Joan Burton is a Labour Party TD for the Dublin West Constituency. She was first elected to the Dail in November of '92 but was not re-elected in the '97 election. She was elected again in 2002 and has remained a TD since. Burton is currently the Minister for Social Protection in the Fine Gael-Labour coalition.
Last week the minister circulated a briefing document criticising Minister Joan Burton’s proposal to increase the number of sick pay days an employers pays.
Meanwhile the Minister for Social Protection has called for an investigation into what happened at the Phoenix Park on Saturday, where nine people were stabbed at a gig.
Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin has revealed that six ministerial advisers including his own breach the €92,000 cap he introduced last year.
In a strong speech about social welfare, the Minister gave the first major indication that Labour will strongly resist any big cuts to benefits in December’s Budget.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny insisted that there are no plans to reduce the allowance paid to carers of severely disabled children amid fears that some families could lose out.
The nine stories you need to know this morning, including: 1,000 more internships on JobBridge, the underwear bomber turns out to be a double agent, and all the details on the new social welfare ID card…
The Social Protection Minister claimed that the jobs initiative had boosted tourism numbers. Yesterday, the CSO said that there were fewer visits to Ireland in the first quarter of 2012.
The Minister for Social Protection has said plans to extend the National Internship Scheme to people claiming Disability Allowance should be revealed in the coming weeks.
A tweet from Fine Gael chairman Charlie Flanagan in which he asked had the Social Protection Minister “a government deathwish” has been criticised by Labour TD Colm Keaveney.
A MOTION OF no confidence in the Minister for Justice will be debated in the Dáil next week with Fianna Fáil claiming Alan Shatter’s position is now “untenable”.
The opposition party has been fiercely critical of the Fine Gael deputy’s handling of an ongoing row with Independent TD Mick Wallace.
“The Minister has shown extremely poor judgement of late. In particular, he used private information he received from the Garda Commissioner to undermine an opposition TD on Prime Time last week,” Niall Collins charged.
Shatter is currently facing two investigations by the Data Protection Commissioner and the Standards in Public Office Commission over his actions. He was also forced to clarify the nature of an incident where he was breathalysed by gardaí but could not complete the test because of asthma.
Although the motion of no confidence is unlikely to pass (as the government can table a counter-motion), TheJournal.ie wants to know what you think. Is Alan Shatter’s position as minister untenable?
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