It is critical if we are to win this battle against climate change that we have, as I heard a Deputy say yesterday, the people with us. This will not work on a punitive, wagging the finger and telling people what to do basis. It will only work if it is a better country everywhere. That applies particularly for rural Ireland, farming, forestry and land use. We can do this. We can deliver a low carbon society that is good for our people, good for nature and provides food security, healthier food and a long-term futur…

Our thoughts are with those who are ill in hospital or who have lost loved ones to this pandemic. We must continue to listen carefully and with respect to medical and health advice at all times. I have been reflecting back on this crisis and as I recall it at one of our first meetings with our best experts on the health issue they said that it was not going to be possible for us to suppress the virus completely. If I recall correctly, they then said it was not something that we could do alone and that we needed to …

I look forward to that announcement. A second example of looking forward in terms of mental health issues and well-being is our children. Their education is critical to their health and future well-being and development. I recently read an interesting article by Mr. John Boyle, Secretary General of the Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO, who I know well. I knew him as a teacher in a school I previously represented. He is a brilliant teacher and leader of our teaching profession. He referred in that article …

I am listening.

Our thoughts are with those families who yesterday lost loved ones to this pandemic. We had a good news day on Monday when there were no such deaths. I hope that can now start to become the norm. I believe the Taoiseach said earlier that on 5 June there might be a review of the timeline of some of the measures. Given the reduction in the levels of infection I think many people will be hoping we can move some of the dates on the opening up of restrictions. I come from working in the tourism industry. What a differen…

Yes. The economic plan is clear. We must invest, stimulate and get people back working. The way out of the economic crisis we are in is to invest in a green new deal and in digital. It is doable and manageable. We have very good economic advice and it gives us a certain sense that we can manage this time.

I am hoping to frame my contribution mainly around questions and give time properly for their consideration in three areas - transport, employment and education - taking each in turn and being very practical in terms of what is coming next in our management of this crisis. We hope the numbers will continue to improve. It is a shocking loss again for all those families who lost people yesterday. They are first and foremost in our minds, and steady and slow is the right way to try to minimise further loss. However, w…

I thank the Taoiseach. My second question concerns employment. I agree with Deputy Micheál Martin's earlier statement that we have not really fine-tuned small business supports to make this work. Part of what we should be considering is allowing for a bottom-up response where the State provides grants, financing or loans. There could be a whole variety of different supports. We are probably going to see a major transition in the retail space, for example. The local authorities and local community enterprise boards …

I will be slightly more critical in making my third point. It seems that the State has responded very quickly in many ways, but in the education sector - I will be honest although I do not wish to say this in a negative way - it has not been seen from the outside to have been as quick to respond. What has happened with the leaving certificate and so on is a real concern. I share the concerns of other Deputies. I do not see why we could not get a system in place such that schools could return in September rather tha…

The ongoing tragedy of the loss of life in this country and the potential for that to continue means that the Taoiseach was absolutely right when he said that as we lessen the restrictions, it will be done in a slow and gradual way. That makes sense. Mike Ryan, from the World Health Organization, says that we will also have to be very fast in our response so that if clusters appear, we have got to quickly identify them, isolate everyone and manage that part of it. I hope that application of being fast in our respon…

It was. I lost the run of myself. I apologise, a Cheann Comhairle.

I will share time with Deputy Joe O'Brien and I might ask a question of the Taoiseach but I want to make a statement. Our hearts go out to the families of those 36 people who died yesterday. The other day when I was listening to the radio, Ryan Tubridy was interviewing somebody who asked how Ireland is at the moment. One of the things he said in a short response is that it is good because our political system listens to health advice. That struck me as a very simple truth. It is important and it is a good thing. Th…

I was very interested to hear the Taoiseach set out the six WHO criteria for the management of the crisis. I want to go through each in turn to assess how we are doing. First and foremost, on the critical issue of social isolation my sense is that we have done well as a country. We have shown that a western democratic system, without some of the strict controls seen in other countries, is, by and large able, to self-regulate. The Garda has done a good job but people have largely self-regulated. As shown by the figu…

I wish to share time with Deputy Joe O'Brien. Our first thoughts are with families of those in nursing homes, where we have seen such a raging epidemic, and in other residential and congregational settings, such as in direct provision or religious orders, where we have heard stories about the number dying in recent weeks. That tragedy and the urgent need to continue to tackle these issues drive us to support the Chief Medical Officer and Government in taking whatever measures are needed to make sure we minimise the…

Our thoughts and prayers go to the families of those 444 people who have died and to everyone who is currently suffering from this virus in hospital, particularly in intensive care, or in any other setting. Our thoughts go out to Deputy Mary Lou McDonald. We wish her a very speedy recovery and look forward to seeing her back here. Our best wishes go to Deputy Alan Kelly and to the Labour Party under his new leadership. My sense is that the Irish people are still acting very strongly, collectively and with real soli…

As others have noted, our first thoughts have to be with those in this country who have lost loved ones to the coronavirus. Their tragedy is made all the worse because the culture in this country of coming together as a community for a funeral to support, help and carry one another through those difficult times is more challenging at this time. Our thoughts and prayers, therefore, are with them. Our thoughts are also with the hundreds of thousands who have lost a job and who are uncertain of what will come next, no…

Expert advice.

In the same way that we have the advice of the Chief Medical Officer and others, we need to think about the fiscal implications of what we are doing. I say it for this reason. As well as providing the income support which we are providing today, which is critical, we also very quickly need to start thinking about the nature of the economic recovery and it will not be just income stimulus but investment stimulus that we need to make. That will be an investment stimulus in the health system. As we have said, let us u…

I will share time with Deputies Ó Cathasaigh and Ossian Smyth, if I may, a Cheann Comhairle. I commend the Taoiseach on his speech the other night. It articulated the desire of our people to show solidarity and collective action in response to this unprecedented crisis. That sense really came home to me on Saturday night, when people watched the video online showing a good-time crew in "the temple of the bars" singing "Sweet Caroline": "Hands holding hands ... touching me, touching you". Sweet Jesus, you could not …

I want to speak in support of the principle that this House should meet in whatever form. Doing so may be complex, technical or present difficulties, but in light of the scale of possible responses that we may have to resort to, and, in particular, without a new Government in place, democratic engagement is needed in order to assist the administrative system in whatever needs to be done. That may be difficult and complex in terms of working out the mechanism involved but I absolutely agree with the principle Deputy…