I do not have it in front of me, to be honest. However, the legislative programme was agreed and published by Government on Tuesday. It includes 30 discrete items of legislation that will be published before Christmas and, with the Deputy's co-operation, perhaps even enacted by Christmas. It includes some major legislation. Examples include the climate action Bill, which is a big part of what we are going to prioritise as a Government, an affordable housing Bill, which I know will be important to many people in the…

I thank the Deputy. Everyone in this House appreciates the terrible impact that Covid-19 has had on many people's mental health ranging from worrying about the virus to social isolation to people's loss of their jobs. That is something we specifically mention and put in the Covid plan released on Tuesday. This year, for the first time ever, the budget for mental health will exceed €1 billion, which is a considerable sum of money. From the most recent figures I have seen, although they may be old, as the Deputy said…

I thank Deputy Collins. I understand it was a requirement under European law that we bring in a penalty points-type system for the enforcement of fishery protection law, so it had to come in sooner or later. I understand that the Taoiseach, in his capacity as Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine for a brief period of time, signed those regulations into law. The procedure, as the Deputy knows, is that any statutory instrument can be revoked by this House but it would be up to the Opposition, if it wishes, t…

I thank the Deputies. I will be honest with them and say that I am not an expert on the Bill but I understand that there will be a provision in it for community structures in particular. It is very welcome that the Bill is the policing and community safety Bill. For the first time, we are seeing the words "policing" and "community safety" in the title of legislation and that speaks to the new philosophy around policing into the future. On the issue of fireworks, I very much agree with Deputy Ward. This is an issue …

Unfortunately, case numbers are rising daily in most parts of the country, and Louth is one of the counties of concern. It is important that we never read too much into any one day's numbers. We tend to look at seven-day and 14-day averages for very good reasons.

With regard to the specific question on Drogheda, I will see the chief executive officer of the HSE tomorrow at the Cabinet Covid sub-committee meeting and I will specifically raise the issue of Drogheda with him, precisely because, as Deputies O'Dowd and Munster have pointed out to me, it is a very large town in a county with a rising incidence. Therefore, having a test centre there would be a good idea. I undertake to raise that with the CEO of the HSE tomorrow.

As I mentioned earlier, in the past couple of days we passed the 1 million mark. One million Covid PCR tests have been carried out in Ireland. That is a considerable achievement. Once again, I express my gratitude to and appreciation for the HSE staff and laboratory staff given the work they have done. We do have mobile testing centres. They can be set up quite quickly. One was set up in Castleknock, in my area, not that long ago. We need to be frank with people in that capacity is not unlimited. There are only so …

I am sorry but I do not have information on that.

It is not opposed.

I welcome this opportunity to update the House on the Government’s work to protect jobs and support business during this pandemic. This is precisely my focus as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment: to lead our country through the economic crisis and to help people to get back to work. There are no rules and no manual for this crisis. It is a public health and economic crisis like no other we have seen in our lifetime. Until a vaccine or treatment is widely available, physical distancing, test…

I thank the Deputy for asking this important question and I will do my best to clarify the situation. The HSE commenced a programme of serial testing in meat and food production plants on 21 August. Since then, 13,000 tests have been carried out and 34 cases were detected. The testing of staff at meat and food processing plants has not been cancelled, it has been rescheduled for next week. That decision was made by the HSE. I do not know at what point the various Ministers were informed. The HSE carries out surveil…

I hope the Deputy will respond to the questions I have asked later in the day. We will be happy to make time for that, or for a debate on the matter. Testing demand nearly trebled on Monday compared to last week, with a requirement for over 13,000 tests in the community and 3,000 hospital tests, a total of 16,000 in one day. Capacity is approximately 15,000 per day. While demand has fallen since Monday, it remains quite high and the HSE is going to go ahead with the planned meat plant testing next week. I am inform…

I thank the Deputy. The Cabinet sub-committee on Covid will meet this afternoon and it will be an opportunity for us to receive an update from the Minister for Health and our public health team and consider a draft of our new plan to live with Covid over the course of the next six to nine months. In many ways, the first chapter of dealing with this pandemic was about locking down the country, flattening the curve, saving lives, making sure we had time to build up capacity around testing and tracing to prepare our I…

I thank the Deputy. The winter plan is being developed by the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, and the HSE. I agree with the Deputy's comments that this needs to be done within the next few weeks and not when winter is already upon us. That is the plan and intention of the Government. We do not know what winter will be like. We cannot know for sure to what extent Covid will be an issue during the winter and whether the current number of cases will continue to rise or fall back. We do not know what the …

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I know that a large number of Deputies, particularly in rural constituencies, are getting many representations about school transport, as we always do at this time of year, but they are of a very different nature this year because of the pandemic. It is absolutely the case that there have been positive Covid-19 cases among schoolchildren since schools reopened. Back in August I said that that would be the case. Some people criticised me at the time and said it wa…

I will have to come back to the Deputy in respect of her specific question on Dublin Bus as I do not have that information to hand. Among the actions that the Department of Education and Skills is taking is the provision of grant support to parents to help them with the cost of private transport arrangements where they want it. So far just under 1,000 parents or guardians have contacted the Department in regard to seeking a refund. Under the terms of the school transport scheme, children are eligible for school tra…

I thank the Deputy for raising this question. I believe the former staff of Debenhams have been treated very badly by their employer in the way these redundancies came about, and they have our sympathies. Like many people, I have been impressed by, and respect, the campaign they have waged for nearly 160 days. They have shown extraordinary resilience and real strength but it is also the reason I do not like to see them being promised outcomes that we all know, even though some of us will only admit it privately, ar…

I have engaged with the workers too. I have met them. I have engaged with Mandate, the trade union, and ICTU. I have spoken directly to Debenhams UK and I have sought advice from the Attorney General. The facts that I have are different from the facts the Deputy has. The basic fundamental facts differ as follows. Clerys was a very different situation. There was a very substantial and valuable asset, a building on O'Connell Street, and its owners were able to make an ex gratia settlement to the workers. In this case…

I formally congratulate the Leas-Cheann Comhairle on her recent election. I know she will do a fabulous job. I thank Deputy Doherty for raising this important question. All of us know from our personal lives, people we know or constituents who come to us with their problems and difficulties how big an issue this is. Children are waiting for too long to get an assessment. We know that more than 6,000 have been waiting for more than six months to get the assessment of needs they need. It puts a lot of stress on them …

I thank the Deputy. I cannot possibly comment on court cases on which I have no information. Even if I had information, I probably could not comment on them either. Certainly anybody is entitled to take a case to court but we all appreciate this issue will not be resolved in the courts. It would not be right to give preference to people who go to court as opposed to those who do not. This is not a problem that will be solved through court cases or by paying lawyers' fees. This is a problem that if it can be solved …