I thank Senators for their contributions and their co-operation in passing this Bill.

I move: "That Second Stage be taken now."

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I congratulate the Leas-Cheann Comhairle on her election to the esteemed position of Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I wish her well in her role, and particularly so as the first woman to hold that position. All very best wishes to her. I am pleased to be here to introduce this important legislation. The Social Welfare (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2020 is in many ways a straightforward piece of legislation which has two interrelated key purposes. The first is to place the pa…

I thank the Deputies for their good wishes and I look forward to working with them in my new role. I want to clarify that the Department of Rural and Community Development is a separate Department, as is the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. They are being maintained on a separate basis and I look forward to working as Minister, separately, for both Departments. What we have seen throughout the Covid-19 crisis is people showing solidarity at a time of national crisis. People stayed away from t…

The Deputy should take that back. I have no set against the arts.

The green list is not a list of holiday destinations and the public health advice is still for people not to go abroad. UK holidaymakers discovered last week that while they were on a Spanish holiday, Spain was removed from a green list, as were all the Spanish islands, and moved to the red list. These people have now returned home to a 14-day quarantine period they had thought would not be in place. As the Government has stated, the green list in Ireland will constantly evolve. Like everything else related to Covi…

I am sorry if I did not answer that part of the question; I thought I had. My Department will work with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to determine how much of the public expenditure incurred to date should be properly charged to the Social Insurance Fund given that many people who have been in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment had an underlying entitlement to jobseeker's benefit. I understand what the Deputy is saying about the fund. As I have said, this measure will relate to that part…

Yes, if I could.

A number of issues have been raised. First, the payment for the self-employed is relative to what they put in their tax returns in 2018. I stated earlier that if they have updated figures for 2019, they should please lodge them with Revenue and we are happy to look at them and, if we can, we will increase their payments. To be very clear, we are not trying to harass anybody. One can leave in exceptional circumstances but if one remains in this country, one will continue to receive one's payment. That is it. I made …

The Department will take a common-sense approach, so if one is in a sector that is waiting to reopen soon, that is okay, but we have to realise that, unfortunately, a lot of people will not be returning to the job they were in pre-Covid, so we want them to start looking for work. We want to help them to get back to work. That is why there is a €200 million jobs stimulus as part of the package we announced last week. We have extended the PUP to next April. Is Deputy Mattie McGrath suggesting that people should not b…

People want to get back to work, and we want to help them get back to work. As I said, that is why we have provided €200 million for employment and labour activation measures.

The Covid-19 pandemic will continue to present a challenge on many fronts, not least in the workplace. At the launch of the national return to work safely protocol, I emphasised the overriding need for collaboration and co-operation at all levels between State agencies, employers and employees, as well as representative bodies. We saw this in the development of the protocol. The same collaboration and co-operation remain the key to success in the workplace. I know there is a strong desire for employers and employee…

On the statistics, I understand from the HSE that there have been 35 outbreaks associated with workplaces, with 879 cases, of which 16 outbreaks occurred in meat processing plants, with 828 cases associated with these outbreaks. This is an ongoing outbreak, but preliminary estimates from the national outbreak control team indicate that between 55% to 60% of people in meat processing plants who were infected have returned to work. This information will be subject to ongoing validation and updating. It is not the cas…

If there are two or more cases of Covid-19, it is considered an outbreak. It is up to the employer to advise the HSE. Then the national outbreak control team engages through the local outbreak response teams. That is the protocol if there is an outbreak in a workplace. Reference was made to the Health and Safety Authority. I do not have the exact number of inspections in meat plants. That information is confidential to the authority officials and they do not share that information with me. However, I can say that s…

They do not tell me the individual places of work where they visit.

That is confidential information.

It is confidential.

Excuse me, can I finish?

Can I finish, please?

It is not-----