What does the Tánaiste think of it?

The Tánaiste was not happy with the article. He has said it was grossly inaccurate. Does he think that the screenshots expressed the motivation that he said he thought they would have, that this was something that was going to be advantageous in selling the contract to other GPs?

The Tánaiste described earlier in his statement, as we are all aware, that he is a medical doctor and that his father is a medical doctor. He has connections to people such as Dr. Ó Tuathail. He would have known and would have been paying attention to this, but did he know that this organisation was such a basket case? It seemed to be fairly well known at that point that it was in very serious trouble. Did he know that?

Essentially this is in a field where the Tánaiste has very close connections. He has outlined that to us. He would obviously pay attention to an organisation that he was going to use in trying to sell a document. He would surely know that this was a basket case at this stage. That will not come as a surprise to the vast majority of people. I think it was in the public domain that there had been resignations and a range of other problems. What could possibly have been gained in an organisation that was publicly know…

Is this the standard that we can expect from the Government, that something can be justified on motivation, that it is okay to leak internal, confidential documents based on the public interest?

It is not unfair to say that we are heading into the second lockdown because we have lost control of the virus. Last night, as has been said, we heard through The Irish Times what happens when the system of contact tracing is under-resourced and cannot cope. More than 2,000 people who tested positive at the weekend are being asked to carry out do-it-yourself contact tracing. If each of those people had just five contacts, which is a modest number, that adds up to more than 10,000 people who are possibly circulating…

I know that. The Taoiseach should have been aware of the issue and how much pressure the system was under. The Taoiseach should have been briefed continuously by the Minister for Health, who should have been completely on top of exactly where we were with this process. We know that recruitment has been outsourced. I am hearing that some applicants cannot even speak to the company they are waiting to be employed by. I am also hearing that the eligibility bar is very high with regard to the matching terms and that, a…

We know that the public will play its part, but the State also needs to play its part. We need absolute assurance that there will be a system in place after this lockdown about which we can feel confident. Does the Taoiseach have confidence in this recruitment company? I certainly have my doubts. Does he have the confidence that he is being briefed in the way that he needs to be when a failure occurs? Two weeks ago, a senior public health person had to take to the airwaves to say how under pressure they were. It wa…

This question relates to the status of efforts to introduce a statutory sick pay scheme, the level of stakeholder engagement on same, whether there has been a substantial amount of that yet and who it was with and what timeline are we looking at for it.

We saw just how exposed we are due to the absence of sick pay in some sectors. The meat processing industry is probably the most high profile of these. It is a wet industry and an environment where colds and flus are very prevalent. Obviously this has fed into the risk that goes beyond the industry to the individuals themselves and to society generally. This is unlikely to change before next year. The Minister mentioned sharing the cost and I ask him to expand on this. Was there anything in the budget about the Sta…

When we all knocked on doors in January and February this year, Covid-19 would have been the last thing we thought of. Job losses were not a predominant matter raised at doors and nobody knew what a pandemic unemployment payment or a temporary wage subsidy was. We did not think we would be spending €1 billion on personal protective equipment and most people did not know what it was. It has been a very strange year and most people cannot see beyond it now. As we discuss this budget, it would have been very difficult…

I watched the Tánaiste's interview on the "Claire Byrne Live" show on Monday night. The view I formed, and I think many people formed the same view, was that the Tánaiste got his information from a media leak. We know that was not the case, that there was an unscheduled meeting of NPHET on Sunday, and that the Minister for Health also had telephone calls before and after that meeting. Telephone conversations are two way. We would expect the Minister for Health to have asked questions to see what exactly that meetin…

Will it be in the Dáil?

In that case, the Tánaiste accepts that Monday was a distraction. It was a two-way conversation-----

What we do not want a statement to be made and then further questions to be asked. Let us put this issue to bed. I presume the Minister for Health will be coming into the Dáil to make that statement. The public can only do so much. We hear senior people in the public health system saying that a system that is vital to dealing with this virus is close to collapse. What is being done about that? Can the Tánaiste give an assurance that the resources required will be put in place? If we do not shut down this virus, we …

I welcome the establishment of the Future of Media Commission, which I have called for on a number of occasions over the years. There have been recent job losses in the sector due to lost advertising revenue as a result of Covid, and many more titles, broadcasters and jobs are under threat. This comes at a time when it has never been more important that the public can rely on trusted sources for their information at local, regional and national level, and indeed via online platforms. I am sure the Taoiseach will ag…

I want an independent media and do not want it to be hamstrung by our defamation laws. I accept that there is a commitment on this in the programme for Government. I ask the Taoiseach to tell us when he thinks that commitment will be fulfilled by way of legislation. That said, I would have thought that asking the Future of Media Commission to look at this area would have enriched rather than diminished its work. Financial sustainability is related to advertising revenue and there is no doubt that the amount of adve…

I have no issue with that.

It is fair to say that the transport sector has been one of the most impacted by the Covid crisis. During the lockdown, buses, trains and trams ran regularly, but were virtually empty, to ensure there was transport for essential workers. During this time, there was almost no income coming in for the operators. While a subvention under the public service obligation was allocated for the sector in the last budget, it certainly will not be enough to cover that loss of income. Will the Minister indicate how the allocat…

The Social Democrats are supporting this Bill in principle because it is obviously important. There is a historical context to the Bill and its predecessor, and it is important that we draw attention to this. There was delay on the part of the State in implementing the fourth anti-money laundering directive and that had a consequence. Ireland was fined €2 million, but it was also significant that we delayed. Ireland and Romania were the last two countries in the EU to transpose the directive. Both nations were resp…