The Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, said this morning that he is happy to meet again, listen to and engage with the 221+ group. It is his judgment then as to whether the Government would make a decision on Tuesday to defer the establishment of the tribunal. Obviously, I will be guided by him in that regard. Bear in mind that it is being established as an alternative to go to court for those who want it. Nobody has ever suggested, or is suggesting, that somebody would not be able to court if the person…

I thank the Deputy for raising this sensitive issue. It is an ongoing issue and many people have taken an interest in it in recent weeks, including Senator Currie, members of the Labour Party and others. I recognise the constructive and measured approach the Labour Party has taken in recent weeks with regard to the country trying to deal with this Covid crisis. The Deputy has taken the time to attend all the briefings, to speak to the Taoiseach afterwards and to take a position on whether we should go to level 4 or…

I thank the Deputy. I will certainly check that out or ask the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, to do so. The person concerned will be applying for both maternity benefit and child benefit. In most cases, that is when people get their PSC if they do not have one already. I am not sure what arrangements exist at the moment to facilitate people who do not have a PSC and cannot travel to an Intreo centre but I am happy to look into the matter.

It is very hard to be sure of things at this time. One thing I am sure of is that Christmas will not be cancelled. It will still be a public holiday. It will still be a religious festival. Christmas mass will still be said. Santa will still arrive and put presents under the tree. I am sure that families will still be able to meet up. It just might not be the Christmas that we are used to in terms of having parties and doing other things that we would like to do.

Christmas mass will of course be said. Deputy Lowry asked if we are always rethinking and varying our strategy. We are. Anyone who speaks with absolute certainty about the coronavirus is probably bluffing. We have learned a lot about this virus, and we have a lot yet to learn about it. We have learned a lot about how to handle a pandemic, and we have a lot yet to learn about it. We are always rethinking and varying our strategy as facts change and as new evidence becomes available. Bed capacity is always a concern.…

The Government's priority is to protect and support the education of all students, including student nurses and midwives. Student nurses are paid in their fourth, or pre-registration year, but not in earlier years. The process of student nurses and midwives training to meet educational standards and requirements involves a supernumerary clinical placement and this places them on the front line for certain periods during each year of their training. This is considered to be a form of work experience. The Minister fo…

I am afraid I do not have any information about the nursing home he raised or the current situation there. The Deputy will forgive me if it is not possible for me to comment on or answer his questions without knowing any of the facts. I will certainly make inquiries about it. Without knowing anything about the nursing home or anything about what is happening there, it would be inappropriate for me to try to answer questions about something about which I have no knowledge. What I do know is that the HSE has put in m…

I do not doubt the Deputy's sincerity or veracity for a moment but this is not an issue that I know about I do not know even the name of the nursing home. If the Deputy wants to provide me with more information, I will certainly make contact with the CEO of the HSE about it and follow up on it.

Deputy Fitzmaurice raised this issue only moments ago. I do not have any information about the particular nursing home but I will certainly look into it. I will contact the HSE personally and see what can be done.

As I understand it, since the start of the year, the number of people working in our public health service has increased by 5,000, a pretty big increase in any given year. This comprises approximately 800 extra nurses and midwives, as well as 800 extra doctors. We now have more doctors and more consultants working in our public health service than ever before. Up to 1,600 therapists and allied health professionals have also been recruited. It is true that there may be people on different grades and different contra…

I am afraid I am not familiar with that particular research. Legislation approved by the Cabinet last night and to be brought forward will ban evictions during this level 5 period. There are, of course, some exceptions such as anti-social behaviour or where criminal acts are involved. The research that I have seen shows that evictions in Ireland are relatively uncommon compared to other countries. Notices to quit may be more common but actual evictions in Ireland where people are evicted on foot of a court order ar…

As the Deputy knows, the incubation period for this virus is 14 days so any cases that arose in the past five to 14 days would likely have arisen in any case, regardless of whether the Government had gone to level 3, 4 or 5. To answer the Deputy's question, the main focus has been on serial testing and carrying out regular testing in nursing homes to identify staff and residents who may be infected early so we can identify those outbreaks and deal with them much more quickly than would be the case in places where t…

I thank the Deputy for raising the matter and I will absolutely look into it once I am finished in the Chamber today. I am reassured to hear Deputy Naughten say the Minister for Health is already on the case, which is important. Much has been done and more is being done than was the case in spring in the protection of nursing homes. This includes serial testing, personal protective equipment, additional funding and staff but the sad reality that we must all face is that if the virus is circulating at high levels in…

I fully endorse Deputy Durkan's remarks. He is absolutely right and what happens in the next couple of weeks is very much in our hands as a nation and society. We can push back this virus with our actions over the next couple of weeks, thereby protecting ourselves, each other and particularly those most at risk in our society. I am aware the hare coursing issue has been raised in the past couple of days. This was certainly a topic of discussion at the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party meeting last night. There is an ex…

I have been in many marts but the Deputy is correct in that such visits served electoral purposes. I have yet to have the opportunity to buy or sell a beast in a mart. Perhaps that time will come. We will look into this for the Deputy. At the start of the spring lockdown, marts were pretty much closed but we made arrangements to allow them to operate precisely for the reasons the Deputy suggests, including animal welfare and to ensure sales did not happen away from marts. We will check up on that and see what we ca…

I thank the Deputies. Travel agents are required to close under level 4 or level 5 restrictions, so they were covered by the Covid restrictions support scheme from midnight last night. Whether they are covered under level 3 is a matter for debate, but that no longer matters as we are now under level 5. As such, travel agents are covered. They will now receive the weekly Covid restrictions support scheme payment because they were required to close their premises under level 4 and level 5 restrictions. I have been in…

I thank the Deputy. The HSE is adding about 70 staff to its contact tracing teams each week. The tracing staff are very busy and are under a lot of pressure. They had to deal with a real surge in cases in the last couple of days. That recruitment is happening. We anticipate having hundreds of staff on a permanent basis contact tracing within the next couple of weeks. Off the top of my head I do not know whether or not there will be dedicated teams for school tracing. I had not heard that, but it may well be the cas…

I thank Deputy Nash. I think he is spot on. I met with representatives of the retail industry yesterday alongside the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English. We outlined the rules and received the industry's assurance that it would abide not only by the letter but by the spirit of the rules If a supermarket or other store is allowed to open that is because it sells essential products like groceries or workwear. Shops are not allowed to open so they can sell other products. For example, toyshops are closed at the …

As far as I know the leaving certificate resits will go ahead. Schools are going to stay open, so I imagine the exams will go ahead as planned. If there is any change we will certainly alert the House. The appeals process was a useful exercise for the 18 students that got an upgrade, though not for the vast majority of students who appealed. There was a very different leaving certificate system this time. In previous years an appeal would have involved re-examining an exam paper and marking it again. The authoritie…

I thank the Deputy. I will have to ask the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to respond to him.