I again invite the Taoiseach to make clear that workers will be able to avail of the PUP, that businesses will be supported and that he will not throw thousands of workers under the bus as a consequence of his poor management and lack of decisive leadership. I call on him to support those workers and their families.

Do you want to trade seats? When I am in your seat, I will answer questions. You should not worry about that.

Will workers be able to avail of the PUP? I am asking for a "Yes" or a "No".

Despite the widespread rejection of the report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters, the Government has based its redress scheme on its findings. Survivors and families have been consistent in the demand for inclusive redress, redress that recognises the human rights abuse of forced family separation. The Government has ignored the mothers and their children on both fronts. It is deeply hurtful that the Government has created a hierarchy of survivors, taking the …

Now you have closed a section.

The Government has closed a section-----

The need to build capacity in our hospitals has never been more urgent. Decades of bad Government policy meant that our health service was at breaking point before we ever heard of Covid-19. Now we face the most serious health emergency of a lifetime. However, despite what the past 18 months have taught us, there is a real absence of urgency and planning from the Government. We need more beds and staff. We must dramatically improve diagnostic and theatre capacity. Incredibly, however, the Government has waited unti…

As ever with the Taoiseach's Government, it is a case of too little and too late. The middle of November is not the time to produce the winter emergency plan, with the greatest of respect to all involved. That work should have been done in the summer. The facts are that the mistake made at budget time, where not one additional acute inpatient or community bed beyond what had been previously committed to was budgeted for, has been repeated in the winter plan. Resources and money are not everything but if he speaks t…

Rather than the Taoiseach simply expressing interest or concern in this, it is his job to ensure this is sorted and these bottlenecks caused by excessive bureaucracy can be cut.

There is a lack of capacity in hospitals.

I reiterate to the Taoiseach that the funds and resources must be made available. He has failed in that regard. It is astonishing stuff.

Is there an example?

Sorry, who was-----

The Taoiseach should be clear. Which hospital was it?

Which hospital?

Insurance companies in Ireland are still ripping off their customers. The industry pocketed huge savings during the pandemic. In 2020, the cost of claims to insurance companies fell by 20%, but the price of premiums for customers fell by only 7% and the average rebate was a mere €17. The cost of claims is set to fall again this year but it is very clear insurance companies cannot be trusted to do the right thing and will have to be forced to pass savings to hard-pressed customers. Legislation introduced by my colle…

I was very sorry to learn of the death of Austin Currie, a man who, through his long and distinguished political career, was extremely influential on both sides of our divided island for many years. As a leading member of the early civil rights campaign, a co-founder of the SDLP, a Minister in the short-lived 1974 power-sharing executive in the North and a Fine Gael Minister of State, Austin had a long and commendable record of public service. My thoughts and condolences are with Anita, our colleague, Senator Emer …

The latest daft.ie rental report makes for very bleak reading. It will bring no comfort to tenants who hand over an extortionate amount of their earnings to landlords every month and it again highlights the abject failure of the Government to get to grips with this crisis. Rents, already at record levels, increased by a further 7% in the past year. The average rent has more than doubled in a decade, increasing every year for the past nine years. It now stands at €1,516 per month. It is off the wall. While rents in …

The Taoiseach's policy and his Minister are failing. Supply is, of course, the issue and that is why the Taoiseach should have embraced the ESRI recommendation to double capital investment in the delivery of homes, but he did not do that. His top economist trashed that report. I ask him not to lecture me or anyone else on the Opposition benches on the issue of supply, while simultaneously allowing a high-ranking Government official to undermine the argument for supplying the resources to underpin it. I do not know …

Blah, blah, blah. I ask the Taoiseach to answer the question.