I do not have to tell the Minister of State that the cost of living is affecting people from all walks of life. People are struggling with the rising cost of rent, the cost of trying to buy a house, the price of fuel and the rising cost of food. Social Justice Ireland has found that almost 1 million people are living in poverty in the State while the Central Statistics Office, CSO, predicts a dramatic rise in the amount of money people will have to spend on food over the next year. The CSO estimates an additional €…

The issue of homelessness in Limerick is spiralling to new and concerning levels. We have never seen it so bad. There is a complete absence of available emergency accommodation for those who desperately need it. Homelessness service providers have spoken to me, as they do regularly, and have advised me there are simply not enough available beds in the city. In fact, they understand there are none available at the moment. People who were once able to afford their rent can do so no longer and there seems to have been…

I thank the Minister of State. I missed him in the men's shed last week. I was there a few minutes after he arrived. St. Mary's Parish Men's Shed is a good facility. I trust that with the answer he has just given, the Minister of State is being sincere. However, none of what he said bears fruit in the real world. Families are desperate. Rental prices are too high and too few, if any, properties are available. This has put immense stress on people. As I said, the homeless services are under severe pressure. They do …

I will also raise the issue of the living wage. I understand the Low Pay Commission has completed its report and the Tánaiste has had it since March. The Tánaiste said he would engage in consultation over the summer months but when will the report be published, which we signed on to, so we can also read it? As he is aware, it is a commitment in the programme for Government and is something we want to do. Last time I spoke to the Tánaiste, he told me to speak to my colleagues in the North, which I did. Sinn Féin, in…

I thank the Minister of State for his contribution, although I found some of it quite bizarre. It seems to be Government policy now to claim that every time we on this side of the House speak, it is about social media clips. I do not do social media clips, in fairness, but I do stand up for my constituents. As the Minister of State said, we all have people and families coming to our constituency clinics who are in absolute distress. The homeless action team in Limerick is under massive pressure, with 80 notices to …

Hybrid and remote working have been discussed at the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Remote and hybrid working have become the new normal for employers and employees. In that context, the recent report makes for important reading. One concerning aspect it notes is that one third of hybrid workers struggle to disconnect. That is the core of the question.

Microsoft Ireland's work trend index provided many nuggets of information on both the positive and negative aspects of the world of work. One part of the research which jumped out at us was that one third of hybrid workers, 31%, struggle to disconnect. Naturally, this is problematic for workers because it can lead to burnout, stress and health problems. Indeed, a study from the WHO found that 745,000 people died in 2016 as a result of stroke and heart disease due to long working hours. The research from the WHO fou…

The failure to enshrine a right to disconnect in law is incredibly frustrating and disappointing for workers who are suffering excessive out-of-hours contact. The establishment of a code of practice is a welcome first step, but if an employer ignores or breaches it, that is not an offence. As a result, there is no compellability factor. For some time now, excessive out-of-hours contact has been an issue for workers. The pandemic made this worse. The line between work time and personal time, as the Tánaiste said, ha…

I raise the issue of an employee of a State-funded, contracted organisation who may have taken and won a case at the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, but who has not received an award due to the inability of the State-funded, contracted organisation to pay the award. The award is not being paid by the organisation. There is no budget or funding for this. Can a solution be found?

I was saying that it is a State-funded, contracted organisation. A case was taken against it at the WRC. The person won the case. The organisation did not have the money to pay, because it was not in its budget. That was the basis of the question. It is a simple workers' rights matter. It is probably not on the radar of the Minister of State or Minister, so we wanted to raise it. The overall objective of the WRC is to deliver a world class workplace relations service and employment rights framework for employees an…

It is not a specific case; it is a number of cases. It is an anomaly.

It is important to emphasise that I am not raising just one case. Several people have taken unfair dismissal cases to the WRC, have won that case and then the organisation, which is a fully-funded State organisation, did not have the resources to pay out. In view of these situations, what does the Minister advise the WRC to do in instances where it is making awards that are not being respected? Will he meet with the WRC and trade unions on this matter so a solution can be found? It is not a huge issue but it is aff…

It is really important to emphasise that it is not a specific case. We have a number of cases.

I can come back to the Minister of State with a specific case but there are a number of them.

At the recent meeting of the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment, we heard from Médecins Sans Frontières, Oxfam and representatives of the pharmaceutical industry. We also had a significant number of written submissions on the TRIPS issue. We learned that only 13% of people are double vaccinated in low- and middle-income countries and 1% boosted. We face a significant global problem. If we believe the mantra that nobody is safe until everybody is safe, then we must act urgently. If we fail to act no…

I echo some of the remarks of my colleague. The committee met with several stakeholders. Yesterday, we agreed on a letter to be sent to the Tánaiste. Obviously, the committee comprises 15 members of all parties and none. In the letter, we ask the Tánaiste to support the TRIPS waiver. He probably has not received it yet, in fairness. I sent it to him yesterday. I ask him to read it carefully. If he so wishes, we can send him the submissions we received. Those submissions are stark. Millions of people have died as a …

House prices are out of control and have been for some time now. The price of homes keeps going up while the available income for many families keeps going down due to inflation. Large numbers of people are being locked out of home ownership and the efforts of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to address this have been woeful. On a daily basis my constituency office in Limerick receives calls of desperation from people who have been locked out of home ownership. These are people who struggle t…

To put it mildly, renters and especially young people who want to live independently are really struggling. If the cost to rent does not lock people out of the market, it puts huge financial burdens on workers and their families. People from all walks of life are struggling to pay the rent. Families who need to rent a house for themselves and their children are struggling. Young workers starting out in their careers are struggling to pay rent. Hard-working people cannot keep pace with the cost of rent. In Limerick,…

On the same issue and as Deputy Cahill has said, University Hospital Limerick is consistently the most overcrowded hospital in the State. I raised this issue with the Taoiseach recently. Incredibly, 113 people are on trolleys today. This means there are no beds and, unfortunately, not enough trolleys for people. Yesterday 105 people were on trolleys and last Thursday there was an historical high of 126 people on trolleys. There is no let-up in this. The Taoiseach will not intervene but something needs to be done. W…

You have been Taoiseach for a year-----