I will follow up on it. I really hope that nobody in the House is trying to sow concern or worry among people who are in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment. People who are in receipt of the payment will continue to get it beyond 8 June. I can give that assurance to the House. The economy is only now slowly opening up. The payment will have to be extended. Nobody needs to worry. As Members know, the pandemic unemployment payment expires if a recipient is offered his or her job back, but with that proviso. …

None of those decisions has to be made now. They may well be decisions for the next Government and may require a further Revised Estimate in the future. Over the course of the next week or two we will need Revised Estimates for a lot of Departments, but they will be brought to the House on a no-policy change basis because as much as possible we want any new policy decisions to be made by the next Government, but sometimes we do not have any choice. As the various parties that claim to want to form a Government have…

I am happy to commit to asking the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to give Members a briefing, but she is not here and I am here for the next two hours. After I leave this House in two hours I will ask her if she is available for a briefing. If she is, Members will get one. I have no reason to think she is not available, but I do not know that with absolute certainty.

I was about to make that point. It has always been the case - at least for as long as I have been in the House - that the Government decides which Ministers come in. It is often that a different Minister comes in but it is always the case a Minister is there. On the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HPSC, guidance, for the benefit of Deputy Boyd Barrett, it is actually both, namely, 15 minutes in close proximity or two hours in the same space. We are, however, all feeling our way through an unprecedented scena…

It would be much harder to hold Ministers to account if they are self-isolating in a room for 14 days. Perhaps there is a practical solution to this. The Minister, Regina Doherty, is happy to take the Supplementary Estimate. I do not understand why it will take six hours given that it is a straightforward, no-policy change, Supplementary Estimate. She is happy to do it, however. The logical thing to do is that she does two hours here and then move directly to the committee room to do the rest from there. Then we ca…

We are happy to do that.

On a point of order, what are the arrangements for later?

Monday was one of our brighter days since the start of this emergency as we reached a significant milestone. For the first time in 65 days, there were no reported Covid-19 deaths, evidence that our sacrifices are making a difference and that lives are being saved and protected. Last night, the figure was nine deaths, a tragic and timely reminder that this is not over and that we will have days of sadness as well as days of hope ahead before we prevail. I know this has been a painful struggle for people across our i…

I am not sure I picked up on the exact questions but I will address some of the Deputy's points. As the House knows with regard to maternity benefit, women who were still on the payroll prior to the pandemic when they went on maternity leave can be included on the wage subsidy scheme. However, women who were not on the payroll and were only in receipt of maternity benefit cannot. We are trying to find a solution to that. Much work has been carried out by the Minister for Finance and the Revenue Commissioners. A sol…

What is intended with ISIF is that €2 billion has been set aside for the fund to invest in Irish companies that run into trouble in order to save them from failing and, most importantly, to save the jobs of the people working in those companies. That will be done through equity investments. We would expect companies to pursue all other options first - to look to their own shareholders, loans and other such options before coming to the taxpayer to invest. However, other governments are doing it and we may need to do…

I thank the Deputy. He started by talking about funerals. I know this is a really difficult issue for many people and families, where only ten people are allowed to attend the funeral. I have spoken to some people who had to make that awful decision of choosing which ten and then explaining to the 11th, 12th or 13th person why he or she could not be there. I think we have all seen the scenes of people gathering in a car park or along the street, which is sometimes touching but also really painful. We understand tha…

On antibody testing, the latest I have heard, and I might not be fully up to date on all these things, is that HIQA and NPHET are not satisfied that any of the tests available are currently accurate enough to use. There are too many false positives and false negatives, and HIQA has published a health technology assessment on that. Once we have antibody tests that are accurate, they could be used. Approval has been given for a zero prevalence survey using antibody tests but that is very different. It will not give a…

I am not sure if it is possible to get a political consensus on the 1 m or 2 m guidance or the two-hour close contact rule. If there is a place to do that, it probably is the Covid committee that has been established. The committee seems to be working well and is very representative of the Dáil. I do not think it is something for the party leaders to be honest. Obviously some Members represent big parties that have a lot of political support while some are small and some are not parties at all. The right place to d…

I am not aware of anyone who is considering cutting Lisa's payment, if I accurately picked up the Deputy's description of her case. It sounds like she was earning €300 or €400 a week, and nobody I am aware of is considering cutting the pandemic unemployment payment in that circumstance, and certainly not in the near future when we are still in the early phases of the pandemic. I have not heard anyone expressing horror at people getting €350 a week. I am the head of the Government that introduced this payment, which…

We are saying that that is not sustainable and is not what was intended in the first place, though it was done for the right reasons.

The Deputy is making a different argument, that everyone should be paid the exact same no matter what job they do. I appreciate that is his political position but it is not one shared by many people in this country. When we discuss tapering, it is important to bear in mind that the only people who are now getting less than they were earning before the pandemic are those who earned more than €350 a week. Someone who was earning €700, €600 or €500 a week is now receiving the reduced payment of €350. Separate to that,…

I am willing to live on whatever salary I am given for the job I am doing; that is how these things work. I appreciate that the Deputy's argument is that everyone should be paid the same but he does not say what that would be or how that would be funded. It is the Deputy's choice to take such an action and if he wants to demonstrate that, he should do it.

I cannot confirm or deny that. I do not have the report in front of me, although it was published either on Friday last or on the Friday before. If the Deputy has heard what I have said about this publicly on a number of occasions, I have acknowledged that there are people who would be better off on ordinary long-standing welfare payments than on the pandemic unemployment payment. There are people who were part-time workers in January and February who are better off on the pandemic unemployment payment. There are a…

I thank the Deputy. I agree with him on the overall point. If we can front-load bog rehabilitation, we should. It would be a great thing to do. It would secure jobs in Bord na Móna. It would also help to restore our natural heritage and promote tourism. The question the Government is grappling with now is that of how to fund it. The carbon tax revenues for 2020 have already been ring-fenced for particular circumstances. I am aware that the Minister is considering repurposing the Bord na Móna PSO for rehabilitation-…

I do not have those dates. It is reasonable to ask for them so I will check with the Minister and either he or I will contact the Deputy once I know what those dates are. I do know that the €11 million just transition fund for the midlands is there even if the ESB's €5 million has not yet arrived. The money is there and it is ring-fenced for just transition in the midlands. The Minister opened the call for applications last Friday. We should not waste any time in this regard.