I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and for providing an opportunity for the Department to give an overview of the current work being undertaken to address the quality of our water. I apologise to him on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, and the senior Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, who could not attend this evening, but they and their officials will engage with the Deputy again on this issue. I welcome the report from the Environmental Protection Agency which highlights one of the serio…

I thank the Deputy for the debate. I know he is genuinely interested in this area and has a commitment to it. He brings a knowledge to the subject and a willingness to work with all stakeholders. He is right that everybody wants to play their part in this area and that they need leadership and assistance from the Government across all Departments, which is key. I believe we can meet the challenge of protecting and improving our water quality. We all know that we cannot take a business-as-usual approach. It must be …

I thank Deputy McAuliffe for raising this issue and having this debate. The Minister, Deputy Humphreys, sends her apologies. She would like to have engaged with the Deputy directly but could not. She engaged with the committee on the subject yesterday. If Deputy McAuliffe has not received the message yet, the Minister has agreed to meet with him and a delegation to tease through the concerns about this issue and hopefully allay the Deputy's fears. I think she will be able to do that because some of the fears expres…

I thank Deputy McAuliffe for raising this and assure him that the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, is happy to engage with him to reassure him. I am interested in this area myself from chairing the committee and working in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment on the matter of job creation previously and now again. That is about creating good quality jobs and making sure that everybody has the opportunity to avail of those jobs. There are also other reasons why I am interested in this matter. Being based in…

The Tánaiste was hoping to join us, but he does not happen to be here. If you wish to take Question No. 3 first, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I could take it, if that is agreeable to Deputies?

Yes.

I thank Deputy O'Reilly for this question and for agreeing to take Question No. 3 first. The retail area is a sector with high importance for the Department. That is the reason we ensured in the programme for Government that we have a Minister whose responsibility would include the area of retail to build on the success of the retail forum in recent years. The past year has been a very difficult one for must businesses, including those in the Irish retail sector. The impact of both the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit …

To be very clear: we are very committed to the retail sector. That is why we are very focused on it in the Department and it is top of our agenda. It involves significant private sector employment, more than 300,000 jobs, albeit that during Covid approximately 70,000 were on the PUP. I hope to see the majority of them back at work. I have been very clear; I have met with Mandate to discuss its proposals. The Tánaiste and I had a very good meeting with its representatives. We believe we can manage this through the e…

There are a lot of opportunities there and the Government is very committed to that as well.

In case there is any doubt here, we are very committed to the online presence as well as the town centre presence. That is why in the programme for Government the town centre first principle exists across Departments, led by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, with our Department and the Department of Rural and Community Development. We will bring forward a framework this month focusing on town centre opportunities. I have engaged with the retail community, formally through the forum, but we a…

All workers, regardless of the sector of the economy in which they work, are covered by the provisions of the Work Safely Protocol. The Work Safely Protocol, which was published last month, is a revision of the Return to Work Safely Protocol, which was first published in May 2020. The revised protocol incorporates the most up-to-date advice on relevant public health measures and reflects new knowledge and better understanding of these measures. The protocol provides a framework for all businesses to operate safely …

We all share these concerns and it is important to remind everybody that, while we are still waiting for everybody to be vaccinated, we have to follow the protocols and public health advice from all the authorities. These protocols were originally designed when there was no vaccine and no roll-out. They have been updated on two occasions since then to reflect the benefits of the vaccination programme. We know that by July approximately 60% of our population will have received their second vaccine. The majority will…

The Deputy is making assumptions on the age of people working in the sector which he has not backed up by evidence. There is a great range of age cohorts working in that sector. It is a positive environment because there are opportunities for all age groups to work in it, similar to retail and other areas. There is strong regional balance, as well. On the work safety protocol, the HSA is the lead agency in co-ordinating the response across all Government agencies in dealing with that protocol and the enforcement of…

The Company Law Review Group, CLRG, is a statutory advisory body charged with advising the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment on matters pertaining to company law. Its membership is broad and representative of all stakeholders, including employee and employer representative groups, the Revenue Commissioners, insolvency and legal practitioners as well as regulators. The members have an expertise in company law and provide a well-rounded analysis on the issues that come before them for conside…

The plan of action has been discussed with the unions and stakeholders and they are happy with our plans on this. Once it goes through Cabinet, we can discuss it fully here. To be clear, we have had many discussions around Debenhams and the Duffy Cahill report. The authors of that report have not made the assertion that the Deputies keep making in here that it would have assisted or would have prevented the situation in Debenhams. The Duffy Cahill report was written in response to a situation in Clerys which is not…

If the Deputy reads back over my answer, I did not say that she specifically was making that link. I said that Deputies in general had repeatedly come to the Chamber and tried to link the Debenhams and Clerys situations together. That is not based on the evidence presented to the Dáil or the courts. I wish to be clear on that. I will happily engage if people present the evidence they claim to have, but none has been provided. Regarding the Marks & Spencer case, I will examine it. It is not something that I can disc…

I thank Members for the lengthy discussion we had last Monday. My understanding was we had spare slots. There was plenty of time left. I certainly did not cut the debate short and I spent all the time here answering everyone's questions, including about credit unions. There was nobody ducking and diving. This is very much being scrutinised and I am happy to do it. This is similar to debates we had last July and September for very good reason. We are trying to support SMEs. As Senator Casey said, SMEs are under a gr…

It is 5%.

I thank Senators Bacik and Sherlock for this Bill. I thank the Labour Party in general for its work in this area. I am glad to have a chance to be part of this discussion but I am probably more glad to be able to listen to the discussion, for once. Without a doubt, we are all supportive of the need to introduce change in this area as quickly as possible. I had a great chance just to sit back and listen to everybody's personal stories and the stories relayed to them. Everybody knows somebody who has been touched by …

It is good to be here again. This is a positive Bill. I welcome the support for the Bill of most contributors on First Stage. With the co-operation of both Houses and the assistance of our teams here, we can deal with this legislation quickly. I thank Members for their support and assistance on that. It is an important Bill for supporting our SME and agricultural communities and our food producers. We also do very important work here in scrutinising the legislation. It is not ideal, therefore, when we ask our colle…