated on the basis of the individual school; taking into account criteria such as the number of children with complex special educational needs, the percentage of students performing below a certain threshold and the socio-economic context of the school.

Before I was elected to the Dáil, I worked for 13 years as a resource teacher in disadvantaged schools and I know only too well how many students went undiagnosed due to the current model. 

This new model will ensure that children with a special educational need, regardless of their background, will have adequate educational support so that they can reach their full potential.

I want to thank the NCSE for their proposal and I look forward to seeing these proposals being implemented at the earliest stage possible. 

More Information 

The NCSE’s proposed model - Delivering for Students with Special Educational Needs; A better and more Equitable way – is available here.

Responding to Concerns about new Housing Assistance Payment (HAP)

Minister for Housing sets record straight on how payment to replace Rent Supplement will work.

Speaking on a Dáil debate on housing in May

There has been a lot of inaccurate commentary and scaremongering about the new Housing Assistance Payment (HAP).

In particular, people are saying that anyone who accepts the new HAP payment will not be able to transfer to a Dublin City Council house.

I welcome the Minister for Housing Jan O'Sullivan's statement yesterday that this is not the case. 

The Minister said yesterday: "Opposition claims that recipients of HAP will be excluded from moving to other forms of social housing – such as traditional local authority housing or units provided by Approved Housing Bodies – are misleading and grossly inaccurate.

“The new system will specifically provide a route for HAP tenants to apply for other social housing options. HAP tenants will exercise this option through inclusion on a transfer list that allows tenants avail of a range of housing options. In allocation schemes adopted when HAP is in place, local authorities will make provision to allocate available units to people on the transfer list."

HAP is the most comprehensive reform of social housing support for years. Anyone currently receiving rent supplement or a landlord receiving it will know the current system is not fit for purpose and reform is needed.

What will the Housing Assistance Payment do differently?

• It will ensure that all long-term housing support is accessed through each local authority, rather than the current fractured system that involves the Department of Social Protection making payments, with people joining waiting lists to access the local authority system;
• It will ensure that people can take up employment and still retain housing support;
• It will improve standards of accommodation for tenants, with a more coherent system of inspection under the control of the local authority;
• It will remove the possibility of tenant arrears for landlords and encourage more landlords to accept housing assistance tenants.

I welcome the debate on the best way to support people receiving social housing support. It must be done based on facts and not used to scare a vulnerable group of people who are already worried about finding a long-term place to live.

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