It is remarkable that people have so little to say about those territories.

I acknowledge, as does the Government, that the taxi industry has been severely damaged by the pandemic. Taxi drivers have incurred enormous economic losses, much more so than the average person. It would be remiss of us not to acknowledge that the Government has done a lot to help already. The Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, announced a €15 million package last year. Licence fees have been waived. Like other self-employed people, taxi drivers can claim the pandemic unemployment payment and still work an…

The Government very much regrets the job losses that have occurred in airlines and aviation in general. They are principally a consequence of the pandemic and the travel restrictions that we have had to put in place. Many in this House thought our travel restrictions did not go far enough. I know Deputy Grealish was not one of them, but it is strange to hear some of those people now defending airline workers and workers in the aviation industry when they were almost chomping at the bit for stricter travel restricti…

I totally appreciate that this was very disappointing news for people who work in the live music sector. I can guarantee that Fáilte Ireland, our national tourism body, with which I worked closely for years, is a big supporter of Irish music and Irish arts.

If the Deputy does not know the reason for this, which he should know, it is one of public health.

If there is live music-----

-----people will speak louder and they will shout and that will-----

I do not think the Deputy wants to hear the answer so we will move on.

I am not sure if the former Minister, Shane Ross, has the timeline exactly right but he does have the substance right. I did ask him to extend the term of the then chair at that time, at least until he found a new one. I do not think that was bad advice because leaving a chair empty is never a good thing for a board and that is the point Deputy McNamara is making. The Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, does take my calls. I will certainly raise the matter with him this evening when I see him.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. It is the responsibility of the Residential Tenancies Board to make sure properties are registered. There seem to be a lot of unregistered properties, from my own sense of things, particularly in our city centres, including Dublin and Cork, and that is a real problem in terms of taxes unpaid and tenants being unprotected. I know the board has received a significant increase in budget in recent years so that it can carry out inspections and take enforcement action. From wh…

I thank the Deputy. I take this opportunity to commend the professionalism of all the gardaí involved in securing a safe outcome to the very dangerous situation that occurred in Whitechapel, Clonsilla, the other day. I particularly want to recognise the bravery of the two detectives who were on the scene. On behalf of the Government, I wish them both a rapid and complete recovery. The position nationally is that An Garda Síochána has never been better resourced and never had a bigger budget, and there have never be…

I thank the Deputy. I am as keen as he is to get back to watching a match and getting back on the stands. I am increasingly confident that is going to be possible over the course of the summer. We will make a decision on this at the Cabinet meeting on Friday. I can say that the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, and the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, have worked out some plans to allow a number of trials of outdoor sporting events with spectators - thousan…

I should point out that the time limit of 105 minutes, or just under two hours, applies only indoors and only when the tables are not more than 2 m apart, so if the tables are more than 2 m apart, there is no such time limit. The reason for it is that if people spend more than two hours in each other's presence in the same room, they are considered to be close contacts, and it is to avoid an entire dining room or an entire restaurant being deemed close contacts. The guidelines that came out the other day are more l…

I thank the Deputy. I express my admiration for the Deputy’s commitment to this issue, which I know she has raised on a number of occasions on behalf of parents and children. I cannot make any commitment today but, once again, she has put it firmly on my radar and that will feed into the discussions we have tonight and tomorrow. I think the indication given by the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, is that the rules we apply to indoor training for sport should be the same as those for dance, and that seems logical …

I thank the Deputy. I will check that out and speak to the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, about it. As the Deputy knows, in the rent pressure zones, which cover the vast majority of tenancies in the country, the maximum increase is 4%. I did not envisage that people would be able to apply a retrospective year. An 8% increase for anyone would be a very large increase in any one year. I must admit to not being aware of that and I will talk to the Minster about it.

I am not aware of it. The Department does receive notifications of redundancies and sometimes of acquisitions. I have not seen this come across my desk yet. It might be that it falls under the transfer of undertakings and the staff would receive protections under that, but I would have to check it out. I will ask my officials to make contact with the company and see what we can do.

I should say again for the record that the 105-minute rule only applies indoors and only applies where tables are less than 2 m apart. It will be a decision, and I appreciate an expensive decision, for restaurants and pubs as to how they configure their tables. The guidelines are not the final word on this and will be reviewed in a few weeks' time if the epidemiological position continues to improve. The reopening grant will be there for everyone who reopens, pub or restaurant. The Government's intention is that on…

People have a social obligation to pay their bills and taxes and settle their debts because if they do not do so, they pass those bills and costs onto society and onto other people. That is why they have a moral obligation to do the right thing. I appreciate there will be individual circumstances where people cannot pay for one reason or another. Whether the HSE uses debt collection agencies or collects the debts directly, it needs to be sensitive of that. Even in the most difficult circumstances it is usually poss…

I am happy to engage on the issue of Shannon, alongside my colleagues. I have already been talking to Aer Lingus. As the Deputy knows, to secure the future of the airport we will need to allow people to return to international travel again. The Deputy also will be aware that for some time, her party thought the travel restrictions we brought in were not strict enough. I am glad that she has changed her position on that, if indeed she has. On the earlier question, it sounds like we need more slots, given that they w…

The Deputy has laid out some facts. Many of them are correct but they are also one-sided. It is true that house prices have increased by about 90% since the trough in 2013, but what the Deputy did not mention - and this is relevant - is that they are still lower than the peak 12 or 13 years ago. We certainly do not want to see them go back to that level. House prices have gone up by about 4% in the past year but we will need to see where that goes. The figure may well be distorted by the fact that we had no buildin…