If my memory serves me correctly, the carer's allowance, although it was not increased this year, was increased last year. I think it was also increased each of the three years before that. The respite care grant, which was turned into the carer support grant, was restored back to what it was prior to the last financial crisis. On tax credits, I will come back to the Deputy. That is a matter for the Minister for Finance but we will consider an increase for the budget in October.

I thank the Deputy. This is an issue I am familiar with and it has been going on for a long time. We would very much like to see a solution to this issue, but I do not think that solution will be a legislative one. The relevant Labour Court recommendation called on the employer at the time to establish a pension scheme. The State is not the employer of CE scheme supervisors and, therefore, it was not our responsibility to establish a scheme. Of course, had there been a scheme, it would have been expected that the s…

The legislation we will introduce next week will not make that distinction, but I do not rule out the possibility, further down the line, of having different rules for different regions and different parts of Ireland. However, this is not straightforward. If we open pubs in one part of the country, we will see people travelling from other parts to where the measures are less restrictive. We need to bear that in mind. Counties in Ireland are not like states in Australia or the länder in Germany. Ireland is a small c…

No.

I thank Deputy O’Reilly for this important and timely question. I congratulate her on her appointment as Sinn Féin spokesperson for enterprise trade and employment. I look forward to tangling with her for the next two and a half years. In June, the High Court found that SI 251/2019 was made outside of the powers of the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2015. It was also found that the legislative framework governing the sectoral employment process is unconstitutional. In the judge’s ruling, it is explained that …

The last Government and the one before it increased the minimum wage four times, having reversed the earlier cut in the minimum wage. Notwithstanding the earlier comments of the Deputy's party leader, we increased the minimum wage to one of the highest levels in the European Union and to a much higher level than that in Northern Ireland, where the Deputy's party is in power. Legislation to introduce new sectoral minima is problematic because the High Court has found that this House and the Government of the time ac…

What we need is for the Supreme Court to hear this case quickly because there is little point in us bringing in legislation that is equally unfirm and could be struck down. We will be seeking an early hearing by the Supreme Court so that this issue can be clarified. In the meantime, the terms and conditions of those on existing contracts cannot be reduced unilaterally. There is an issue, which the Deputy has identified, where people are changing employer or starting a new contract. They will still be covered by the…

As I mentioned earlier, this case is going to be appealed to both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, with a view to going straight to the Supreme Court in order that we can have an adjudication as soon as possible. The difficulty we have is that because this section of the legislation has been struck down as unconstitutional, it is questionable as to whether this House can bring in sector-specific minimum wages, pension arrangements or terms and conditions. With that power in question, all we can do is brin…

What we are doing to demonstrate that we have the backs of electrical contractors and workers on this issue is appealing the High Court decision. We do not have to appeal it but we are choosing to appeal it because we think it is the right thing to do. We will look at the legislation produced. I have not seen the Bill yet, but we will examine it. Deputy Ó Ríordáin has been a Minister and he has served in government. He knows that no Government can bring in legislation that is unconstitutional. Producing legislation…

There is a big difference between intent and sincerity on the one hand and virtue signalling and critical messaging on the other. One is good and the other is phony. We will look at the legislation Deputy Nash has produced. We did look at the Bill he produced before Christmas, which was unconstitutional. We will give the Bill serious consideration and see if it is defective or not. What we have on behalf of the Government is intent and sincerity. I do not know what we have from the Labour Party. We will see whether…

I thank the Deputy for raising once again the important matter of insolvency and how it impacts on the rights of workers, creditors and others at this time. The procedures for liquidations are set out in the Part 11 of the Companies Act 2014. In general terms, a company is permitted to initiate a winding-up where it has complied with the requirements of the Companies Act 2014. A company both during normal operation and in a winding-up process must of course also abide by all relevant legal requirements, including t…

I have met some of the Debenhams workers already about this matter although I have not met them through their trade union. I am certainly happy to consider any meeting request. It is important to say that the Debenhams staff who were laid off should get their redundancy and they will. Even if it has to come out of the Social Insurance Fund they should get it. I know that they have not gotten it yet but redundancy payments are suspended at the moment because of Covid. That should not stop them getting their redundan…

I am not sure whether that stock belongs to Debehams, to concessionaires or a bit of both but that is neither here nor there. It is important to say that a company cannot just declare itself insolvent. A company has to initiate a liquidation while insolvent and it cannot do so by voluntary liquidation, it must apply to the High Court. It may be that these matters have yet to be heard in the courts and that is where they will be determined.

Extensive modelling and analysis were undertaken for the three Economic Considerations for Reinstating Economic Activity papers developed by my Department at phases 1, 2 and 3 of the Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business. These three papers, which are available on my Department's website gov.ie, were developed in conjunction with the Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and provide an assessment of the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Some other Departments also pr…

I thank the Deputy. The truth is, as the Deputy will acknowledge, that any analysis and projection as to how Covid will impact on our economy is a good educated guess. Nobody really knows how long this pandemic will go on for, how many waves there may or may not be or what they will look like. It is everyone's best guess as to what the impact will be but it is better to have some analysis and projection than none. We have to be honest with people that the analysis could change significantly over the coming months, …

I might be wrong but I think it was all done in-house and drew on existing papers and other papers from the European Central Bank, Copenhagen Economics and Oxford University. We had the report from Copenhagen Economics on Brexit and the Oxford work on Covid. I think it was done in-house with the assistance of external reports but not with external consultancy. If I am wrong about that I will come back to the Deputy and let her know.

I thank Deputy Devlin for raising this important question. As Tánaiste and Minister with responsibility for enterprise, trade and employment, I am committed to playing my part to get businesses reopened and to provide grant aid, advice and access to finance as we work to get businesses open and people back to work. A crucial part of this work will involve getting our SMEs back to capacity as soon as possible. So far the Government has introduced a €12 billion package for firms of all sizes. This includes the tempor…

As for moving to phase 4 and allowing pubs and, I think, nightclubs, casinos and a few other entertainment businesses to reopen, it is likely a decision on this will be made by the Cabinet tomorrow evening, following advice from NPHET. I cannot yet say whether the decision will be in the affirmative or the negative, but it will be made most likely tomorrow evening at our Cabinet meeting. That would give those sectors the best part of a few days to prepare. I hope it will be possible for them to reopen. I know there…

I hope that Deputy Devlin is correct and that 90% of people get back to work. I think he is correct that a proportion will not be able to return to their old jobs, if only because the companies they had been working for will not succeed or the sectors for which they were working will struggle. It is important we have alternatives for those people, whether new jobs in areas such as housing construction, the care sector or green energy or other opportunities such as apprenticeships, higher education options, back-to-…

The restart grant was launched on 22 May and is a critically important tool to assist small businesses in reopening their doors. Grant payments range from a minimum of €2,000 to a maximum of €10,000. The scheme was devised in recognition of the fact that microbusinesses and small businesses were and are particularly vulnerable to the economic effects of Covid-19. Using funding allocated by my Department to Enterprise Ireland for the scheme, local authorities are the granting authorities in each of their respective …