First, I sincerely sympathise with the family and with every member of the force with regard to the tragic loss of Detective Garda Colm Horkan. What I want from the incoming Government is that I do not want it to leave people behind. I will give an example of what it is to leave people behind, and with the permission of himself and his family, I will raise the case of young Ronan Foley from Dungeel in Killorglin. He is 15 years of age and I want each and every Member of this Dáil, the new Minister for Health, and t…

I congratulate all the Ministers. I am especially delighted that the county I represent, County Kerry, has an excellent representative at the Cabinet in Deputy Norma Foley. I know her late Dad, Denis, is looking down privately today, and rightly so. I wish her nothing but success in her role. I remind her, starting today, that many of the schools in my county are in danger of losing teachers or are desperately trying to hold on to them. I remind her of Gaelscoil Mhic Easmainn, schools in Glenbeigh, Aghatubrid and t…

Local authorities around the country are organising the reopening of their counties. In Kerry we are no different. Kerry County Council, along with its elected members, is putting in place town centre mobility plans ensuring social distancing is in place on our footpaths and so on. The council also is looking at allowing street furniture for cafés, restaurants and pubs to use to ensure they can increase capacity while maintaining social distancing rules. What can the Taoiseach do, together with the Minister for Jus…

The Taoiseach left out the hairdressers.

Yes, five minutes each for myself and Deputy Mattie McGrath. As the Minister knows more than anybody else, people throughout the length and breadth of the country have put their shoulder to the wheel in fighting this pandemic. I know great strides and efforts have been made with regard to contact tracing and testing but it is an area in which we must keep upping our game. We must achieve a quicker turnaround. There are still cases of people getting tested and then waiting considerably too long for their results. We…

I will give the Minister one. That is no problem.

For the past four and a half years, I had the privilege of chairing the committee at the forefront of dealing with the Minister of State, as well as the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. It was an excellent committee dealing with Brexit and the issues arising from the situation in which we find ourselves. As Deputy Mattie McGrath stated, Brexit went off the agenda for a time while the pandemic was the most urgent thing we had to deal with as politicians. Now, however, we are back to the reality of dealing wit…

I am sharing time with Deputy Nolan. Like everybody else in this country, I was absolutely shocked, horrified and disgusted at the recent death of Mr. George Floyd over in America. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the minute's silence for people who have been victims of racism in all different ways. This particular act hit a chord with everybody, not only in government but also on the Opposition benches and with people up and down the length and breadth of the country. Over the last months, the people of Ireland hav…

First, I thank the Minister and the people working in the Department for the excellent work they have been doing. The Minister is a very strong advocate for rural Ireland and I appreciate that, as he knows. I have no problem in acknowledging that. I want to highlight the concerns I and many others have about rural businesses. The Minister knows of the difficulties we were having already, and the pandemic has now meant further complications for our rural way of life and our small businesses, publicans, hardware shop…

I want to put on the record of the House my gratitude to the Tánaiste and his Department officials for their assistance with very serious issues over the past weeks and months. As always, the Tánaiste was very proactive and work-person-like in carrying out his duties. I also want to raise the issue of post offices. I want to declare an interest in this as I am a postmaster of a very small post office in a rural area. I wish to highlight the fact that it is detrimental to those post offices that our transactions hav…

I am going to make sure I stop in time to give the Minister a chance to reply. The first issue I want to raise with him is very important. I have three specific points. With regard to people who want to do their driving test, I want the Minister to-----

No. The Minister will allow me-----

The Minister will allow me the opportunity to give him the chance to explain to the people who desperately want to know what is going to happen to people who need to sit their driving tests. People want to get a full licence. Nurses are going to work on the front line every day and have not seen their families for weeks or months. They are in an awful position whereby they have to get to work but do not have a full licence and cannot have anybody in a car with them. Can the Minister shine some light on this? A frig…

He did not answer it clearly enough, I am afraid.

We will have two names in there.

I hope the Ceann Comhairle can give the Minister time to respond to me. I welcome the opportunity to ask the Minister questions on the record today. Our country faces unprecedented levels of economic difficulty and many sectors are in crisis, facing closure or a sustained period of inactivity. I intend to leave enough time for the Minister to answer my questions but he might reply to me in writing if he does not have enough time. Will the Minister finally extend the Covid-19 payment to seasonal workers and to those…

The clock applies to us all.

I thank the Minister for taking questions. It would have been very easy for her to walk away. On maternity leave, does the Minister support the extension of maternity leave? That proposal has been raised with me and almost 20,000 people have signed a petition in support of it. There is very little information or guidance on how crèches and childcare facilities are to reopen. Will numbers be reduced? Is social distancing being suggested for children under five years of age? If centres open with reduced capacity, wil…

I asked whether the Minister would support the extension of maternity leave at this time. May I explain?

Women who have been on maternity leave during the pandemic have not been able to have the same interaction with outside agencies and so on as was previously the case. Would the Minister consider allowing for maternity leave to be extended in light of events in recent months?