I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important legislation. I thank the Deputies for bringing it forward and for facilitating the debate. I want to ask the Government when, for the love and honour of God, is it going to be the right time. From what I can see, it is never the right time for this Government - like the previous Government and the one before that - to do the right thing by workers. It is never the right time for workers' rights. Those rights can always wait. It is never the right time to legislat…

Reform in the area of private security has been long needed. It is much to be lamented that the catalyst for this change has been the appalling behaviour of some security workers when evicting people from a property on Dublin's North Frederick Street and also the scenes some years back in Roscommon. Members of the public were appalled by those scenes and by gardaí standing by and allowing those scenes to develop. I do not know if anyone in this House has ever been evicted from their dwelling. I have been, and it wa…

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak to the Bill this evening. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment had a very healthy discussion on this Bill some weeks back. Due to the need for the expedient passage of this legislation, we agreed to waive pre-legislative scrutiny. The Minister of State will know that I have no difficulty with waiving pre-legislative scrutiny on legislation. It is a very bad habit to get into, however. Everything cannot be a crisis and it is…

In page 4, between lines 31 and 32, to insert the following: “Interest and repayments 5. The Minister shall engage with the relevant business and agriculture stakeholders and representee groups regarding the application of favourable interest rates to monies loaned in accordance with this Act.”. I note the Minister of State's earlier reference to the banking sector in which he referred to "because of what happened". Is he referring to when Fianna Fáil drove the economy off a cliff? The amendment is a fairly simple …

I am not, on the basis of the assurances given by the Minister of State. His engagement with businesses is important. I understand that engagement is ongoing and I have no interest in looking through his diary because I know it happens. However, it is also important that engagement happens on a one-to-one basis as well as in the bigger forums. Only by doing that on a one-to-one basis and engaging directly with the people who are at the business end of this, if the Minister of State will forgive the pun, can he ensu…

I thank my colleague, an Teachta Ó Broin, for bringing forward this important motion. The motion nails the issue of the rental crisis, namely, the lack of solutions from successive governments, and outlines the only true solutions that can rectify it. We need to look past the statistics and figures to the fear, depression and hopelessness, particularly of our young people caught in this rental trap. They are distraught by the current circumstances, of course, but they are also exhausted by the failures of successiv…

I want to take a moment to also offer my congratulations to the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and her husband on the wonderful news of the arrival of their baby boy this morning. As my grandmother used to say, a baby brings their own luck. I wish the Minister, her husband and their new baby all of the luck in the world. I remind the Tánaiste that the Minister herself said before she left that the measures put in place are a sticking plaster, so we have work to do, but this is a very good and historic day, as she is the…

The Tánaiste said most businesses will open. Most will, but some will not. Most workers who were in work in March 2020 will go back, which is fair enough, but some of them will not. Those workers are absolutely terrified by the date of 1 July because they do not know what is coming. We should bear in mind that many of these workers were doing the kind of work, facilitated by the Government, that meant they were not in a position to have savings. If they had savings, they have been depleted. I urge the Tánaiste to e…

We in Sinn Féin have been constantly raising with the Tánaiste and the Government the issue of sky-high, extortionate rents being paid by workers and families. The average rent in Dublin is now €1,745 a month, while the average across the State is in excess of €1,200. These rents are absolutely eye-watering, as is the €1 billion the State will pay to private landlords this year. Renters are paying nearly every cent they have just to keep a roof over their heads. They are effectively locked out of home ownership. Ho…

Answer the question and do not try to deflect.

This does not reflect well on the Government.

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this important legislation. It is timely that legislation has been brought forward to implement the recommendations of the Supreme Court in the case of Wayne Ellis v . the Minister for Justice. As Deputy Martin Kenny outlined, this is only part of the wider picture. It all depends on the mechanisms by which legislation is enforced. The personnel involved in this are our gardaí who are on the front line. As Deputy Martin Kenny said, it is all very well for us to talk abo…

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. I begin by acknowledging the work done by people like Dr. Lucy Michael and by the regional anti-racism groups. I refer specifically to the group in my constituency, which is also the constituency of the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien. Fingal Communities Against Racism, FCAR, is a small group made up of very dedicated individuals. I am very proud to be a member, although I wish I had more time to be involved. I encourage the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, if he h…

I am thankful for the opportunity to speak to these important motions. There is no doubt that the extension of these schemes will give workers and businesses some certainty, although just for the coming weeks. I have spoken to people availing of these schemes, where they work, and they speak incredibly highly of them and are incredibly grateful for the assistance. We cannot lose sight of the fact that these are viable businesses that were closed for public health reasons. As soon as it is safe, they are anxious to …

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this important legislation. I welcome the confirmation by the Labour Party spokesperson that his party will oppose CETA. My understanding had been that that party's position on that was not clear, so this is very welcome news for those of us who will work hard in opposing that agreement. I want to talk about climate action and a just transition, which is what we need to tackle this climate emergency. It often suits those opposed to any attempt to tackle climate action t…

I know this is an issue in which the Minister of State has taken a serious interest. I am going to say as much as I can in the time available. I could stand here and talk about how outraged, upset and angry I was. I imagine the Minister of State would share many of those feelings - I genuinely do. I will read out what a mother in my community has said. She represents the voices of the families who have been devastated by this. I pay tribute to Shane Corr. I hope that the Government will stand by him and does not al…

I welcome the opportunity to finally make a contribution to this debate, which has been put back on many occasions, though for good reasons. The Minister refers to the importance of concluding the job of repealing FEMPI. I was reminded that this is my annual opportunity to remind people in the House that I was part of the trade union delegation in Government Buildings on the night that FEMPI was announced. We did not know what it was. We certainly did not believe we would come to use the abbreviation for it. I am n…

I thank Deputy Naughten and his group for tabling this Bill. As my colleague, an Teachta Kenny, has outlined, we support this. However, we believe that it would benefit from discussion on Committee Stage so that we can all work together to improve it. One thing that we are all aware of in our constituency offices is the cost of insurance and its impact on our constituents. There are issues, especially with regard to the high price of insurance. That causes much distress. I hope that Deputy Naughten and the members …

Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, inspectors do a fantastic job. They are an absolutely vital part of the industrial relations machinery. I am sure the Minister of State will not disagree with me that in an ideal world we would not need labour inspectors. However, we do not live in an ideal world, so we do need them. They perform a vital function. Just by way of illustration of what they do and how important they are, in the period 2015 to 2020, WRC inspectors found breaches in employment law in 48%, almost half…

It is all very well to describe who the inspectors are and what they do. By dint of my former employment, I know well who they are and I know very well what they do. There are 53 of them, which is 37 short of the 90 that were recommended back in 2006. At that time, the parties to the agreement, that is, the social partners, the employers, the employers' representatives, the workers' representatives and the Government, agreed that 90 was the figure that was needed. We are at 53 now. We have more people working and l…