Briefly.

The Deputy can write to the Minister of State on the issue. She had an opportunity earlier to contribute. I have allowed her a little latitude now.

Amendments Nos. 1 to 3, inclusive, 8 to 10, inclusive, 20 to 22, inclusive, 28 to 30, inclusive, 35 and 37 to 45, inclusive, 53 and 54 shall be taken together by agreement.

Agreement to the Seanad amendments is reported to the Houses and a message will be sent to Seanad Éireann acquainting it accordingly.

I am delighted to have the opportunity to contribute to this debate, and I commend the Minister on the task he has been given to undertake and deliver on in the most trying and challenging of times. The Minister is doing a fine job. He has the best wishes of this side of the House and, I hope, the other side of the House. The Minister is in the position at a unique time in history when we are faced with a pandemic for the first time in a century. That is quite a burden and responsibility to deal with. He is entitle…

Deputies Joan Collins and Connolly are sharing time.

Is Deputy Joe O'Brien sharing time with the Minister?

Okay.

I want to acknowledge the significant personal investment of time and effort by the Taoiseach and his office in respect of the plight of Debenhams workers. As the Taoiseach is aware, I raised this issue at the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting recently. These workers have been picketing for in excess of 170 days during cold nights and mornings that are getting cooler and wetter. These are predominantly or almost exclusively women. I know they have the Taoiseach's admiration and my admiration. Does the Taoisea…

What steps are left to the State to provide assistance to these workers? Does the Taoiseach support the call to consumers not to purchase Debenhams goods online in support of the plight of these workers and the efforts they have made to secure their rights?

I am seated behind the Minister. I have his back. There are many vulnerable groups in society, but I wish to raise the plight of a particularly vulnerable small group, namely, expectant mothers. This issue has been raised previously in the House. Like many other Deputies, I have begun to receive an increased volume of correspondence from expectant mothers. As the Minister is aware, they are not allowed to be accompanied by their partners or spouses during labour, which is particularly isolating, lonely and distress…

That was the second Topical Issue matter and we will move back to the first Topical Issue matter now. I thank the Minister of State and the Deputy for facilitating that.

Following on from Deputy Murnane O'Connor's comments, I met taxi drivers and the Minister of State last week regarding those issues and following up on them. Many pressing transport issues are facing Dublin, as the Minster will appreciate, but I will focus on a matter I raised during the climate action debate last week. It concerns e-scooters. There are far more important issues, but this is my e-scooter week and I have decided this is an opportunity to drive this issue home. The Minister was very enthusiastic duri…

I am pleased to be able to contribute to this debate. I was Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Budgetary Oversight in the last Dáil for four years. As the Members opposite will know the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, IFAC, visited the committee on many occasions and we were very grateful for its presence. I was very taken by the message IFAC's representatives delivered this morning. It may have surprised some people as it did not necessarily conform with the messages that IFAC would be associated with. As a previous…

-----if it were not for the decisions taken - this is a point I was going to come to later - the really tough decisions that involved incredible burdens for the Irish people which were taken by the former Taoiseach, Mr. Brian Cowen, and the former Minister for Finance, the late Mr. Brian Lenihan, then this country would not be in a position to borrow anything at any rate because our credibility internationally and in the markets would be bust. This is something Members on the other side of the House would be best t…

I echo what Deputy Farrell said about the attendance of the Minister for the duration of the debate. It is something I would have expected of him given his interest and certainly, like myself, he was a very regular attender at the Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action in the previous Dáil. Seven or eight months ago, we would not have thought there was something incongruous about speaking with such gusto about climate action in the midst of Covid. The pandemic is a priority and people's minds are rightly focused on…

I thank the Minister for attending in person. She carries a great burden at this time – the burden of office associated with looking after and ensuring the smooth running of our primary and second level education systems during these extraordinarily challenging times. The country, and certainly her party colleagues and everybody in the Dáil, are grateful for the job she is doing and the manner in which she has taken on her task. Deputy Jim O'Callaghan has, in his usual erudite way, made most of the points I wanted …

There is quite a lot to digest in the Minister's response and I am grateful for the detail into which she went in such a short period. I take on board, as everybody does, that faced with an unprecedented set of circumstances her Department moved quickly and came up with a system that has attempted, successfully for the most part, clearly, in dealing with the challenges faced by students. It is worthy of repetition and we do not want to lose sight of that. The Minister is right to emphasise, and we all knew it as pu…

We now move back to the Government side, for which there are three speakers. Are the Deputies sharing time?

We now move to the Rural Independent Group, from which there will be four speakers.