I am just answering the questions because the Deputy has asked that they be answered. Quite frankly, I wonder what his agenda is. He should be supporting the vaccination programme-----

-----and not trying to undermine it and to have his moments. We have just heard the Taoiseach say X and Y. I am not interested in that kind of-----

-----infantile and juvenile politics. What I am more interested in is giving the people-----

-----up-to-date information.

NIAC will meet tomorrow and the Deputy knows the form. It will adjudicate as it is the clinical adviser to Government and to all of us in respect of the safe use of vaccines. The Deputy is aware of this as am I. Let us not try to create an issue out of that. The group that we have established, which the Deputy has asked about, is nothing to be concerned about. It is a very simple group that involves the HSE and NIAC because there is a relationship between advice and the operationalisation of that advice in the admi…

That to me is a simple and positive thing to do. Likewise, the task force feeds into that as well because it is dealing with the supply side, the delivery schedules, and working with the pharmaceutical companies. Therefore, when decisions are made, there is full knowledge all round as to the vaccination programme. There is ongoing informal contact between all of the key decision-makers in respect of the administration of the vaccine programme. It has been a good vaccine programme and is having a beneficial impact o…

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. I regard religious worship as a very fundamental right in any democratic society. We should acknowledge that the application of very stringent public health emergency legislation imposes many restrictions on personal and civil liberties. We rarely in ordinary times would apply such restrictions more generally on people. A global pandemic is such a context. It is the common good which must prevail in such a pandemic. I have had a number of meetings. I met in …

I appreciate that the Deputy did not make that assertion but other people have made it and I wish to make it clear that is not the agenda of the Government. The purpose of all of these restrictions, and they have been very challenging for people, is to get to a stage where we can open up, where we can get the level of cases down so low that we can return to religious worship safely, for everybody's sake. Next week, we will be making an announcement in terms of what we can do. That will depend on the public health a…

First of all, the purpose and objective of the scheme was to preserve employment and the viability of companies. Without the scheme, a lot of jobs would have been lost and, more importantly, the capacity of companies to re-emerge after Covid, or as we emerge out of Covid, would have been impaired very considerably. Jobs would have been lost if these schemes were not put in place in the first instance. Significant sums of money have been provided by the State and the Government to provide for the EWSS, the TWSS and …

The TWSS is under the care and management of the Revenue Commissioners, who are independent of Government in the administration of the scheme. More than 644,000 jobs have been directly supported over the period and many more indirectly.

It is a sizeable and significant intervention. The value of payments made to date is approximately €2.9 billion under that scheme alone. The Deputy is making the case that Revenue will determine people's tax liabilities in respect of the income they receive.

Revenue has made arrangements with employers in some instances where employers may have overestimated and drawn down too much initially and so forth. That is an issue that Revenue will have to continue to work on.

The selection of a person to fill the post of Secretary General in the Department of Health was an independent process, the Top-Level Appointments Committee, TLAC, process. It was open to international competition for anybody to apply, and quite a number of people applied. The person selected is experienced and has served in various capacities within the public service. He would be regarded as a senior experienced public servant. It was an independent selection process. Deputy McDonald should not cast aspersions on…

This is an issue about which we are very concerned. The Ministers, Deputies McGrath and Humphreys, have made progress on it. It has been an outstanding issue for a long time. It is an identified priority of ours to resolve this as best we can.

I agree with the Deputy that we should do everything we possibly can to make sure those children are protected and safe. I will engage with the respective agencies and Ministers to ensure that we can bring this to a satisfactory resolution. I will take the point on board.

I deplore the practice of employing workers in this manner, particularly not registering workers under the atypical working scheme and making sure workers get their full entitlements under the law. What happened here is very wrong. I read the reports about the two individuals whose lives were endangered but who, thankfully, were rescued. It is unacceptable. The investigations have to take place. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is aware of the case. It is a significant issue which the industry must…

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. I will refer the issue again and I will engage with the Minister for Health on it. The entitlements people, including medical card recipients, have must be honoured and fulfilled. I will pursue that.

I thank the Deputy for raising this. It is very stressful for individual business owners, in particular publicans. The insurance companies should honour their obligations and commitments in this regard. The Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, is engaged in this topic more generally. I do not have the specifics of the case which the Deputy identified but we will pursue the issue more broadly with the industry.

I will speak to the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government in that regard because I think all burial grounds in mother and baby homes should be protected and no violation of those grounds should occur for any reason. I will engage with the Minister in terms of the local authorities.

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue and key priority for the Government, namely, the challenge of climate. Tomorrow is Earth Day and we can all do our bit. The Ceann Comhairle may look with fondness at the wild garden in the back lawn of Leinster House. I walked by it yesterday, just to have a look. I wrote to the Ceann Comhairle about this when in opposition. It has come on in leaps and bounds and is a very pleasurable sight. It illustrates the incremental steps we can collectively take to res…