I thank the Minister of State. That explanation is very helpful because bypassing the recommendations on the temporary partial credit guarantee scheme seemed to be out of step with where I thought the Government might be. While I am not trying to put words in the Minister of State's mouth, he is basically saying this is to comply with existing rules. I know the Minister of State is not suggesting it, but just for the avoidance of any doubt this amendment was not tabled in an effort to frustrate or elongate the proc…

I move amendment No. 2: In page 4, between lines 30 and 31, to insert the following: “(5) The Minister shall, ensure that monies loaned in accordance with the Ukraine credit guarantee scheme shall— (a) be loaned interest free with zero repayments for the first 12 months of the loan, and (b) cap interest rates on such loans at 2.5 per cent.”.”. The interest rates charged on the loans are normal business loan rates from the respective banks with an additional charge which comes because of the Government guarantee. Th…

The Minister of State is saying that the imposition of a cap would exclude the credit unions. While he might not have it here, does he have information on how many loans have been issued by the credit unions under the other schemes? Are they intrinsically involved? My understanding was it was mostly the main banks. I appreciate the point the Minister of State has made. Notwithstanding that I intend to press the amendment. The banks will do a lot of heavy lifting on this. The purpose of the scheme is to ensure that …

I thank my colleague, Deputy Brady, for all of his work. I welcome the men and women of the retained fire service who are here with us and the many more who are watching. Every Deputy who has spoken has recognised the same point, that is, that there are many people who cannot be here by virtue of the fact that they are on call. They have to be close to their home places so that they can protect their communities. The Minister of State sought to give us a little lecture on what he did and did not think was reasonabl…

I welcome the opportunity to make a contribution to the debate today. I am very privileged to represent an incredibly diverse constituency. I genuinely believe the diversity we have in Fingal is a massive strength for my area and for our communities. I encourage the Minister to engage with her Government colleagues and remind them of the leadership role they have and must embrace within our constituency. There was a house fire in my area recently. I will not identify where it was. A woman and her young family were …

I thank the Minister of State and his officials for their engagement on this. Of course there is nobody here to see it, but it is one example of when we work together we work very well and can get stuff done. I do not have any amendments to this section. Amendments Nos. 2 and 3 are grouped. They are not massively dissimilar. That does not mean I oppose the Minister of State's amendment; rather, I feel Deputy Shanahan's amendment is stronger. I am minded to support it and abstain on the Minister of State's amendment…

As I said, I support the idea it would be done by the Minister. That is a good thing. However, there seem to be some mechanisms of that which still have to be worked out, including how it is going to happen and when. We all know the power we have to compel a Minister. It is small when one is in opposition, and the Minister of State knows this. We can reserve the right to be in a bad mood about it but if we do not have the numbers there is nothing we can do about it, so the Minister of State should not be pretending…

I will be shocked if I take 15 minutes, as will everybody else in the Chamber. I promise I will not try to do so. I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. The Bill is short and fairly technical but, as the Minister of State outlined, it will, when passed, have significant ramifications for business. Its purpose is to make certain amendments to the Credit Guarantee Act 2012 to support the needs of business to access additional finance in response to the economic challenges resulting from Russia's illegal i…

It is 15 years since I first engaged with politicians in relation to the issue of home carers and home helps. I was representing them at the time and we warned politicians that there was a crisis coming in home care because of the terms and conditions of employment and because of the privatisation which, as the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, will be aware, fired the starting gun for the race to the bottom. There is nobody in this House or anywhere else who will dispute that home helps and home carers are good va…

The question relates to the corporate sustainability due diligence COM (2022) 71. It is an extremely important proposal, which I believe we need to get right. From the hearings we have had and the small piece of research into this that I have done I believe there is a real opportunity for us to get this right and make a difference.

I thank the Minister of State. It was promised that this directive on corporate sustainability due diligence would ensure that EU companies undertook due diligence and checks along their full supply lines to prevent environmental abuses and human rights violations. The aims behind the directive were welcomed by progressive politicians, trade unionists, environmental groups and human rights groups. As it stands, however, unfortunately the law falls far short of what is needed to protect workers, communities and our …

Human rights abuses are never appropriate and no company is immune to engaging in them regardless of its size. Sorcha Tunney, the co-ordinator for the Irish Coalition for Business and Human Rights, stated recently "We need to take forced labour, deforestation and oil spills out of our shopping baskets once and for all, but this proposal just doesn't go far enough and is riddled with loopholes." The current guidelines as they stand will exclude 99% of companies. Only 1% of companies will be included. The reality is …

The Tánaiste will have received the recommendations made by the high-level group on collective bargaining and industrial relations. Has preparatory work begun to incorporate these recommendations into legislation given that, as we know, the European Council has given the green light to the EU directive on adequate minimum wages and collective bargaining on 4 October?

I want to join with the Tánaiste in thanking the members of the group. I want to particularly thank Patricia King, the outgoing general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, a former colleague and, indeed, a very good friend of mine. I wish her well in her retirement. I also wish Owen Reidy, the incoming general secretary, well. He has much work to do. The Tánaiste’s answer does not fill me with an awful lot of optimism that this will get moving quickly. We need to expand the percentage of workers who ar…

We need to move quickly on this. As the Tánaiste stated, trade union density is at a low level and that means protection for workers is at a low level because the two things are interlinked. An issue that is not expressly related to this but on which the Tánaiste and I have corresponded previously is that agencies that are funded by the Government are also ignoring Labour Court recommendations when they do not have the funds to respond. That makes a mockery of the system. The quicker we can move to a system of coll…

I join the Deputy in urging the Government to take action on this as quickly as possible. It is not all vessels and it is not all employers. Where it happens, however, it is awful. We have people working 17 hours a day in unconscionably awful conditions. They are extremely vulnerable. These are migrant workers. It is already tough for workers who work on land and who might have access to some resources to vindicate their rights at work. It is nearly next to impossible for workers at sea - people who are extremely v…

I thank People Before Profit for the opportunity to speak and for bringing forward the motion. Government policy has brought us here, in case the Minister of State is in any doubt. It has not happened by accident. What has been described, quite rightly, by Uachtarán na hÉireann as a housing disaster has been caused by six years of Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael policy. The Minister of State will know the Green Party did not exactly leave the housing market in decent shape when it last exited Government, so it shares some of…

I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach for the opportunity to say a few words. I only have a few minutes so I will focus on supports for businesses in the face of the energy and cost-of-doing-business crisis. The difficulties Irish businesses are currently facing are felt most acutely by SMEs and family businesses, those that were that were hardest hit during the Covid pandemic. In the main, these are businesses that have really been through the mill over recent years. Their costs have risen across the board. This is …

I thank the Deputies for tabling the motion and giving us the opportunity to debate an incredibly important issue. It had not been my intention to speak but I looked for time to speak on behalf of two of my constituents. Many of my constituents are victims. As the Minister knows, there are many victims, many of whom will be excluded. One is a man who thinks he is aged 79; he does not know exactly how old he is because his records have been falsified. He lives in Balbriggan. He wants to know who he is and where he c…

Workers in the security industry have not had a pay rise since 2019. In August, and for the second time, a small number of employers in the industry have secured an injunction against the employment regulation order, ERO. Can the Taoiseach confirm that this ERO will be challenged by the Government? Can he also give us an indication as to when these workers are going to receive the pay rise they desperately need and deserve, and the other improvements to their terms and conditions of employment?