I am not sure what the Deputy is trying to get at by taking a swipe at the Tánaiste, my party leader. We have tried at all times to introduce a balance as to how we deal with Covid. At all times it has favoured public health first while protecting people from the threat of the virus, saving as many lives as we possibly can and stopping the spread of the virus. It is also unfair to paint all businesses into one category and to say they are not playing their part. Businesses have taken a major hit over the past year …

The Deputy is right, however, and I will agree with her on this, that it is a matter of all of us following the best advice. That is how we will stop the spread of the virus. It is not a blame game but a matter of all of us adhering to the advice and the guidance as best we possibly can.

The restart grant and restart grant plus schemes were designed to help small and medium-sized businesses through the exceptionally difficult time since the Covid crisis hit the country last spring. The restart grant scheme was launched on 15 May with a budget of €250 million originally. The restart grant plus scheme was launched on 10 August, with an additional budget of €300 million from the Government's July jobs stimulus, as a result of the increase in demand for the original scheme. The purpose of the schemes w…

I thank the Deputy for highlighting those two cases. While I do not have details of individual cases, we certainly value every job that is out there and every business that creates those jobs. During the Covid period and as we enter into the post-Brexit situation, we recognise how important it is that we, as a State, support businesses and jobs. That is what we use taxpayers' money for and it is why we have seen a serious amount of money allocated over the past 12 months to supporting jobs across a number of scheme…

We review all our schemes regularly anyway. Since the Covid pandemic hit, we have constantly reviewed the support schemes and adapted them where it made sense to do so and where there was evidence to back it up. That happened in regard to bed and breakfast businesses. We are constantly reviewing all of our schemes. As I said, we are doing so again to see whether there are particular sectors and jobs we have not been able to reach and support. We feel very strongly, with the use of taxpayers' money through all the v…

I thank the Deputy for raising the question. We had a good committee discussion on this recently and the Deputy might have had a chance to review the transcript of that. The Government has committed in the programme for Government to review whether the current legal provisions surrounding collective redundancies and the liquidation of companies effectively protect the rights of workers. It is in the programme for Government and, in the first meeting the Tánaiste and I had with Mandate and the former workers of Debe…

We have had many discussions on Debenhams in this House and we have had a committee discussion on Cahill Duffy. The authors of the Cahill Duffy report have not backed the Deputy up on his claims that the implementation of the recommendations would effect any case in Debenhams. My colleagues and I have looked at this quite a lot over the last couple of months and I see no evidence that the recommendations in the Cahill Duffy - the Deputy keeps referring to Duffy Cahill but it is the Cahill Duffy report - would help …

If the Deputy was here for all the questions, he would know the Tánaiste was here for the last hour and a half, so could not be reading correspondence from trade unions. As I referenced in the Arcadia conversation last week, we ask that people who find themselves in difficult situations of insolvency or companies being liquidated listen to the advice of the unions. Unions are experienced and best placed to give out good advice. In our view, they have given good advice over the last couple of months. Others have giv…

Joint provisional liquidators have been appointed by the High Court to the four Irish operating companies that are part of the UK fashion group Arcadia. It is a real worry for the workers in all of these stores, who are in danger of losing their jobs. I fully appreciate, as do the Government and the Department, how difficult this is for those involved and their families, not least at this time of year and given the difficult year it has been with Covid-19. This is not the news they wanted. We all know about the pre…

I will try to respond to some of the questions. The PUP entitlements is not an issue I was aware of. It is certainly something I can check out, if Deputy Conway-Walsh wants to give me the details. I will certainly discuss that with my ministerial colleague behind me, Deputy Humphreys. We can certainly look at that, if there is any issue with PUP entitlements and unfairness. In fairness, that Department has responded strongly throughout Covid regarding PUP entitlements. I note the Deputy is nodding in agreement. If …

I thank Deputy O’Reilly for bringing forward this Bill. It provides me with an opportunity to update the Dáil on recent regulatory changes and to facilitate a valuable exchange of views on the matter of Covid-19 in the workplace. I am sure that I am not alone in expressing my thanks and gratitude to all those who have worked tirelessly on the front line, in our hospitals, care homes and other essential services, throughout this pandemic to keep people as safe as possible. I have referred here on many occasions to a…

If I could have a couple of minutes, yes. Deputy Ó Ríordáin asked me what I was referring to earlier when I spoke about misinformation or the perception being given. It was repeatedly stated that Covid-19 is not notifiable, which gives the impression that nobody is told of incidences of Covid. That is not the case. The appropriate authority is our public health authorities and they are told. The question we have to focus on is the impact of the Bill and what it desires to achieve. All of us here would agree to incr…

It is important that I also congratulate the Leas-Chathaoirleach on his county's recent success.

I wanted to say that coming from a neighbouring county which is delighted with how well Cavan is doing during these difficult times. I have plenty of ushers in my ear telling me Dublin is looking forward to playing Cavan. Good luck with that one. It will be a big match. It was a great weekend of football.

That is difficult for a Meath man to say. It is easier, however, than saying it for Dublin. Good luck with all of that. I also wish the same to Tipperary, as I see Senator Ahearn across the Chamber. I could not leave him out. That was a truly historic day as well. This year, 2020, has been one of those mad years with all that has happened with Covid. I do not think anyone could have predicted the four football semi-finalists we have now. It complements the year. It is a nice throwback to history that the championsh…

I can stretch it out if it is needed.

I have learned from the best like Senator Dooley.

We will not go there. I have been trying to avoid that for a few weeks. Thanks for putting me back in the middle of that one.

I assure the House that there will be no shortage of socks or other items of clothing in the country. I thought we were having a discussion on Covid but as the Leas-Chathaoirleach said it is about reopening Ireland. It is apt and I hope this prediction is right. We are all focused on trying to reopen and it is important the Seanad is debating how can we reopen safely. Much of the work over the past couple of weeks has been on getting to a stage in which we can reopen parts of our economy and society. We all recogni…

I had mentioned that they be distributed.