NPHET met last Thursday and decided that, while concerned with the trends and the increase in infections, it did not see a reason to move to level 3 nationally. Three days later, it recommended a move to level 5 nationally, in effect reinstating the lockdown from the spring and early summer. NPHET has pointed to an increase in the 14-day incidence rate in over-65s and 31 outbreaks in nursing homes, seven of which were reported in the last week. There are 25 open outbreaks among vulnerable groups, with ten in direct…

Many people in Dublin and Donegal have lost their jobs over the past few weeks. They are in receipt of €203 per week because of public health advice and for public health reasons. This did not happen of their own volition; they did not lose their jobs in normal circumstances. Rather, they were forced out of their workplaces. We are facing into the winter. People have to pay rents of €1,800 and mortgages. Electricity and fuel bills go up during the winter. Families are trying to feed their children while living on €…

Raise them.

People have to be able to live, not just survive.

Last week, I raised the issue of two women workers in Spike Island Tours who were sacked by the board. I wish to bring it to the Taoiseach's attention that they were reinstated last week on the basis that the charges against them were absolutely ridiculous. I have also been contacted by driving instructors who tell me they are still required to present themselves at various Road Safety Authority, RSA, centres across the country to enable driving test candidates to utilise their vehicles for the duration of the prac…

I will be sharing time. Working in the arts is probably the most precarious of precarious jobs. The sector has been extremely hard hit by the Covid-19 restrictions. The National Campaign for the Arts, NCFA, has said that 68% of its members have been relying on the pandemic unemployment payment and have been severely impacted by the reductions introduced last month and in July. Many artists and those working in the arts make a living through a combination of self-employed income and PAYE income, probably through a p…

According to housing statistics from Dublin City Council, the council housed 517 households last year, most of whom had been waiting for a home since the mid-2000s, according to the documents. That is nearly 15 years. The average waiting time was more than 12 years and one of the households had been on the list since 1996. We are in a housing crisis in the middle of a pandemic. Will the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, give a commitment to build public housing on public land?

We have a situation in the Central Mental Hospital site in Dundrum which the Land Development Agency is supporting. That is a significant project. The agency should be supporting and developing public housing on public lands. The Donnybrook Partnership plans to sell 14 apartments in a development at Eglinton Road to Dublin City Council for €9.18 million as part of its Part V obligation to allocate 10% of any new private development to social housing. That is a mad situation because on what should be substantially d…

There are lands belonging to the Dublin City Council at O'Devaney Gardens and Oscar Traynor Road. There are lands across the country belonging to other local authorities. We need to build public and cost rental housing on those lands. We do not know what "affordable housing" means because no one has ever given us an idea of the cost of an affordable house and I would like to see that soon. We cannot clear housing lists in Dublin City Council and all local authorities while, at the same time, more than 10,000 famili…

Every time I see or hear the word "Sláintecare" coming from the HSE, the Department of Health or Ministers I become extremely angry because I know, the Minister of State knows and everybody in here knows the Sláintecare report, as a planned approach to achieve a single-tier well-funded public health service, has been consigned to the shelves to gather dust in the Department of Health. Sláintecare as intended will never be implemented by any Government containing Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael so let us dispense with the …

I absolutely support the motion brought forward by the Social Democrats on child poverty. As the country entered the current crisis, 700,000 people were living below the poverty line and 225,000 of them were children. The ESRI sounded a stark warning on a big increase in child poverty this year. Social supports are very important and I support all measures called for in the motion. The Government has committed to maintaining social welfare payments but they are not enough. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul estimat…

In Cobh on Friday, three workers, including two full-time seasonal workers and a part-time worker, received notice of dismissal even though their contracts had them working until 29 November. It was no coincidence that these workers have been campaigning for toilet and hand-washing facilities at the Spike Island Tours kiosk. One had to get the union in to represent them to get toilet and hand-washing facilities. When they went looking to discuss it, the board of Spike Island Development Company told them their pers…

We are in the middle of a pandemic and now they are being dismissed by a State company.

I am sharing time with Deputy Harkin. I support this Bill introduced by the Labour Party. First, I wish to make an observation. We seem to have two Labour parties in Ireland, the one that we saw in government and the one that we see in opposition. In 2012, the Labour Party's Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton, began a consultation process on her stated intention to introduce a mandatory sick pay scheme whereby employers would be responsible for the first four weeks of sick pay. The usual suspects raised ob…

I thank Sinn Féín for bringing forward this Private Members' motion on community safety and fireworks which I will be supporting. I also support the call by the National Youth Council of Ireland for more investment in youth services. That call is set out in the amendment tabled by Solidarity-People Before Profit. This issue is not only one for now but is a general issue about youth services and how they are funded and supported. I concur with the point made by many Deputies on the impact of illegal fireworks in the…

I move: That Dáil Éireann: notes: — the failure of the previous Government to legislate to implement the recommendations of the ‘Expert Examination and Review of Laws on the Protection of Employee Interests when assets are separated from the operating entity (Duffy-Cahill Report)’ which was commissioned following the closure of Clerys’ department store, and that this report made six recommendations aimed at protecting the rights of workers made redundant through insolvency; — that a key recommendation of that repor…

That is not what I said.

It has been four years since the report.

With all due respect to the Ministers of State, Deputies English and Troy, the fact that the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Varadkar, is not in the Chamber does not just show contempt for the Opposition and the left - we are well used to it at this stage - but also shows contempt for the 1,000 former Debenhams workers. That has not gone unnoticed. He is also showing disrespect for the workers at St. Mary's nursing home on Merrion Road, which is facing possible liquidation by the …

I also support the Minister of State in his new position. Many people involved with the drugs and alcohol task forces will be watching closely to see how he will deal with his brief. I am a political representative on the Canal Communities local drugs and alcohol task force and it welcomes and looks forward to working with him. During the previous term, I put down a Private Members' motion representing the CityWide position on the national drug strategy and task forces. The then Minister for State said that she wou…