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“Today’s Budget provides for an extra two weeks of paid parental leave per parent. This is a meagre allocation – and it doesn’t even kick in until November of next year.” Social Democrats Spokesperson on Children, Councillor Jennifer Whitmore, has said the government has done the bare minimum to support working parents in Budget 2019. […]

Social Democrats’ Spokesperson on Children, Councillor Jennifer Whitmore has said today’s ESRI-Pobal research findings that women are being shut out of the workplace by the high cost of childcare shows the need for a complete re-think of how we deliver childcare and the role the State provides in supporting parents. “High childcare costs place an […]

Social Democrats Spokesperson for Children Cllr Jennifer Whitmore today called on the Minister for Children to examine making Facebook content moderators who review videos of physical abuse legally obliged to report. “Facebook’s content moderators are at the coalface of this issue and may often be the first people to see instances of child abuse online.” […]

A Social Democrats’ private members bill to increase to six months the amount of unpaid parental leave available to working parents goes to final stage in the Dáil tomorrow, Wednesday 13th June. The Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2017 aims to help working families enjoy better work-life balance by permitting parents to spend more time caring […]

The Social Democrats have welcomed the passage today at committee stage of our Bill to increase to six months the amount of unpaid parental leave available to working parents of children aged up to 12. The Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2017 aims to help working families enjoy better work-life balance by permitting parents to spend […]

A Social Democrats’ private members’ bill to enable working parents to spend more time caring for their children goes to committee stage tomorrow, Wednesday 16th May. The Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2017 allows parents to take a total of six months (26 weeks) unpaid leave from their jobs without their employment rights being affected. This […]

WITH NEW EU-WIDE data protection laws on the way, there has been a lot of discussion about the digital age of consent, but not a lot of clarity on what it actually is. Despite what you may have heard, it’s not about putting age restrictions on access to the internet, or limiting young people’s expression […]

The Social Democrats are seeking cross party support for legal changes to ban the commercial monetisation of the digital data of children and teens under the age of 18. The party is today tabling amendments to the government’s Data Protection Bill 2018 to prohibit the use of children’s data for marketing purposes. The party’s co-leader […]

The Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall TD has called on the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs to stop treating childcare workers as ‘second class educators’ and provide proper supports so that they can undertake mandatory in-service child protection training. Deputy Shortall made her call after questioning Minister Zappone in the Dáil today about the […]