The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, is working with the Attorney General on a solution to this issue. It arises from a court decision that essentially states there is a dissonance between what is stated in the legislation and what the regulations do. I expect that, at the very least, it will require an amendment to the legislation or the regulations. The Minister is currently working on that.

The Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, and the Labour Court, which are agencies of my Department, are always available to intervene in such matters. I am not familiar with the details of the dispute, but if there is a willingness on either side to go to the WRC or the Labour Court, those agencies under my remit stand ready to assist.

The budget provides for a significant increase in spending on education and staffing levels next year, including a reduction in the staff-pupil ratio by one in primary schools, in addition to the €5 million fund mentioned by the Deputy. I will have to ask the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, to revert to the Deputy with details in that regard. I think I know the details but I would probably get them wrong if I blurted them out now. I will ask the Minister to revert to the Deputy.

There has never been more funding for school transport either, but obviously we are in a complicated scenario given the requirement to reduce numbers and have social distancing and so forth on buses. I will ask the Minister for Education to revert to the Deputies on their specific comments.

No.

No.

The Government values the role of SMEs and microenterprises in our economy and as creators of employment throughout Ireland. Balancing our enterprise policy between foreign direct investment, FDI, export-only businesses and non-exporting indigenous firms is an important policy consideration and one which was touched upon by the OECD in its 2019 report on entrepreneurship and SME policy in Ireland. The OECD report refers to 250,000 active enterprises in Ireland, of which 92% are very small businesses with ten employ…

The idea of a new agency is certainly something I have an open mind on. A lot of business people I talk to say they feel there is a gap. When a business is very small, it can get help from the local enterprise offices and, when it is a bit larger or is an exporter, from Enterprise Ireland, but there is a gap in between. The question is whether we fill that gap by expanding the role of Enterprise Ireland or the local enterprise offices or whether we set up a new agency to fill the gap. There is an important constrai…

I do not really have anything to add to what I said earlier but I join the Deputy in acknowledging in particular the work InterTradeIreland does on cross-Border trade. We have provided that agency with extra funding for next year. I am keen to engage and work closely with my counterpart in the North, the Minister for the Economy, Ms Diane Dodds MLA, with whom I have already met, to see what is possible and what we can do on an all-island economy basis and to use that agency to its full potential as it is one that h…

I am committed to bringing in a statutory sick pay scheme for Ireland as part of my work programme for next year. Such a scheme would improve workers' terms and conditions, particularly low paid workers, but there are various issues to consider before we establish the scheme. As a starting point, I presented a draft issues paper on statutory sick pay to the labour employer economic forum, LEEF, sub-group on employment legislation and regulation on Wednesday, 30 September, with a view to commencing a consultation pr…

I thank the Deputy. I will have to defer to the Minister, Deputy McGrath, on the public sector side. What was in the budget was the reduction in the number of days to wait for illness benefit from six days to three days. This benefits employees and employers. If people are sick for any reason other than Covid they will now qualify for illness benefit on the fourth day rather than the seventh day, which was the case previously. I intend to bring it back to one or two days next year. This will benefit employees who a…

Having had the experience of being a member of Fingal County Council and being stuck behind a tractor not too far from Skerries I can understand how sometimes it can delay journeys. As our country continues to navigate Covid-19, remote working has become more important than ever before. This is reflected in the programme for government, which contains commitments aimed at facilitating remote work across Ireland. The programme for government recognises that remote work can provide benefits in terms of regional devel…

There are many ways in which the pandemic will change our world. One of these is how it has turned the world on its head when it comes to remote working and home working. What has happened over recent months as a consequence of the pandemic probably would have taken us ten years as a planned strategy. When we were writing the programme for government we were thinking about how we would retain what we have gained in terms of home working and remote working. Within a few months, we were wondering whether we would eve…

The Deputy is absolutely correct. The kinds of legislative change we need to think about include the right to request remote working or homeworking; the right to disconnect, so that the employee is not always at work when at home, which could be oppressive for people; and the risk to the country of losing people who currently live and work in Ireland to remote working from, perhaps, the Canary Islands, Ibiza, Poland or India. That is a risk to us in terms of losing jobs and revenue, so we need to be wise to it too.…

As Tánaiste and Minister with responsibility for enterprise, trade and employment, my focus is to lead our country through the economic crisis that has been caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. My Department and the enterprise agencies under my remit are doing everything possible to sustain businesses and get our people safely back to work in all parts of our country. IDA Ireland has been working closely with Roche ever since its decision to close the Clarecastle facility in 2015. I recognise the interest that Deputies…

I thank the Deputy. In November 2015, Roche Holding announced it would close the facility in Clarecastle, following a review of its worldwide manufacturing network for small molecules. Since then, IDA Ireland has been actively promoting the site to existing clients and potential investors. As the Deputy knows, the IDA engages regularly with key stakeholders on the ground across County Clare, including local authorities, public bodies, the education sector and companies from its client base. The July stimulus packag…

There is great potential in the mid-west for future investment by life science companies, medical technology companies and the pharmaceutical industry. I had the honour of being at Regeneron in Limerick with the Taoiseach only a few weeks ago. A considerable investment is happening there with the creation of nearly 1,000 jobs. I can see more investment like that happening in Limerick and Clare. Part of what was announced in the July stimulus package was a new state aid funding package for life science investments. …

To answer the Deputy's questions, the restart grant has, in many ways, now been superseded by the budget announcement on Tuesday of the Covid restrictions subsidy scheme, CRSS, which will provide a weekly grant to businesses that are closed as a result of Government orders relating to the pandemic, with the proviso that they may operate at a very reduced turnover, that is, they are down 80% on where they were last year. The restart grant plus is a critically important tool to support micro and small businesses to r…

I thank the Deputy. I know this is of significant interest to him, in particular given his constituency of Cork South-West which is, was and should again be a great tourism constituency with many hotels and bed and breakfasts which are now really struggling. The restart grant plus is funded through my Department, but we decided when it comes to bed and breakfasts the most sensible thing would be to administer the scheme through Fáilte Ireland, as that is the Government body that knows bed and breakfasts best. The d…

I thank the Deputy. I will have to double check the figure. Quite a few details will need to be ironed out in respect of this particular scheme. Some 98% of businesses in Ireland have a turnover of less than €1 million. This scheme is very much aimed at the SME sector. As I understand it, it involves 10% of the first €1 million and 5% of the second €1 million up to a maximum grant of €5,000 per week. It applies to companies that have turnovers of €4 million, €5 million or €6 million, but they can only claim for the…