I thank the Deputy for raising this important question. Content moderators working for social media platforms play an important role in preventing the wider distribution of explicit content on these platforms. Social media content moderators should be treated by an employer in the same way as any other worker exposed to a potential harm. The employer must ensure that the employee has been provided with the appropriate training before taking on the role. The employer must also ensure that procedures are in place to …

I am familiar with the work. It must be very difficult work to do to have to sit for hours on end watching explicit, violent or deeply offensive content. Some of it can be done by artificial intelligence but we know that that is not good enough. That is why one needs a human being to do much of that work. Somebody needs to do it. If they do not do that job the content gets online and perhaps is seen by children or others, and perhaps incites violence, terrorism or any of those things to which the Deputy referred. I…

I certainly would be happy to do that. As I say, it must be extraordinarily difficult work to do but it is work that somebody has to do to protect the rest of us. It is important that those staff who agree to do that job have their well-being protected. I meet representatives of Facebook and other digital platforms maybe once a year. I will certainly make it part of the agenda or if there is a union representative for those workers, I would be happy to arrange for a meeting for them as well.

I thank the Deputy for his interest in this issue. He raised it with me previously, as have Deputy Fitzmaurice and Senators Dolan and Murphy. I was disappointed to learn of the decision by Aptar to close its facility in Ballinasloe. My primary concern, as I said previously, is for the workers and families who have been impacted by this decision in losing their jobs at a very difficult time. The Government is doing what it can to help them transition and find new employment opportunities. Now that the decision has b…

It is important to note that 21,000 people are now employed in IDA Ireland supported firms in the entirety of County Galway. That is a substantial increase on 2010 when there were only just over 11,000 people so employed. The increase in the figure, from just over 11,000 people in 2010 to 21,000 people now, is huge. I appreciate that the vast majority of that employment is probably in Galway city and the area around it, rather than in the east or west of the county. In the past, it was customary to establish task f…

As the Deputy says, Ballinasloe is very well located and has access to a lot of the key infrastructure that is needed. It is a good site. I had intended to do something like that at the time but we ran into other difficulties around Covid, as the Deputy mentioned. I am happy to commit to pulling together the agencies and having a particular focus on Ballinasloe over the next couple of weeks. That was in the work plan anyway but I appreciate the reminder and I will follow up on it. I do not know if it will produce a…

Under the current level 5 of the plan for living with Covid, people are asked to stay at home. If people can work from home, they should do so. They should only enter their workplace if they are providing an essential service for which their physical presence is required. While we all look forward to the day when we are free to return to our workplaces, the Government wants remote working to become part of the new normal. This is reflected in the programme for Government, which contains commitments aimed at facilit…

It is true that anyone can request of his or her employer the option of working at home but it is not a legal right in the sense that I mean it. At the moment, people can request term time or flexible hours, which is kind of what I have in mind in setting out a legal framework whereby people could request remote working of their employer and the employer would have to consider it properly and give reasons. Presumably the employee would then be able to take the matter further if he or she were not happy with the res…

On the enterprise hubs, hot desks, digital hubs or whatever people wish to call them, we have a budget for this in the Department and also in the Department of Rural and Community Development. When I was able to get around, I saw a number of them up and running in various parts of the country, including flagship hubs such as Ludgate in Skibbereen. There is also a very good one in Edgeworthstown, County Longford, in an old bank that had closed and become a symbol of the town's decline. It was then transformed into a…

I thank the Deputy for his recent submission to me on this matter. He highlighted some clear challenges that have emerged relating to the imposition of level 5 Covid–19 restrictions, including the prohibition on buyers accessing sales rings at livestock marts. My colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue, and his Department continue to work closely with stakeholders to protect agrifood supply chains, despite the stricter controls in place. Nevertheless, the core responsibility…

I thank the Deputy. Certainly I am happy to examine any proposal in this regard. It is probably more something for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine than for my Department but I am always open to suggestion. It can be difficult to have a scheme that is for a particular business or enterprise and then not face requests to do the same for other businesses. I am certainly happy to hear more from the Deputy about this.

I thank the Deputy. I am very sympathetic to the cases being made to allow marts to reopen with restrictions. I recall that during the first phase of the pandemic, we did exactly that at a certain point and it worked reasonably well. I know that buying and selling livestock online is not the same. It is the same as buying anything online, but in particular looking at a live animal online is not just the same. I have heard of situations where farmers have been trying to join the mart online and have suffered from ba…

Covid–19 is having a severe effect on certain business sectors and the food distribution and supply sectors in particular. In the case of BD Foods, the Deputy will be aware that my colleague, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, was very actively engaged with the company in trying to preserve as many jobs as possible. I understand BD Foods will retain part of the company's sales force and as many as possible of the remaining staff will be redeployed to the logistics end of the business. The company…

I do not recall seeing that email or a letter. I usually get sight of any replies that issue to Deputies so I will definitely ask my staff to pull that down and we will send the Deputy a proper reply as soon as we can. I do not know personally whether there was prior engagement, so I do not want to say to the Deputy now that there was or was not. However, I will check it out and let him know. With regard to the back to education allowance and the back to enterprise allowance, these are really good schemes that allo…

I will definitely follow up on that and if we can provide help and provide alternative employment in Glaslough, that is certainly what we will do, and that is part of the role of Government and its agencies. Generally, the kind of advice and support that we provide people who have lost their jobs are not just about letting them know their welfare entitlements, but that is important too. People are entitled to get redundancy and get their welfare payments, and entitled to know what options they have in terms of educ…

My Department is working with the LEOs on a local media campaign to support the "Shop Local" initiatives that are already active across the country. The purpose of this campaign will be to encourage communities to support businesses in their area by shopping locally and safely. Even while under level 5 Covid-19 restrictions where people cannot physically enter certain stores, they can continue to buy from them through remote ordering. Orders can be placed for products, including non-essential items, either online o…

The Deputy is correct. We are trying to ensure that people are aware of these schemes. A local radio campaign will start in the week beginning 19 November for an initial period of two weeks. The campaign will also be activated through the local enterprise offices and local authorities with the support of Enterprise Ireland and local business groups. We particularly want to encourage people to support local businesses, place orders online or over the phone, and to also consider the possibility of home delivery or co…

I appreciate how difficult it must be for retailers, hairdressers, barbers and any business that has been closed during this period for a second time this year. It is extremely difficult for the people who work in and own these businesses. From the Government’s point of view, we would like to be in a position to give people as much certainty as soon as possible. The problem with this virus and the nature of this pandemic is that it is uncertain. We would love to be able to say with certainty to people that they can…

I have regular and ongoing engagement with business representative groups and all relevant stakeholders, particularly in the context of the evolving effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the lives and livelihoods of our people. I have met a full range of business representative groups since the Government decision on the move to level 5. Specifically, on the evening of 19 October, following the Government announcement of the move to level 5, I convened a meeting with some 14 business representative bodies including C…

I thank the Deputy. We have learned a lot from the different lockdowns. Among the big differences between the first one and the second one is that we kept open the schools and childcare on this occasion and we also kept construction and manufacturing going. While we have seen 100,000 more people end up on the pandemic unemployment payment, which is terrible, as a consequence of level 5, it would have been very much higher had we closed construction and manufacturing as well. That would have had consequences also in…