I thank the Deputy. We will not know until the end of next week what level we will be at in December. As she said, under level 2 pools can open. I understand that they cannot under level 3. As the Taoiseach said, it is more likely that we will be at some form of level 3 rather than level 2. It is not that the levels are not closed to modification. It is something we will have to take into account when the Government makes a decision next week on what we can and cannot do.

I thank the Deputy. I understand that report is with the Minister for Transport. I am sure he will publish it in the near future. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is very keen on the development of commuter rail in cities like Cork, Limerick and Galway. It makes a lot of sense. I know Deputy Cannon is an advocate of twin tracking and improving the services to Athenry and Oranmore. It is a good idea and where we should focus our rail investment.

I thank the Deputy. It is a very fair question. I will have to check that with the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys. My recollection is that the pandemic unemployment payment will stay in place until March of next year. It may not be open to new entrants from a certain point. We would all agree that if we go back into further restrictions in the new year we would not want people to be unable to avail of the pandemic unemployment payment if they lost their jobs for a third time, which would be an extraordinary thi…

No.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Cheann Comhairle agus leis na Teachtaí. I welcome the opportunity to discuss this important issue and I thank the Labour Party for using its time to discuss it today. The Government wants remote working, homeworking and blended working to become part of the new normal based primarily on choice. If done right the benefits will be significant in reduced business costs, better work-life balance, more balanced regional development, less traffic, fewer greenhouse gas emissions and time save…

I thank the Deputy for raising the serious issue of the review of gynaecology services in Letterkenny University Hospital where women experienced delayed diagnosis. Obviously, as a result of that, in some cases they did not get the treatment they should have as soon as possible. I want to express my deep sorrow to any of the women affected and also to any of their families and friends who have faced an adverse outcome because of this. I am at a little bit of a disadvantage in answering the question in that I have n…

I thank the Deputy. I will do that and I will read the independent review. When we find failings or shortcomings in any particular hospital it is important to apply scrutiny nationwide. If things are going wrong in one hospital it is wrong to assume that everything is okay everywhere else. Too many times we have learned that failings identified in a particular hospital or service are not confined to that service but are a more widespread problem. We have seen that with other reports in the past. I will take it upon…

I thank the Deputy. I support the thrust of the campaign and the intentions behind it. The matter of how this can be achieved requires a bit more discussion. There is always the law of unintended consequences. We all know of children, young people and teenagers who were born in Ireland, who know no other home and who speak with Dublin, Wicklow or Kerry accents - not that someone's accent really matters. Many were born here, some were brought here at a very young age. To me it would be wrong to deport them to countr…

I cannot say whether we can support it at this time, but I will take a look at it. I will speak to the Minister for Justice, Deputy Helen McEntee, who I expect to be the Minister addressing it in the Seanad, to see what we can do. Perhaps we will not oppose it and attempt to find a solution on Committee Stage. Senator Bacik is one of the best legislators in these Houses so we would always take a serious look at any legislation she puts forward, or at any legislation put forward by any Member. We have found solution…

I thank the Deputy for the questions. The CMO was consulted. The matter was discussed at the Cabinet sub-committee on Covid. We were both present and we discussed it. I recall that at the time the CMO said he was not particularly concerned about international travel. As we get the numbers down, it becomes a greater concern for reasons which the Deputy will understand. I do not know exactly what type of formal oversight mechanism will exist. I will come back to the Deputy on that. We are confident that we will have …

Some modelling has been done on the possibility of a third wave in January and February, which has been published by NPHET or Professor Nolan. I do not know to what extent international travel feeds into that modelling. I will have to check that. In terms of the European regulation that we have adopted and signed up to, that does not require a double test. It falls within the discretion of member states to decide how to proceed in this regard. NPHET's advice to us is that a double test would be better which, of cou…

A person who tests positive is not supposed to travel.

That is what we have to work on.

We are making enormous progress here south of the Border. As I stated earlier, the percentage positivity rate was approximately 7% but is now under 4%. The average number of weekly cases is down approximately 1,200 to approximately 400. The numbers in hospital and ICU are a fraction of what they were in the spring and are now stabilising or falling. The picture in the Border counties is variable. We are concerned about the situation in Donegal. We have not seen a significant fall in the incidence of the virus there…

The Government is not giving any consideration to putting the Army on the Border between the North and the South. We struggled and fought too hard for too many decades to take all armies off the Border and we certainly do not want to be the jurisdiction that puts uniforms on the Border again. That is not something to which we are giving consideration. The point raised by the Deputy is a serious one. The situation in Northern Ireland is much more serious than the situation here. There is a very significant reservoir…

The Government, on the advice of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, is nominating the former Senator, Geraldine Feeney, to be a member of SIPO. The idea of having a former politician on SIPO is to have somebody who has a working understanding of the work we do as politicians. I think it was Mr. Jim O'Keeffe in the past and it is now proposed to be Geraldine Feeney. Obviously, whether there is a debate on it would be a matter for the Business Committee rather than for me.

No.

The Deputy might have been a fly on the wall at the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party meeting last night, at which this exact issue was raised.

I must say it has not been a huge issue in my constituency office, but it clearly is in many other constituencies where people are very dissatisfied with the level of service they are getting from the telecommunications operators at this time. From a legislative point of view, I am bringing forward legislation which will give more powers to both the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and ComReg. There will be more powers for those bodies, but it should not require that in the meantime. These telecommuni…

We already have a law that requires equal pay for equal work. However, it is not as simple as that. Many women work in professions that were traditionally considered female professions and those professions have been less well paid historically than jobs that were traditionally seen to be male professions. It is the breadwinner model, as it is described. Why is a garda paid more than a nurse? I do not know. It is probably because of this tradition that one was seen to be a man's job and the other was seen to be a w…