For most of those who were laid off last Friday, it will be their second experience of Covid-related unemployment this year and within a short period. The further reductions in terms of the unemployment supports will be a double blow for many. Most will worry about how they will survive, put food on the table and pay their bills and, of course, about when they might get back to work, if they get back to work at all. As most will have little or anything in reserve, it adds to the very obvious sense of panic and dist…

I agree with the Taoiseach. That is all the more reason such an initiative would be so important. In one school in my area, 400 pupils are at home today. It can have a big impact. If we are to get the numbers down, people need to feel a degree of certainty about how they will survive it if they are to go two weeks without any income, for example. Earlier the Taoiseach said the amount of money is unprecedented, but, of course, Covid is unprecedented. Certain sectors have not had a chance, and probably will not have …

I too want to thank Sinn Féin for bringing this motion forward. It is important. In many ways, we would have debated this earlier had we been properly functioning before now. I also want to acknowledge the effort that taxi drivers put in to showing the strength behind the need for a financial package to get drivers back to work. Small public service vehicles are a vital part of the public transport system and we need to acknowledge that. Many taxi drivers ended up in this business following the last crash. Many mad…

Getting students back to school has been a major undertaking and a monumental task at individual school level, supported by a subvention of €375 million from the public purse. In addition, this week the leaving certificate results were issued and tomorrow CAO offers will be made. There have been positive Covid cases in some schools and a variation in how they have been handled. All of this has generated queries. It is easy to miss another issue which has not received sufficient attention. On 18 August, NPHET recomm…

The Tánaiste did not refer to Dublin Bus and I would appreciate if he would do that. While this is a dominant issue in rural areas, it is not exclusively so. The school route timetables have not been reintroduced and we are being told that they are not being funded by the NTA. He referred to PPE and sanitising the buses. Is there additional funding for this because these buses are going to be half full? More buses will be needed. Is there money for those additional buses? How will the concessionary passengers be ac…

I agree with some of the points made in regard to the priority being given to this legislation and what that says about the priority for a sector that is closed and in respect of which damage has already been done. I made that point on Second Stage. The public messaging has changed from legislators appealing to people's best nature to a more punitive approach. That needs to be reflected on because it can be counterproductive and, I think, will be. On Second Stage I also highlighted that I believe this is a very fla…

I ask the Minister to facilitate, on or before 9 November, a debate on this matter or what mechanism is envisaged in terms of the sunset clause. With regard to sentiment, as I stated earlier, one of the things we need in all of this is hope. People need to feel that they are being listened to. They need to feel that the Government is charting how we live with this virus and will bring people with it. There is much validity in the criticisms that were made in the House yesterday and that have been made today with re…

We had a discussion at the Business Committee and some of us will be very unhappy with the fact that the process is not the best practice to start with. Some of us are living with that even though it is far from ideal. That has been pointed out and noted. One of the concerns was that there would be additional measures introduced in the legislation. Where that is not the case, the very fact that additional regulations can actually alter the intent of the Bill or at least the understanding of the offences is very pro…

We will have to live with Covid until a vaccine is found. That is self-evident. One significant ingredient in dealing with that is maintaining public goodwill. To do that, the message and information have to be coherent and understood, and the measures that are taken have to be seen to be fair and proportionate. Another component is that when something is a failure, we need to name it as a failure and deal with it as a failure. As a representative from Kildare, I know there is a substantial sense of relief that loc…

Does that mean the Taoiseach will set up a task force? Will he provide the data people want? It generates goodwill if people can see the situation for themselves. We are talking here about adults who have doubts but who are being told "It's grand; we have it; it'll work; we know best". That does not wash; people want to see the information. The information is there in the data hub and it was clear when it was published on 12 August that there were wide variations in the number of cases. I am not saying there were n…

This is the first legislation that has been debated under the new rotation and time slots. We want to again talk about our displeasure in respect of this. It was always the case that the Government presented the proposition and the Opposition got the opportunity to respond. That has now changed in that there is a second Government slot and a second Sinn Féin slot. In fact, that will continue to be the case. It interrupts the pattern of debate. We can see this since one party with six Deputies, the Labour Party, and…

In the midst of the pandemic we all have to change our behaviour with public health in mind. The relaxation of rules within the Companies Act is necessary and appropriate. The provisions of the Bill appear to be in line with what the Secretary General of the Department, Dr. Orlaigh Quinn, suggested would be needed in her statement to the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response. The term she used then was “practical workarounds” which is an apt description for what is being presented today. I am quite sure the drafte…

It is the way the sound carries in the Chamber. This is undoubtedly a challenging thing to accept but as lawmakers our primary focus should not be to slavishly attempt to keep things as close as possible to how they functioned before the pandemic. Instead, we need to look at how things can best be structured in our laws and legal system to respond to our new reality. This would require a root and branch approach as to how the primary Act should function during the pandemic. Looking at the legislation we are discuss…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this legislation which is certainly a miscellaneous provisions Bill. There is variety in it if nothing else. I do not mean to minimise it. We do not have concerns about many elements of the Bill and it is understandable that they should be addressed. However, I have some concerns in line with some of the issues raised by previous speakers. I will return to those in a few minutes. The phrase "justice delayed is justice denied" may be overused but it is vital that we have a justi…

Will the Minister address the point about admissibility?

I support this amendment. The last day of a session is always one in which things can be pushed through. I do not think any of us expected to be sitting here very late tonight dealing with a very contentious section in this legislation and the very least that could be expected is that there would be a sunset clause in it. The Government has a majority and the question it must ask is: does it trust itself? Including this amendment in the legislation would at least mean there will be time for reflection and a review …

I have a proposal from the Business Committee. I move: It is proposed, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, or the Order of Business of Tuesday, 28 July that: (a) on the conclusion of proceedings on the Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2020, the following motions be taken without debate today: - motion re establishment of select committees; - motion to instruct select committees re their work programmes; - motion re instruction to the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response, and - m…

I reiterate the point that there was no objection to this at the Business Committee. We are going to go into the autumn session and we will have a whole lot of different arrangements on which we will have to have good agreement between the parties. Essentially, Members will start in September with an outrageous proposal that changes-----

-----the way the rota is taken, which has not been changed since the 1920s.

This is absolutely outrageous. The Tánaiste said today that they were reintroducing democracy. The first proposal to reintroduce democracy is to deny a debate on something that is about the nature of our democracy. This is not about stopping speaking time; this is about how the speaking time is organised. That is what it is about.