God damn it, that is an awful thing to say.

Smiling and laughing as if it is some sort of a joke. If somebody belonging to you was going blind, you would not like it.

You are a disgrace.

It is our job to take care of people.

If the Taoiseach was half as worried about people, he might be a lot better off.

Who said anything else?

What the Taoiseach is in effect doing here is a total blanket shutdown because with our climate, the vast majority of these businesses will not be able to operate. That is a fact. What measures have been put in place by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection to support the many thousands of people who are worried, upset and concerned today, the business owners and the people working in those businesses? It shows how little thought was actually put into this. We heard this morning on "Morning Ire…

Arts, culture and heritage are important all over the country but in no other county are they more important, in my humble opinion, than County Kerry. We are rich in the world of arts because we have produced so many important people who have made such an impact in Ireland. I will give just one example off the top of my head of Cill Rialaig Arts Centre in Ballinskelligs. It was the brainchild of Ms Noelle Campbell-Sharp, who did great work with other artists. She brought thousands of people to that area. People hav…

I welcome the opportunity to address this important issue here this evening. One judges any state and any government on how it deals with people with a mental, physical or any type of intellectual disability. In the county I represent, we have a very worrying event happening now, as the Minister of State knows, with St. John of God Community Services notifying the HSE that it will be withdrawing the work it has been doing. I thank St. John of God Community Services for the work it has been doing for many years, tak…

I welcome the opportunity to speak to this Private Members' motion, which is very important. We need to take into consideration the ramifications Covid-19 will create for low-income families over the next number of months and into next year. Anybody studying the statistics which show the number of young people who are in, or are in danger of being in, poverty at present will know that this is indeed a very frightening time. Social welfare payments will be extremely important over the next number of months. It is ve…

The two Deputies who have just spoken on this issue are 100% correct. These are the same students whose parents paid for student accommodation on Friday afternoon, only to discover on Friday night that the accommodation might not be required because the universities and colleges they are going to might not be operating in that way for the next number of weeks or months and perhaps until Christmas. For the Government to have let this happen is absolutely disgraceful. The two Deputies have outlined that issue. What f…

Will the Taoiseach not acknowledge-----

It is outrageous-----

I wish the Minister of State good luck in her new role. Section 7(3) of the Bill contains the commencement provision. This means that, before the Bill can have any impact, the Minister needs to make a commencement order. Sometimes, an Act is commenced all in one go, but it is quite common for an Act to be commenced on a phased basis, in other words, in dribs and drabs. A delay to the commencement of this legislation is the last thing that the industry needs at present. The enactment would not be an end in itself, o…

I support the amendment. Section 18 of the Forestry Act 2014 sets out the timeframe within which the Minister and officials are required to make a decision on an initial felling licence application. The wording of section 18 is loose and, therefore, the timeframe of four months is merely an objective. It is an aspiration and need not be met. Therefore, the deadline of four months is not a deadline at all. While I welcome the fact that the Bill does much to improve the appeals process, I believe that by not acceptin…

I am disappointed with the Minister of State's performance here this evening. The one thing that I will say to both the Minister and the Minister of State is that they should remember 30 September because the people of Ireland are watching and they listened carefully to what the Minister of State said earlier on. There are many millers watching this tonight and many contractors who are desperately hoping that they will have work next month and the month after. In the coming days, timber will be coming in from Scotl…

A person can only listen to so much. I hate referring to Deputies directly but I must do so after Deputy Boyd Barrett's outburst. He is completely contradicting himself.

Yes, I am coming to that but Deputy Boyd Barrett was allowed to make statements here tonight and he must be taken to task on them. He must be asked whether he accepts that there is a crisis in our timber industry at present. Why are we debating this? Why is the Bill coming in here at all? Why have party and non-party Deputies agreed to facilitate the passing of this legislation in the first instance without pre-legislative scrutiny? It is because we all recognise that there is a crisis in the timber industry. Why i…

I am coming back now to the subject at hand and will address the Minister and Minister of State but I could not let Deputy Boyd Barrett away with that. He cannot come in here, talk rubbish and get away with it. I will come back now to the Minister and the Minister of State's performance and response. For God's sake, I must challenge them for coming along and saying that they will deal with this afterwards and that we can put in timeframes afterwards. That is nonsense. In actual fact, the display the two of them put…

To clarify, 1 million tonnes of timber are stuck in the appeals process at the moment, which is 25% of the independent requirement. Another 1 million tonnes are stuck at the application stage. Deputies, including the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, asked about statistics, so I will outline a couple. In the past four years, the FAC has heard only 33% of the appeals that have been put forward. In the middle of the greatest crisis the industry has ever seen, the committee has held no hearing since 31 July. What message does th…