Non-essential retail is not part of level 5.

I will go and check the full list. The issue here is to try to get this matter resolved. As someone said, after the lockdown, we do not want them back picketing up until Christmas. We do not want people on the streets. Gardaí use their discretion all the time, and have done since the outset of this dispute when the first lockdown was in place. To be fair to the Garda, it will be equally discreet in the exercise of its duties on this occasion also, of this I have no doubt. The more pressing point is whether we can g…

I attended a meeting of the European Council in Brussels on Thursday and Friday last, 15 and 16 October. We discussed a wide range of pressing and strategic issues over the course of two days. Our meeting opened on Thursday with a presentation by the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli. He set out the Parliament’s thinking on the European Union's seven-year budget and the next generation European Union recovery package, which was agreed to by the Council on 1 July. I hope it will be possible to secu…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. From my own perspective, the situation with regard to mother and baby homes represented a very dark period in our history and an appalling approach to the treatment of women and mothers and, at the time, the separation of child from mother. I accept the norms of later years but as an individual and as a parent, the separation of child from mother is something I can never get over but that was the practice at the time. In the modern era, in some respects we have moved on a…

I appeal to the Deputy to do it cross-party. She is not doing it. She has come in attacking the Minister’s bona fides. The Minister wants to help. What he is doing is sensible and the right thing to do before the end of October. Does the Deputy not see that? I have no doubt the Minister will talk to the Deputy.

I am not attacking the Deputy. I am just saying if the Deputy wants cross-party-----

I am not aggressive at all.

I am simply saying the Deputy is wronging the Minister and not accepting his bona fides. I am sure the Minister would be more than willing to talk to the Deputy’s spokesperson and other spokespeople. In the final report of the commission, the section on the confidential committee will reproduce the anonymised testimony of each individual who appeared before it. While the testimony will be anonymous and slightly summarised, people will be able to see and recognise their story told in their own words. The commission …

I am interested in a resolution of this and I am not going to pretend that there will be an optimal solution. I do not want to take people up a hill and bring them back down again empty-handed. My assessment of this is that of course the workers have been treated very badly by the company. The company has gone into liquidation. It is in difficulty in the UK. As the Deputy knows, the UK does not want to know about it. Mandate and ICTU have worked on this and I intend to engage further with them. I have asked my offi…

Mandate is the union that has been working on this. The Government will continue to engage with it-----

I presume the shop stewards are part of the union. I do not know why the Deputy is making that demarcation. I will also engage with ICTU because this has wider implications. The Deputy is not correct in saying that because €1 million emerged from the process that €10 million can emerge from it.

That is wonderfully said, but it is not entirely grounded in reality. Certain people, the Deputy included, have created the idea that this can be solved easily knowing full well that it cannot, unfortunately. There has been much interaction on how to get this resolved. The Government does not instruct liquidators and is not in a position to do so, despite what the Deputy said consistently in his contribution.

The Government cannot instruct.

I thank the Deputy for his question and raising the matters relating to Waterford in particular. Any previous Government with which I was involved put much investment into Waterford. As a former Minister with responsibility for education, I know the land we purchased for Waterford Institute of Technology was essential to its growth. It has developed into a very fine institute of technology and it can now move to becoming a technological university in association with the institute of technology at Carlow. It is ess…

Fairness is a valid ask. The programme for Government identifies and recognises Waterford as a regional city and investment must follow that designation. The recovery fund in the budget of €3.4 billion is over and above the Covid-19 contingency fund and it will provide opportunities for infrastructural development, reskilling and retraining, as well as supporting investment in jobs. There are some very good quality companies in the south east and Waterford, in particular. My experience has been that it is important…

I thank the Deputy agus aontaím léi. Níl aon amhras ach gurb í géarchéim na tithíochta an ghéarchéim is mó atá againn lasmuigh den choróinvíreas, mar gheall ar an easpa tithíochta do ghnáthmhuintir na tíre, agus go háirithe na daoine nach bhfuil aon tithe acu in aon chor. Bhí béim sa cháinaisnéis inné ar thithíocht phoiblí go háirithe a chur i bhfeidhm. Tá sé i gceist againn 9,500 teach poiblí a thógáil an bhliain seo chugainn agus 10,000 gach aon bhliain ina dhiaidh sin. Sin an aidhm atá againn agus an príomh-rud …

Just because Deputy Connolly says we did not does not mean we did not. We did. I do not use language lightly. I have not been in Government for ten years. The housing assistance payment has been in place for about that length of time, maybe less. Dismantling HAP now, as the Deputy seems to be advocating, would immediately create homelessness. The housing assistance payment is a very large intervention. Yesterday we provided funding for 9,500 direct builds, to be provided by local authorities and approved housing bo…

Three and a half months ago, the new Government was formed at a unique moment in our history. The general election in February delivered the most diverse Dáil ever. It also demonstrated clearly the urgency of a range of critical social and economic issues. Little more than a month later, a pandemic began which has so far led to the deaths of 2,425 people on this island. The impact of the pandemic has been dramatic on every level. Every single aspect of our social, economic and cultural life has been impacted. It ha…

The statistics are there.

They are independently done.