I move amendment No. 5: In page 7, to delete lines 25 to 33 and substitute the following: “(I) there will occur in the period from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020 (in this subsection referred to as ‘the specified period’) such a percentage reduction as the Minister may specify in an order made by him or her under subsection (21)(b), in either the turnover of the employer’s business or in the customer orders being received by the employer by reference to the period from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2019 (in this…

I will try to be reasonable by taking 50 seconds if that is okay. I will address the apparent contradiction raised by the Minister. The difficulty is that some seasonal businesses will, due to staycations, do well in the second half of this year, and perhaps achieve 70% or more of their normal business. However, taken over the 12 months of the year, the position will still be dire. The issue is the failure to take into account the first six months during which they were unable to claim the temporary wage subsidy sc…

At the end of this week, it will have been one month since Deputy Micheál Martin was elected Taoiseach. I commended him on his election because I thought the country badly needed a Government at the time. A Government was needed to make decisions. Up to now, those decisions have been slow in coming. I appreciate that many of the issues the Government has had to deal with have been complex, but nevertheless the decisions have been slow. One of the issues I have raised recently relates to the Shannon Group and its im…

The Taoiseach mentioned legislation and I agree. There is a growing number of people in the country. A certain amount of hostility is being encountered by tourists because people think they are flouting laws when they are not. We have to be clear that these people are flouting laws or they are not. Will we see legislation to move Shannon Heritage from a group which clearly does not want it anymore to a better home where it might be looked after and where the tourism potential of these sites will be exploited not fo…

Legislation is imminent to push back phase 4 of the reopening because of the increase in the Covid-19 transmission rate or R-nought rate. This delay will affect rural pubs, as we have heard, but it will also affect sporting events, weddings and family events throughout the country. Does the Tánaiste accept that the R-nought rate in Dublin is now running at twice the level of the rate in the rest of the country? Does he agree that it is no longer appropriate to treat the country as one region and that we need, in th…

Pubs that do not offer a substantial meal to customers are due, or may be due, to open next Monday. I note the comment by the deputy chief medical officer that there is a week to decide on this matter. The Civil Service can work for a while in splendid isolation from economic realities or at least until the economy cannot afford to pay their salaries. For small businesses, however, there are preparations to be made, including getting in new stock. Many of these pubs are family-run businesses and the owners have to …

The programme for Government recognises the value of our aviation sector in supporting economic development, international connectivity and tourism via our airports. On 18 June, the Taoiseach said of Shane Ross, the former Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, "I don't think he gets the regions ... both Shannon and Cork have huge roles to play [if we are to be serious about] rebalancing the [State]." Today Shannon Airport is seeking redundancies. Some Shannon Heritage sites are closed, and others are closing a…

Urgently.

Shannon Heritage sites are staying closed.

I concur with the previous speaker. The constituency I represent needs a Government to deal with the issues we face. Just a couple of weeks ago, the Minister for Health told the House that greater and better use has to be made of Ennis hospital and other tier-two hospitals throughout the mid-west to avoid a catastrophe next winter at University Hospital Limerick. Shannon Airport and Shannon Development, which were founded to drive economic development throughout the mid-west, are not in a good place. Shannon Airpor…

I understand I cannot technically move the amendment until the earlier amendments are dealt with. I intend to press the amendment.

I will move the amendment. I would like to get on to the substance of it. I welcome that the Minister will carry out a review but what is a review? If it is something that his Department will examine internally, I regret that I cannot have much confidence in that. We know what the Department thinks is necessary because the Minister put the motion before us, as he did last year and the year before that. What will the review consist of and who will carry it out? We have had reviews. The Hederman committee was establi…

I have already. Deputy Pa Daly probably has more experience of the criminal courts than everyone else in this Chamber put together and he made the point that many of the gangland trials were carried out in normal courts and that much of what affects trials is not neutered by having it in the Special Criminal Court because there still are witnesses and there is no more witness protection in the Special Criminal Court than there is in the Circuit Criminal Court in Limerick, unfortunately. This is a reality of life an…

-----that can be taken. I am not going to propose them now but would ask that the Law Reform Commission look into this.

I move amendment No. 2: To delete the words "June, 2021" and substitute the following: "January, 2021, before which date a report of the Law Reform Commission into the Offences against the State Acts, 1939 to 1998 shall be requested by the Attorney General to be completed no later than the 31st December, 2020. The Attorney General shall, as soon as may be, send a copy of the report to the Minister for Justice and Equality, who shall submit it to the Government and copies of the report shall, as soon as may be, be l…

It is time the Law Reform Commission considered this issue.

I move amendment No. 1: To delete the words “June, 2021” and substitute the following: “January, 2021, before which date a report of the Law Reform Commission into the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Act 2009 shall be requested by the Attorney General to be completed no later than the 31st December, 2020. The Attorney General shall, as soon as may be, send a copy of the report to the Minister for Justice and Equality, who shall submit it to the Government and copies of the report shall, as soon as may be, be laid befo…

I am pressing the amendment. I believe the Law Reform Commission should look at this issue while the law is continuing in force.

It is not agreed. Vótáil.

The mission statement of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht is: "The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht oversees the protection and presentation of Ireland’s heritage and cultural assets." There are some particular parts of Ireland's heritage and cultural assets which I wish to draw the Minister's attention to because they are neither being preserved nor promoted at the moment. They are the cultural assets that fall within the remit of Shannon Heritage, namely, King John's Castle i…