The Minister was given time to answer questions and not one question was answered.

I pay tribute to the men and women in the Construction Defects Alliance, the mica campaigners, the pyrite campaigners, and all the people who have had the courage to come forward and speak out. It is really tough for them. There are 100,000 homes impacted by this, including a number of estates in my area. I am not going to name them, not because their names are not in the public domain - they kind of already are - but because there are people there trying to sell their homes. I spoke to a young couple recently. The…

The proposed changes to the appointment process for ordinary members and an interim chairperson of An Bord Pleanála are of significant concern. Sinn Féin totally opposes them. The Minister is seeking to centralise the power of appointment in a way that will further undermine the independence of the board. Although we will not agree on much, we can all agree that confidence in the board is paramount. This is coming at a time when the board is already in a state of crisis and public confidence is at a very low ebb. S…

It is your motion.

Tonight I have witnessed some uncomfortable Members on the Government benches and the lads all know what they have to do. They must defend their man or face an election. That is what has brought them in here because there could not be support for the record of this Minister on those benches. It is either that or the Government Deputies do not hold constituency clinics, answer the phone or look at their emails. If they did they would know what it is like for people out there and they would understand why we are oppo…

All my questions are reasonably straightforward and this one is no different. It refers to a report, Low Paid Older Workers in Ireland: A Quantitative and Qualitative profile of Low Pay Among Workers Aged Over 50, which makes for fairly stark reading. While they do not relate to all workers aged over 50 years, the report raises concerns. I would welcome the Minister's views on it.

The research was, indeed, interesting. I join the Minister in acknowledging the work of Dr. Collins and Dr. Elliott O'Dare and their teams. The specific aspects I would like to raise with the Minister concern the number of participants who believe the pay they receive is inadequate and the manner in which the living wage will seek to address this. The adequacy of pension income is a serious factor influencing older workers' choice to take up or remain in low-paid employment. A point that is interesting and valuable…

I appreciate, as the Minister does, that older people work for a variety of reasons, but that does not mean they should not be fairly paid for the work they do. The Tánaiste announced the living wage will be benchmarked at 60% rather than 66%. I think it should be 66%. We should have a realistic and credible plan to move in that direction because that is the only way those affected will be taken out of poverty. I am glad the Tánaiste accepts low pay is not just, or mainly, a feature of the lives of younger workers.…

This is a very straightforward question. The question relates to research by Wise Business, a global fintech group, which found that 70% of SMEs in Ireland fear they may have to close in 2023 due to rising costs. Will the Minister outline the supports that are available for businesses and when they will be coming on stream? Has he read this report and are the results of it concerning to him in any way?

Will the Minister give a definitive date for when the first payment will be made? I am aware that the scheme is open but people are anxious to know when they will get the payments. The survey from Wise Business covered 250 businesses. What they are reporting is worrying. Notwithstanding some positives in the survey, and while I do not wish to focus on the negative, they raise the concern that two thirds of SMEs believe there is a possibility they will have to close within the next year, while just one in three beli…

On the expansion of the rate of payments under the TBESS, is the 40% coverage of additional costs as far as the Government can go? I have pushed the Minister of State, Deputy English, a little on this question previously. I ask this because the current difficulties being experienced by Irish businesses, particularly SMEs and family businesses, are fairly significant. They need to know there will be flexibility in the event they need to go further on it. I am seeking from the Minister an assurance that this can be d…

I thank the Deputies for bringing forward this very timely, and as my colleague has alluded to, very well put together motion. Before I came in, I spoke to the principal of a primary school and she told me that the reality is that they cannot teach children without teachers yet teachers are being exported daily. She told me that without substitute teachers being available, she is constantly having to split classes or as a last resort, cancel learning support meaning they cannot make good the gaps left by Covid-19. …

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to say a few words. Let us be honest: this debate would not have come about if Sinn Féin had not sought it. It is a pretty sad state of affairs that we had to request a debate on this matter, and on the broader issue of what is being done with this Bill. An amendment is being inserted into the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill, which in effect inserts a whole new piece of legislation into this Bill on its final Stage. It inserts what should be …

Should we wait a moment and call them?

We cannot call them in that case.

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to contribute. It is good that we are debating this Bill and that we have reached this point. It would be a shame if we did not get it right at the last minute. The question we must ask ourselves is whether the Minister's amendments will live up to what Vicky Phelan and other campaigners would have wanted to be part of the legislation. If the answer is "No", then the Minister needs to recognise that and go back to the drawing board. All Deputies want to work wit…

Speaking as someone who uses the service, I want to know as a right where there are issues. The Minister might clarify, but my understanding is that, if the anonymous programmatic audit he mentioned had been in place in 2014, Lorraine Walsh, Vicky Phelan and all the others would not have been informed of the discordant slides. We need to remember that this situation came about through someone looking at her file. She opened the file, saw something in it and pursued it. That is not the right way to find out such inf…

I welcome the Minister being open to amending this legislation. Without meaning to point fingers, or anything like that, this may be some acknowledgement that a bit more time is going to be needed to get this right. I am minded to recall what was said earlier regarding Stephen Teap and Lorraine Walsh. They have said that this legislation does not pass what was referred to as the Vicky test. If it is the case that we are agreed that we can work together, and it was said I do not know how many times during this debat…

I have a question for the Minister on this. Is it intended that the code of practice be developed by his Department or by the Labour Employer Economic Forum, LEEF? Will his Department be attending the LEEF or how is that going to work?

May I say a word on it?