I thank the Taoiseach for again rehearsing the figures for testing. I am aware that the target of 100,000 set in the springtime has now been met and surpassed. However, in the words of the WHO, "You will never test too much", and that capacity will need to be built on. I asked about contact tracing. The facts are that this system collapsed over the weekend, which is extremely alarming, happening as it does on the eve of us moving into another lockdown. I made the point to the Taoiseach that unless we get the testin…

We are all agreed that the manner in which the Debenhams workers have been treated by their former employer is a shame and a disgrace. This week, Members from across the House, including ourselves in Sinn Féin, Solidarity - People Before Profit, the Labour Party, the Social Democrats, the Independent Group, the Rural Independent Group and others have come together to call on the Government to intervene. We agree that the actions of KPMG are wrong. When workers in this country go looking for their rights, they shoul…

Yesterday, the Taoiseach spoke about the EU's co-ordination efforts in terms of Covid-19. I hope he will agree that in addition to the specific healthcare and services co-ordination in terms of data, expertise and a vaccine, the Taoiseach and his European counterparts are also discussing the wider economic and social challenges that undoubtedly will need to be addressed. These are things that play an immediate and constant role in the everyday lives of people, things that can and should ensure the common challenges…

I welcome the Taoiseach's shared island webinar which is due to take place tomorrow. I look forward to that and to the process wherein all parties can actively participate in the shaping of the work and mission of the shared island unit. My more substantive point relates to Covid-19. Following on from Deputy Tóibín, I understand the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference is due to meet on 2 November. I urge the Taoiseach to ensure the issues of travel to and from our respective islands and a harmonised system f…

What happened behind the high walls of the mother and baby homes casts a long and very dark shadow over our country. The women and children, many of whom were placed in these institutions by the State, were abused and exploited. They were stigmatised, vilified, and considered outcasts from society. The awful abuse of single mothers, the forced separation of families and the horrors of what happened in places such as Tuam are still so very hard to comprehend. Perhaps, as a society, we will never fully understand or …

This morning, people woke up with a great sense of anxiety and uncertainty about the future. Last night's news that the State was to be moved to level 5 from midnight tomorrow until the end of November was the source of this uncertainty and anxiety. I understand fully that this was a hard decision for the Government. I also know that it is an even harder decision for all those who will bear the inevitable brunt of the hardship it will bring. It would be impossible today to overstate the level of concern and, in som…

The Taoiseach is right that the European Banking Authority did indeed oversee and supervise the regime for mortgage breaks. Under those rules, mortgage holders in Germany, Spain and Italy got payment breaks for 12 months. In this State, they got three months followed by another three months, which is six months in total and half the time allowed to mortgage holders in other jurisdictions. The Taoiseach knows as well as I do that an extension to the mortgage breaks had to be agreed and secured by 30 September. The T…

In fact, they are saying to them, "That is too bad. Your mortgage is not sustainable and we are offering you no alternative." That is a recipe for repossession of people's homes.

Having messed up disgracefully at the end of September by allowing the banks to return to business as usual, I am asking the Taoiseach, as Head of Government, to intervene now to make sure that the banks play ball and offer customers all the relevant options.

The other jurisdictions offered breaks that were interest-free.

In July, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, announced that he was conducting a review of co-living, despite having stated when in opposition that co-living was "bonkers". Today, yet another co-living application has hit the headlines. This time it is for a 14-storey, 506-bed co-living development in the markets area near Capel Street in Dublin city centre, which, as it happens, is in my constituency. The Taoiseach previously referred to co-living as "battery cage-type a…

The National Economic and Social Council, NESC, is hosting the annual conference of the European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils Network next week. NESC published an important paper earlier this year that addressed employment vulnerability as part of a just transition in Ireland. The paper recommended that Government take steps to improve the evidence base for policymakers and that future efforts to gather evidence to inform policymaking for a just transition should involve a combination o…

I raised with the Taoiseach earlier the issues mortgage holders face. The real shame is that on 30 September the opportunity to extend a full break for mortgage holders was lost. That is on the Taoiseach and it is a big failure of his Government. Can he set out for us very clearly what alternatives, what propositions, he will put to the banks, given that MABS reports that banks, as I said earlier, are not playing ball? The Central Bank has to sanction banks for their failure to comply with the code of conduct for m…

Why did the Taoiseach end them?

That is entirely wrong.

It should have been extended.

Repossession of a person's home is not great either.

Will the Taoiseach then try to make some sense?

The Government let that slide.

It is the case.