I think that work is allowed and is exempt from restrictions. I will double check and find out for sure.

I will let the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, know of his suggestions and his strong support for the projects being put forward by Tralee and Killarney. As it is often the case that only one project in a county can be funded, I will not ask the Deputy to suggest whether it should be Tralee or Killarney. I am sure both are of equal merit.

Tá brón orm go raibh mé déanach. Tá dul chun cinn maith á dhéanamh i leith dáileadh na vacsaíne. Táthar ag tuar go mbainfear amach an sprioc de 500,000 an tseachtain seo. Beidh an chéad dáileog faighte ag ár gclainne agus ag ár gcairde a bhfuil os cionn 85 bliana d’aois faoi dheireadh na seachtaine seo. Cé go bhfuil bóthar fada amach romhainn go fóill, tá sé le feiceáil go bhfuil toradh dearfach anseo agus go hidirnáisiúnta ó thaobh tionchar na vacsaíní. Tá sé mar sprioc ag an Rialtas go mbeidh an chéad dáileog den…

The answer to the Deputy's question is "Yes". The Government has asked NIAC to consider prioritising family carers after the current groups. I strongly believe it is right that we prioritise healthcare workers, those most likely to get sick, people over 70 and people under 70 with medical conditions because they are most likely to die or get very sick from this virus. We have asked NIAC to give consideration to prioritising family carers, once those groups have been vaccinated because they should be prioritised. I …

-----with 25,000 intended for healthcare workers. That will arrive before the end of the month.

Many job losses have been announced in recent weeks, which are a deep concerns to all of us. As the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, I get notification of many of those, and I am very aware of the real impact it is having on people. Some of those job losses are directly related to Covid-19, for example, in the airlines the Deputy mentioned. Some are not; they would have happened in any case. I refer to those in banking and those in the Kerry Group, for example, which the Deputy mentioned. In fairness,…

I thank the Deputy. The plan for young people and to ensure we do not have high levels of youth unemployment when the pandemic is over is three-fold: it is to save as many jobs and businesses as possible; to create new jobs, which we are doing; and to create more educational and training opportunities ranging from higher education to further education to apprenticeships to lifelong learning opportunities. All of that is being done currently and driven forward by Government. The review of the national development pl…

I thank the Deputy. It is good to see him here for Leaders' Questions. I am not sure if this is his regular slot or whether it is a consequence of his decision to join People Before Profit but I look forward to some interesting exchanges in the months ahead. Let me be very clear. I do not have the slightest interest in beef barons. I have never met a beef baron. I do not know what a beef baron looks like, quite frankly. That is a populist conspiracy theory and it has no legitimacy whatsoever. With regard to meat pl…

The job of any government - or at least any centrist government - is to represent all the people and to take account of all interests and not seek to create conspiracy theories about the 1% or to divide capital from workers or the middle class from the working class. Any responsible government, any centrist government, any moderate government, which is what we have in Ireland, tries to represent the interests of the whole population as best it can and takes into account all the factors at play. Workers need jobs, a…

I will also check the issue of tied accommodation.

I thank the Deputy for the question and for his ongoing interest in issues affecting businesses and employees not just in Tipperary but across the country. Our strategy is threefold. First, it is to save as many businesses that are viable and as many jobs as we can during this period of pandemic and lockdown. There has already been €11 billion invested in the economy, propping up the economy through pandemic unemployment payments, the wage subsidy scheme, the commercial rates holiday and all the other financial sup…

The Deputy is absolutely right that access to finance is crucial for businesses, and particularly the small business sector. It is not a well-known fact but currently one third of all lending to SMEs is now Government backed - it is State-backed lending. That is done through various schemes, including Brexit loans, Covid loans and the future growth loan scheme. It has been recently confirmed that Microfinance Ireland, which lends to very small businesses, will now be able to lend through the Strategic Banking Corpo…

I do not agree with Property Industry Ireland on this particular issue. The reality is that when one does something that increases demand for housing, it may have a side effect - increased house prices. However, that does not mean that people should not be helped to buy. People argued against the help to buy scheme for first-time buyers because they thought it would increase house prices. The evidence that it did is pretty minimal, but the same arguments were used. Yet, it helped tens of thousands of people to buy …

I watched the "RTÉ Investigates" programme last night. It was really well produced and well researched, and I want to extend my compliments to those involved in putting it together. I also pay tribute to the people who told their stories. It cannot have been easy. It is hard to imagine a social worker coming to one's door to break the news that one's parents are not one's biological parents, one's name is not the name one was born with and one's birth date is not one's birth date. We must do everything we can to as…

I will have to check with the Minister for Health on that, but I do not think that is the correct representation of what is intended. The hospital will be built with public funds and will belong to the people of Ireland. There may be an issue around the technicalities of the ownership of the land on which the hospital is built, but I am quite confident that the hospital itself will be controlled and owned by the public. I will double check that with the Minister and revert to the Deputy because the situation has ch…

I appreciate the Deputy may have raised this matter before but it is not a case with which I am familiar. I certainly will let the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, know the Deputy has raised it in the Dáil and I will try to get him a proper reply from the Minister.

I am advised we are not yet ready to bring forward that Bill on Report Stage. There are some delays and issues that need to be worked out. I will arrange for a written reply to be sent to the Deputy in the next couple of days explaining the situation.

I thank the Deputy for his question. The Minister, Deputy Martin, is working on some new schemes at the moment, one for live performance and another for musicians. Perhaps it is possible, as part of this, she will take into account the Deputy's views.

I thank the Deputy for his question. It does ring alarm bells for the Government, quite frankly. Here in the Republic, south of the Border, anybody arriving through a port or airport has to have a negative PCR test and must quarantine at home or, in some cases, will soon have to quarantine in a hotel. There is a very different approach in Northern Ireland. For people arriving there from Britain and, in the future, from other parts of Europe and other parts of the world, potentially, there is no requirement they sho…

The reason this is happening is we have a different regime south of the Border. We have decided to restrict international travel and aviation severely on public health grounds-----