There is significant appetite for this. There is a widespread acceptance in the city and the surrounding areas that to achieve the population growth we want in the city and the region, we cannot just keep piling more cars into the south link road and into the city centre. It will not work and it will not be able to develop in the way we want it to. Bus rapid transit is not an immediate overnight win but it is potentially a quicker win than the light rail and it can happen along the same corridors. One point I would…

I agree with the point the Minister makes on the north side and on the more traditional rail connections that will exist but none of that takes into account the fact that not as far out as Carrigaline, Passage or some of the commuter areas, there is a significant population that cannot walk to that or easily reach that corridor in Douglas, Togher, Ballyphehane and Greenmount. I have to say I am impressed with the Minister's knowledge of Cork geography. He is able to rhyme off place names but if he can visualise the…

We need a delivery office in Cork.

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." It is unacceptable that there is no regulation governing the activities of the personnel who enforce court orders, including orders for eviction. That lack of regulation is hard to fathom and comprehend. This legislation came about in response to the shocking scenes we have seen at evictions in recent years. I instance, in particular, the evictions at North Frederick Street in Dublin city more than two years ago and the eviction that took place in Strokestown, Coun…

I thank the Minister of State, the Ceann Comhairle and all the Deputies who spoke on this Bill. The Minister of State made a point about pressure. That is important. We identified this loophole in September 2018 and called on the then Minister to act on it. At that point, the then Minister said he would. In the absence of anything happening, however, we published a Bill in early 2019. At that point, the then Minister said legislation would be introduced at some point soon. In the absence of that, we moved the legis…

I welcome this motion. It is timely and valuable. I have been raising concerns about Cork Airport for several months now and the Minister has said that he will happily sit down with anyone to discuss them. I would certainly take up that opportunity because there are many issues regarding Cork Airport and transport in Cork generally that I would like to discuss with him. There are about 2,200 jobs directly relying on Cork Airport but about 10,000 jobs rely on it indirectly with suppliers, baggage handlers and differ…

Otherwise we might have to cook the goose. That would not do.

I will give way to the proposer.

I am willing to be flexible if that is something the proposer wants.

Leaving aside the Bill, I want to mention how the Government is dealing with Opposition legislation. As far as I know, not a single Opposition Bill has been accepted without some amendment by the Government. So many good Bills have come before the Dáil since the Government was formed. What is happening speaks to me of an Administration that is not willing to listen to the Opposition, for all it might say otherwise. It is a very common strategy of the Taoiseach to criticise people whom he believes are not working wi…

I echo the points made by Deputy O'Reilly on the CRSS. It is important that as many businesses as possible are included. It is probably not the scheme we would like in that it is effectively lending businesses their own money. We would rather have seen some sort of grant scheme. That said, some businesses will benefit from it, which I welcome, and I encourage them to apply, but I ask the Minister to ensure that as many of the affected businesses as possible are able to avail of it. Other positive things came out of…

The atmosphere has changed in recent weeks and months and there is a rising concern about the incidence of the pandemic. It was clear there was a need for dedicated action, which is to be welcomed. We also welcome the fact that the Government eventually listened to the point made by Sinn Féin and others for weeks about the pandemic unemployment payment and wage subsidy scheme. We would like the Government to have gone further. It was incredible these payments were cut in the first place and not restored in the budg…

About six weeks ago I submitted a document to the Minister for Education outlining the measures we believe are necessary to ensure that schools stay open in a safe and sustainable way, which we all agree is a priority. Unfortunately, serious issues with the tracing regime have arisen. The tracing system was one of the priorities we identified. It has been described by one union leader as "shambolic". Many teachers and parents have raised it with me themselves. They are concerned that a different and lesser standard…

The Constitution is regularly used as an excuse for not doing things. It has often been used for blocking interventions on housing. It was used to argue against any kind of rent measures, even the rent pressure zones that we eventually ended up with. It was used as an argument against a rent freeze. It was used as an argument against a ban on evictions such as the Focus Ireland amendment that was argued for by many political parties and civil society organisations for a long time. It turns out that it can be done. …

On a point of order, one of the main kinds of hand sanitisers used in schools is defective. Schools are not to use it. It has been recalled. I am not looking for a debate but the Minister for Education is here and it should be possible to give a brief explanation of what is going on. By the time we resume, schools will have reopened. They do not know what is defective about this product. A statement has gone out to journalists. Will the Minister give a brief, two-minute explanation of what is happening?

Part of what this legislation does is to amend the Planning and Development Act 2000. It is worth asking why the planning laws were the way they were before the former Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, changed them. Why were decisions taken on a local basis? They were taken on a local basis because local planners, councillors and authorities knew the communities which they were planning for the best. They were best placed to make those decisions. That has been significantly hollowed out since then. To be honest, An B…

Today's news came as a devastating blow, first, to the workers and their families, and I hope something can be done even now to salvage these jobs, and, second, to Cork Airport as a whole. There are over 10,000 people whose employment relies either directly or indirectly on it and I have been contacted by many of those people, including people working as baggage handlers, for shops and for different businesses connected to the airport. They are very worried. For the region as a whole, if we are serious about Cork b…

Much of the Minister's reply was not incorrect but it largely amounted to a statement of regret for the situation we are in and an acknowledgement that things are bad in aviation. It seemed as if the Minister was asking, "What can we do?" That is not good enough. An awful lot of jobs are relying on the industry. Entire regions look to these airports as crucial to their futures. Aviation is not like other businesses. We are not talking about a factory in Cork or Shannon that might be difficult to relocate. Once thos…

Tá ról ríthábhachtach ag rúnaithe scoile i gcomhthéacs feidhmiú na scoileanna. School secretaries are the backbone of a school. They keep them going, doing a number of jobs. They do not want to be in this situation where they are looking at industrial action, but that is the situation they are in, and one which has dragged on for too long. We heard from the Tánaiste last week, and some school secretaries took some encouragement from that, but we want to hear from the Minister, Deputy Foley, on how she intends to re…

The work school secretaries did was crucial in getting schools open, and they are playing an enormous role in keeping schools open. We all know from our school communities about the diverse work they do - for example, they take care of a child who is hurt, they deal with queries from parents, they organise the menu choices of a child for school lunches and so on - but, to be honest, they feel taken for granted. Some of the things mentioned have been necessary in the context of Covid-19, but this is not just a Covid…