I will be brief unlike some of my colleagues. I was going to make a point about why we have arrived at this point and why I supported the emergency draconian legislation in March and October 2020. The key point is that we did not have vaccines then. We now have them and we know they are working. The fact that there are only 93 people in hospitals with Covid is a vindication of that and of NPHET. The Government is saying the vaccines are working, which is good. Most of those aged in their 60s have only received one …

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. What it does is to continue the extraordinary emergency legislation due to expire on 9 June and the Government is extending it to 9 November 2021. It may be further extended for up to three months at a time by resolution passed by each House of the Oireachtas. These include measures in section 1 of the Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020, section 17 of the Criminal Justice (Enforcement Powers) (Covid-19) Ac…

The Psychological Society of Ireland and USI recently campaigned on equality of funding for those studying for doctorates in counselling and psychologists in training. They are not funded, nor do they receive a salary during training unlike those completing doctorates in clinical psychology who receive a salary, a 60% fee reduction and sponsorship from the HSE. I ask the Minister to treat counselling psychologists with equality. When will the national psychology placement office be established?

I thank the Minister. That would be good because he is in government and should be working in tandem regarding what is needed. In recent years, counselling psychology training moved from a masters to a doctoral level. In the time since that change has happened, there have been approximately 444 psychologists in counselling training on courses. Collectively, they have paid approximately €2.8 million in fees and, more specifically, counselling psychologists in training have contributed approximately 65,000 direct con…

That will be an important aspect into the future because we know we need more nurses, doctors, psychologists and services for those who are autistic and all of that type of thing. We have to map that out and decide what needs have to be met, and how we reflect that in our courses in universities and so on. There was a fee increase in TCD for counselling psychologists. The college has saved a massive amount this year through significantly lower electricity and heating bills and no travel expenses for guest lecturers…

I raise the legacy of strategic housing developments, SHDs. These were a policy of the previous Fine Gael-led Government, which was backed by Fianna Fáil. SHDs bypassed local area development plans and were fast-tracked by the Government to facilitate the vulture and cuckoo funds, something we have seen over the last couple of weeks. I want to bring a bit of reality into this. Drimnagh in my constituency has a very strong community, which has campaigned relentlessly on behalf of residents seeking sports facilities,…

I thank the Minister for the reply but what will the Government do about the legacy of these projects? It is okay to say Drimnagh is close to the city and it is on the Luas line but what will the Government do for these communities? Has it done an analysis of the impact of these high-rise developments? Section QH18 of the Dublin City Development Plan 2016-2022 indicates the aim "to promote the provision of high-quality apartments within sustainable neighbourhoods by achieving suitable levels of amenity within indiv…

If the Government can introduce a policy to bypass the councils, what is the point in having them?

I wish to raise the issue of tenants in receipt of homeless HAP. Several people have contacted me recently on this issue. I will refer to two of them. I was contacted by a young woman who is in receipt of homeless HAP. In 2018 she was paying €1,500 and getting the cap of €990 under the homeless HAP, which meant she was paying €510 as a top-up. Several years later, she has now received a rent review which is to be implemented on 6 June. Her rent is being increased to €1,730.22. That is €740 extra in the context of t…

I am asking the Taoiseach to look at this strategically because, as he said earlier, it is about solving issues.

I know we cannot increase the cap but a transfer should be put into place immediately.

I thank Sinn Féin and Deputy Ó Broin for using their Private Members' time to put this issue on the agenda of the Dáil. As with previous housing motions, it is really important. I have two questions for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the dominant parties in successive governments, and for the Labour Party and the Greens. I found it incredible to listen to the Labour Party representative tonight. The last time the Labour Party was in government, it was too busy trying to force domestic water charges down the throats of …

I am pleased to speak in support of the Companies (Protection of Employees' Rights in Liquidations) Bill 2021, which has been properly renamed the Debenhams Bill. I will be voting for it. It is a simple, straightforward Bill putting redundant workers top of the list of creditors in the case of insolvency and it represents an important step forward. Earlier in the course of this dispute, I moved a Private Members' motion calling for legislation to implement the recommendations of the Duffy Cahill report. That report…

I thank Deputy Ó Broin for tabling this Private Members' motion. I absolutely concur that the rental and housing crisis continue to spiral out of control. The new affordable housing Bill mentioned in the Minister's countermotion is a new plan with the same problems as previous plans. It regurgitates earlier plans, is developer led and investment fund led. There is a bit of tinkering around the edges in regard to cost-rental, which I welcome, although it depends on the basis of it in relation to salaries, council ho…

Like other Deputies, I thank the USI for driving this legislation in respect of the situation students were faced with last year. I thank Deputy Ó Broin, who also drove matters in the context of the drafting of this Bill. I was happy to sign the Bill on behalf of the Independent Group. I am speaking in support of the Bill, which I hope will get support from all sides of the House. I hope we can bring it through to Committee Stage as quickly as possible. This is a straightforward issue. The situation is that student…

I support the two motions before the House. Obviously it is necessary to extend these schemes but I believe the Government should go further. It should consider tapered measures as workers return to work. Many will not go back to work full time initially. Many will go back on 20 hours per week or will experience some reduction in their hours but no worker should be left short of money or struggling to survive. I wish to raise the issue of grants and supports for certain sectors. There is a sports complex in Ballyfe…

I previously raised with the Taoiseach on Questions on Promised Legislation the issue of a worker on the front line, who has been at the coal face since March 2020, risking her health and well-being and those of her family. McCauley's pharmacy put that worker and many of her work colleagues on the temporary wage subsidy scheme, TWSS, without their knowledge. She and her colleagues received notice from Revenue early this year, stating she had a tax obligation from March to September 2020. That means she has effectiv…

I said in my introduction that the fact the scheme was introduced to protect workers' jobs and keep companies floats was positive. There was nothing wrong with the scheme. I do not think the Government introduced it in the knowledge that workers were going to have a pay cut effectively. The Taoiseach mentioned the Revenue Commissioners. Revenue was prepared to wipe off the tax revenue from a worker's gross pay. That was gone and companies were allowed to pay their workers the net income. That is now being taxed. It…

That is brilliant.

And workers are suffering for it.