I am sharing time with my colleagues. I thank the Chair for the opportunity to speak on this important legislation. It involves a short but important piece of work, which we in Sinn Féin will be supporting. The Redundancy Payments (Amendment) Bill is a specific response to decisions taken at the beginning of the pandemic whereby section 12A of the Redundancy Payments Act was suspended. This was done to protect workers from being made redundant. Employers were also protected in that they would not have a deluge of w…

I offer my solidarity and support to the workers in B. Braun Hospicare who are facing the loss of their jobs. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has a jobs, enterprise and development programme for the coming year. This programme talks about the creation and sustenance of high-quality enterprise and employment across all regions. Obviously, the IDA has a key role to play in this regard. It does great work, but that work could be better in the Border, midlands and western, BMW, region. Total employme…

The total employment in IDA client companies in the Border region is only 8,721. In the south west, it is more than 47,000 and, in the mid-west, it is more than 25,000. As I have previously said, the figure for Dublin is 124,000. Sligo and the other counties in the region need and deserve very specific attention because those figures show a very clear disparity. The loss of these jobs has foregrounded something which the Deputies representing the area, particularly my colleague, Deputy Kenny, have been raising for …

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this important matter. Over the past 24 months, a variety of public health measures were introduced. While there might have been differing views on what needed to be done, we accept that at all times those measures were motivated by the public health interest and were guided by public health advice. Nevertheless, it is very welcome, not just from a social but also from an economic perspective, that we are in a position to lift many of those restrictions now. Businesses …

On 30 September last year, the term of seven members of the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, board came to an end. That board now cannot be constituted and four months later there is still no sign of new appointees taking office. When will the appointments be made and if those appointments are to be delayed, would it be possible, even on a temporary basis, to reappoint some of the members so the board can start to function and go about the business it should? That includes appointing WRC inspectors, and the Tán…

There are two reasons I wished to make a small contribution to this debate. One is to state that I absolutely accept that we need a new maternity hospital. We needed one in 1995 when my daughter was born in Holles Street. Indeed, I well recall being wheeled back from the labour ward and the bed being still warm because the woman ahead of me had just vacated it. My grandson was also born in Holles Street and we certainly needed one in 2015, so I accept that we need a new national maternity hospital. We want it to be…

When I was about eight years old I was on my first Take Back the Night march with my mother. It stuck in my mind what we chanted: "No matter what we are or where we go, 'Yes' means 'Yes' and 'No' means 'No'". That was 40 years ago, give or take. I have been on too many protests, I have been marching too many times and we have worn out too much shoe leather. We know what the issues are and we should not still have to be on the streets and be highlighting the epidemic of violence against women. We should not have to …

I extend my thanks to my colleague, Deputy Ó Broin, not just for this Private Members' business, which I know he has worked on with other members of the Opposition, but also for his continued work in this area, which I think we can all agree is very valuable. The Minister and I know that this is sensible legislation. It is, I imagine, legislation that will be relatively easy for him not to oppose. I hope he will not do what the Government is so fond of doing, that is, not necessarily opposing something, but will ac…

The question is fairly straightforward. It concerns whether or not the Tánaiste has an estimate of the number of expected redundancies that will result from the pandemic. I understand that efforts have been made to save jobs. I appreciate that that has been a priority for the Government. However, it is inevitable that redundancies will arise out of the pandemic. I know there was consideration at committee last week of legislation in this regard. I am seeking an estimate on the scale of it.

This is my issue. As the Tánaiste mentioned the drop in the number of people receiving the PUP, he might use his own platform to deal with some of what comes from people like Pat McDonagh, who say that those on the PUP are living it large and they will not go back to work. All of the available evidence actually suggests that the minute work is available, people are straight back at it and they want to be back in work. The difficulty for people in the private sector and those working in small companies, in particula…

I welcome that the resources will be provided. It really is not easy. People need to know the timeframes involved in respect of claiming the SIF. These are things that are not widely known. They are questions that I get asked. I am sure the Tánaiste is asked them himself. I have never been made redundant but I have been through the redundancy process. Collective redundancies are not easy on the people being made redundant but when they are in a bigger group, they do have that support. Notwithstanding the SCARP, if …

This is a fairly straightforward question. The Tánaiste said that he did not believe that restrictions were going to come in on Wednesday. They came in on Friday and there was a great deal of confusion with regard to sectors which thought that they would never have to take a backward step when they had to take that step. My question is about the amount of interaction that there has been, not just with the sector representatives, but also with the worker representatives in this space.

The Tánaiste mentioned that he had a meeting which is fair enough. On the sectors that have been specifically impacted, particularly the entertainment and hospitality sector, one is talking about the Unite and Mandate unions representing the workers there. There needs to be more detailed engagement. When I speak to people, some of whom have attended the meetings or have certainly been briefed after them, I have learned that there needs to be detailed discussions around issues such as ventilation. If I take the exam…

The Tánaiste will not find what he is not looking for. The businesses are not being asked for this and they tell me that it is not on the agenda. They are getting no credit for it but they have put their hands in their pockets. They did so, incidentally, believing that they were not going to have to take a step back and had in sight what they thought was going to be a reasonably decent trading month. Many businesses were relying on the fact people would be dying to get back out, as I am and as I am sure the Tánaist…

The practice of bogus self-employment is absolutely disgusting. It is horrible for workers and it is disrespectful to taxpayers. I hope that no Member of this House would stand over it. What is the Department doing specifically to curb the rise of bogus self-employment? I would like the Minister to acknowledge that he at least knows that bogus self-employment is on the rise. We see it all around us.

My question relates specifically to the haulage and construction sectors. At yesterday's committee meeting, we heard from representatives of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, who talked about the need to improve the numbers working in the haulage industry. I know the Minister of State is closely watching the situation at An Post, which, I have been informed, recently lost a very large contract for Amazon deliveries. I understand Amazon is saying it is going to do its own deliveries, but checking websites sho…

I encourage the Minister of State to take a look.

The Minister of State needs to look for where this is happening. Again, I encourage him to log on to indeed.com and have a look at the types of jobs being offered there. They are what would previously have been considered decent jobs. It is not an accident that there is a crisis in the haulage, transport and logistics sector at this time. One of the elements of that crisis is that these jobs are not attractive jobs for people to do. They are highly pressured and now it is a case of, "Have a pat on the back, there i…

Data published last month by the British Office for National Statistics demonstrate the economic benefits of the protocol for the North's economy. In fact, the figures show that the North has performed better economically than Britain in tackling the challenges caused by Brexit. The data from Britain tell a very different story of the impact of Brexit on its economy. Its Office for Budgetary Responsibility has forecast that the long-term impact of Brexit on growth will be worse than that of the pandemic, with the h…

Friday is International Human Rights Day. It will mark the end of this year's 16-day campaign against gender-based violence against women. The global theme for International Human Rights Day is reducing inequalities and advancing human rights. Drawing on Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which reads, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights", we are reminded that the principles of equality and non-discrimination are at the heart of human rights. These principles are rele…