Where are we?

It is a "No" to loans.

Has the mandate been altered?

This is an extremely important debate to have. I believe one of the greatest fears facing us as we hope to progress to the post-lockdown phase for Ireland is what we have yet to discover behind closed doors across this nation. We already know about, or at least have some glimpse of, the mental health issues that are going to be uncovered, which are of a scale that we have yet to come to terms with. We know the impact the lockdown has had on elderly people. Many of the older people to whom I have talked say they fel…

That is the truth at the time, I remember. Catherine McGuinness, in her report, was the start of a groundbreaking insight into a hidden world, certainly an unacknowledged world, of abuse that has, unfortunately, continued. We have had many reports and investigations since, but in terms of Catherine McGuinness's work, I am aware that the Children's Rights Alliance established the Catherine McGuinness fellowship on children's rights and child law in memory of her work. We need to ensure that the recommendations which…

Half time.

Like others, I begin my expressing my sympathies to the families of the 1,709 people who have passed away because of Covid-19 and my solidarity with those who have been ill. Unusually for the Opposition benches, I congratulate the Minister and his team and NPHET for handling this unique crisis with great dexterity and skill. The Minister has not been right in everything he has done but one cannot in the midst of a crisis make the right decisions all of the time. All of the actions to date have been based on expert …

My concern is that we continue to be very clear in our guidelines that the objective is to prevent transmission of the virus, and that everything is understood and explained on that basis. We should not broker a deal on some basis that is self-evidently not anchored in science. That is my concern, but I will await the emergence of the final guidelines. I want to ask the Minister about the availability of a vaccine, should one become available. Costa Rica has an initiative whereby when a vaccine is discovered, pleas…

To be blunt, I am concerned about the European initiative because it would not actually make a vaccine available to everybody. It would only be available to those countries participating in the initiative and that is not acceptable. We had an online conference with many actors, particularly in Africa and India, regarding the internationalising of this intellectual property and it is important that we take a worldwide view on this in order that every country and pharmaceutical company in the world can produce a vacc…

I commend the work done by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Tánaiste, the Minister of State, Deputy Helen McEntee, and the team to date in a very difficult situation. I am anxious this afternoon to allow the Minister of State time to expand on her views on the exact position in the Brexit talks. I seek her personal assessment. There is a public face but it is now really crunch time for informing the House what she has discerned on the likely outcomes of the talks. For years since the UK vote, we hav…

May I see it too?

Is it €3 billion that we are getting?

Is that loans and grants?

I have another brief question which the Minister of State probably will not have time to answer but she might answer in writing to me. It is a separate issue entirely but one that was raised earlier today and I want to put it to a Minister from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The whole country is focused on an issue that arose with the Kinahan organisation sponsoring an international boxing tournament. The Taoiseach has said that official representations had been made to the Government of the United Ar…

As I have 30 seconds remaining I will ask a final question on Brexit.

It relates to the omnibus Bill. One of the concerns we had about the previous omnibus Bill, for a very understandable reason, was that such a large, comprehensive Bill was very late coming to us. If, as the Minister has said, this Bill is already in drafting, presumably, heads have been prepared. Could those heads be circulated to the Opposition parties so that we can be prepared for it?

As most people confine themselves to their homes or least to their home areas, major issues are unfolding across our world. The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which was seen by all of us, seen by the world, opened up yet again the unresolved cancer of racism. I think we have all run out of words to express our dismay at the reaction of the US President to these events but we must find new words. We must also look to ourselves, our own nation and the inherent racism that exists here. I am not making equivale…

I have asked a straight question. Will the Tánaiste schedule a telephone call with him?

I think the Tánaiste should have that conversation. I refer to the unfolding and seeming inevitability of a hard Brexit as a further crucial fourth round of talks begins this week and no progress made, as the Tánaiste has acknowledged to the House. To use the Tánaiste's words, "we have gone backwards". It has always been understood in the Brexit fora that I have attended that fisheries was to be an integrated part of the trade discussions, not a separate part of it. The Tánaiste has just reiterated this. The hardli…

That is unlikely to happen.