I welcome the Minister of State. I warmly welcome this Bill and acknowledge and pay tribute to the enormous work Senator Boylan undertook to bring it to this point. She has detailed the very many communications and efforts over the past year and longer to try to get the Government to move on this. I welcome the fact that the Government is now moving on it, albeit belatedly. Following on from its commitment to support this Bill tonight, the Government must work to enact it as soon as possible because for as long as …

We await the roadmap for the reopening of indoor hospitality to be announced today, and it will be very welcome to hear that announcement. I understand that the Government intends to publish a national economic recovery plan at the end of May or on 1 June, according to the Tánaiste's statements last week. In this national economic recovery plan it is absolutely crucial that we see very clear and very specific proposals to assist young workers who now find themselves out of a job or those who are attempting to start…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, to the House and thank him for coming here today. My question relates to the status of the review of the Company Law Review Group, CLRG, on the recommendations of the Cahill Duffy report on collective redundancies. What is the Government currently doing with the employment recommendations in the report? I do not need to tell the Minister of State that five years have elapsed since the report landed into his current Department. Obviously the report was a response to the …

I thank the Minister of State for the very detailed response. I am shocked. He is telling me the Company Law Review Group has not one but two reviews ongoing, one that is yet to commence or has only recently commenced and will report only in September. Separately, the Department has to start an employment law review. This is not news to the Government. As the Minister of State said, this is in the programme for Government. We have known for five years now that these recommendations need to be implemented. It is sim…

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, to the House. Senators McGreehan and McGahon are sharing time.

I welcome the Minister to the House. I am glad to have an opportunity to speak on this important Bill. As the Minister will know, details matter. The success or failure of this Bill to deliver what it aspires to do will depend on the detail within it. Everyone across this Chamber wants housing that is affordable. We all want people to have a decent sustainable roof over their heads. We all recognise the incredible challenges for young workers in trying to access affordable housing. The concept of cost rental, the e…

I thank the Minister of State very much for coming to the Chamber this evening. I am very proud that my party, the Labour Party, is bringing forward this Bill, which seeks to introduce paid leave for those suffering early miscarriage or those who are going through fertility treatment. I am delighted to second the Bill. I pay particular tribute to my colleague, Senator Bacik, for spearheading this legislation. It is one of many in the area of women's rights as workers, women's health and human rights she has introdu…

Over the past two weeks, we have seen the Government scramble to contain the outrage expressed by many that entire housing estates were being bought up by cuckoo funds or institutional investors. That will culminate in decisions made by the Cabinet today. What has been really striking about all this is that we are somehow outraged that investment funds are elbowing out prospective home buyers in suburban areas but it is somehow okay that large swathes of our communities in Dublin city and other cities are taken ove…

It is really important to acknowledge the very important research undertaken by the ESRI, published this morning, on how young workers now fare worse in wages and access to housing compared with previous generations. For years, trade unionists and others on the left raised this and we were told Ireland was different because we had the most highly educated workforce across any EU member state. Well, that is not the case; Ireland is not different. We now need to hear from the Government about how it will take serious…

I thank the Minister of State for attending. It is with considerable relief and a welcome that society and the economy are reopening significantly today. I am conscious the Government needs to be cautious about easing restrictions, but we still have no guidance as to when music, dance and drama classes can recommence. This is the simple question I wish to raise with the Minister of State. It is not acceptable that we are still waiting for such guidance. I had hoped the Minister for arts and culture could attend the…

I can assure the Minister of State and whoever wrote the script that I do look at the media, including newspapers, on a daily basis. The guidance last week was welcome but it involves the organisation of cultural activities outdoors. The key appeal here concerns enabling children and teenagers to be able to plan and have certainty or some degree of certainty as to when decisions will be made as to when in-person indoor classes and participative activities can take place. To be fair, we did not see that last week. T…

We are on the cusp of seeing a significant reopening of society and the economy this Monday. Obviously, this is a very exciting development in the context of the pandemic. However, we have no guidance as to when dance, drama or music classes can recommence. I ask that the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, be written to in order to produce that guidance. I do not need to repeat to the House how serious it is for dance, music and drama schools across the country…

I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to declare the relationship between employer and employee to be a status relationship, to declare the question whether an individual is an employee or is self-employed to be a question of law to be independently determined, to provide that the description given by the parties shall not be conclusive in determining the true status of an employment relationship, to provide for a presumption in favour of employee status in certain cases, to clarify the …

Next Tuesday.

I thank the Minister for taking the time to come to the House. There is a glaring and urgent need to review the national childcare scheme. For many families, the subvention is very welcome and helps to pay for childcare but it would be incorrect to say it is a universal subvention available to all parents. The Labour Party acknowledges that there has been progress in the Department over the past year with regard to the support provided for the payment of wages in the childcare sector and emergency income supports. …

I thank the Minister for that most detailed reply. I very much look forward to the findings of the review of the first year of the scheme. I am heartened to hear that it is being undertaken. I must say , however, that the lack of emphasis on after-school care is most problematic. The Minister spoke about how, during term time, the child's development needs are generally met through school participation. If a child comes from a chaotic household, their capacity to do homework is limited and they may need additional …

I express my delight at the outcome of the Citizens' Assembly on gender equality and at the recommendations it issued on Saturday last. The breadth of the recommendations reflects how large the job to be done with regard to gender equality remains. The focus of the assembly was women and work and the recommendations are seismic. Crucially, the assembly recognised that there are no silver bullets and that single gestures are not enough. As an example, there was an explicit acknowledgment that we will not fix the gen…

I thank Fianna Fáil for the motion, which sets out how this is about post offices in urban and rural areas. While there is, obviously and inevitably, much focus on the viability of rural post offices and their important place in rural communities, I can attest to the great importance of post offices in urban villages like my village of Phibsborough. I grew up in a small place called Carrignavar in Cork, where the post office was at the heart of the community. The post office in Phibsborough, which is an urban area,…

I second the amendment to the Order of Business proposed by my colleague, Senator Mark Wall. In 2020, the new national childcare scheme was launched and for working parents it represented great progress in establishing the principle of universal subvention for childcare. The subvention was small but it was progress nonetheless. A significant number of early years services located in some of the most disadvantaged parts of the city, and throughout the country, that work with children coming from these challenging ba…

I second the proposal.