We are focusing on trying to find alternative employment for the people who work there. That is being led by the Department of Social Protection, Intreo and SOLAS offering skills. Under my remit, IDA Ireland is aware that these sites may become available next year and is exploring options for alternative investors and is engaging with both companies. As I have said, I am happy to have a meeting at a suitable time with the public representatives from the area. Again, I say to the Deputy if he has anything helpful or…

The Government is committed to introducing a statutory sick pay scheme and work is well advanced. We have held a public consultation that received 118 submissions and have had regular consultation with the social partners on it. An interdepartmental group on sick pay was established and an international review of best practice was completed. Legislation is being prepared and will be brought to the Government for approval shortly - hopefully this month. In introducing this legislation we will be adding to the range …

This is not the Soviet Union. This is a democracy and people are allowed to make submissions. The Deputy pointed out that 118 submissions were made, some by employees and some by employers. Some of them were by paid advocates and some of them were by people who were none of those things. They are entitled to make their views known. I do not believe that employers and business people are the enemy here. It is absolutely right that we would listen to their views and not shut them out from policy making. The same appl…

No matter what we do, the Deputy is going to say it is not enough. He has written the press release already before he has seen what we intend to do. That is his role in politics but it is not a particularly constructive one. My role in politics is actually to get things done. I refer to things like the seven increases in the minimum wage and the restoration of public sector pay. We are moving towards a living wage. We have added any number of additional social benefits in recent years, from paternity benefit to par…

I thank the Deputy for his question. As he will be aware, the Government launched its economic recovery plan last Tuesday. It will restore our public finances to good health through employment and not austerity, by going for growth and not retrenchment, and by aiming for a rapid recovery. It will help to restore existing jobs and create new ones in areas like construction, climate action and digital transformation. We have set the target to have 2.5 million people at work in Ireland by 2024, setting a new record. I…

Every business and sector is different. We have a set of schemes which operate horizontally, as my officials like to say, across all sectors. We also have some dedicated schemes to help particular sectors that are being very badly affected. The Deputy will be aware that the other day the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, opened the music and entertainment business assistance scheme, which is a special scheme for musicians and artists and people who work in that sector. Together we have developed an events sector s…

I thank the Deputy for his comments. He is spot on about mental health and I could not agree more. We still do not know what impact Covid-19 and the lockdown have had on people's mental health. It will vary a great deal from those who have been bereaved to people who have been stuck in their homes, younger people and those affected by the increase in domestic violence. I am sure that the Deputy will concede that something not being specifically mentioned in a document does not mean it is not important, or not impor…

The EU trade ministers met in person in Council on 20 May in Brussels. I was pleased to participate in my capacity as Minister with responsibility for trade. The meeting had a full agenda, which included debate and draft conclusions on the EU trade policy review, preparations for the World Trade Organization ministerial conference later this year, EU-US trade relations, updates on the EU steel safeguards and the EU Mercosur agreement and progress with the negotiations on an EU international procurement instrument. …

The Deputy's initial comments are spot on. If we can restore and improve the EU-US trading relationship, deal with some of the issues around steel and aviation and so on and get on with building a stronger trading relationship, then one of the countries that will benefit from that most is, of course, our country, Ireland. That is because of our strong trading links with the US and our political position as a country at the heart of the European Union and close to America. At the meeting there was not much focus on …

I think the Deputy's assessment is correct. We are unlikely to be getting back to something like TTIP anytime soon. However, we are on a better path now with the USA. No matter what happens at EU level, Ireland will continue to seek investment from the US. It goes both ways now. Nearly 100,000 Americans are employed in Irish owned firms in America. That has been the big change in the past ten years. It is very much a two-way relationship now in investment and trade. We fully endorsed the EU's approach to EU-US trad…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 14, 51 and 106 together. I thank Deputy Carroll MacNeill for raising the important issue of remote working and the move towards a blended working model post pandemic. As I have said previously, I believe the pandemic has changed the world of work forever. Many of us will return to work but videoconferences will be more common and travelling for work much less so. While some people will work full time from the office or from home, many of us will be blended workers, working sometimes…

I thank the Deputy. I should add that prior to the return to offices, which I hope will be in September or October, I plan to launch a publicity campaign on remote working. The information campaign will provide information and advice to employers and employees alike. I have a concern we might just drift back to the old normal. We have a window of opportunity to grab and I am determined we should grab it and begin the conversation in the workplace about what things will look like when we work from home, not when we …

I thank the Deputy. The climate benefits of this are very real. When we look at reducing emissions from transport in our cities, it is interesting to note that moving people from cars to trains and buses unfortunately does not make a huge amount of difference because a 5 km or 10 km journey by car versus a 5 km or 10 km journey by a diesel-powered bus or train does not reduce emissions very much. What really makes a difference is people walking or cycling to work. This is much more possible if they are able to work…

My answer would be the same as the answer I gave to Deputy Carroll MacNeill a little earlier but if the Deputy has any supplementary questions, I would be happy to use the time to answer them.

That has not been raised with me previously. In some parts of the country broadband is not available but I would have thought that anywhere a new housing estate or housing development is being built and if there is broadband in the area, it should be connected from day one. It is the fourth utility, as they say, water, electricity, sewerage, and telecommunications, and that is now broadband or fibre. It is something I can take up with the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, or the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brie…

The Deputy is correct. If I understand the technology correctly, there is no reason an Eircode could not be ascribed to a new home or a new building before it is occupied. It is a unique place identifier, not a person identifier. I do not see why that cannot be done. It is not something that falls under my remit. It is under the remit of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, but I will certainly follow up on it. It does not make any sense to me and perhaps it is something we can fix easily enough.

As is often the case, the best way to respond to the Deputy's rhetoric and ideology is with some facts. These are the facts. We have increased Government investment in social housing tenfold. In 2016, when my party got the brief and Deputy Coveney became the Minister with responsibility for housing, only 600 social homes were built in this country. By 2020, it was more than 6,000. These were homes built by local authorities and approved housing bodies with public money. That is a tenfold increase since 2016. The bu…

I thank the Deputy. Again, I can only respond with the facts. A third of all new homes built in the State this year will be social housing and public housing paid for and built by the State. One must go back to the 1980s or the 1950s and 1960s before we could see those kinds of figures replicated. The average home in Ireland last year sold for approximately €275,000 and much affordable housing has been built in the past ten years in Ireland. Perhaps it was not through Government schemes but this has been done throu…

How can anybody possibly believe that sort of populism?

The Deputy must interrupt me because the truth hurts. The party's populist nonsense, which it continues to promote in Ireland, is about abolishing taxes while making massive spending increases.