Immediate action is needed in housing to get more people housed, to get more houses built and, particularly, to get homelessness numbers down. Covid-19 is having an impact and we should be clear that it will have an impact on the timing of referendums. It has also had an impact in the early part of this year on house completions nationally because of the lockdown and so on. That said, in the July stimulus programme, for example, we provided additional resources to get 2,500 voids repaired to get them back into oper…

Yes, but the Deputy did not bring in any proposals for a referendum on housing. By the way, we are committed to holding a referendum.

There are Bills everywhere. There is an ongoing debate on whether we can get things done through legislation and various taxation measures to reduce the incentive to hoard land, to create a punitive environment for the hoarding of land and to reduce the acceleration of land prices. That is the objective of Government. The programme for Government is the outcome of negotiations between three political parties, which is clear in its commitments. We are committed to dealing with the land cost issue and the Land Develo…

The Cabinet committee on Brexit and Northern Ireland was formally established by Government decision on 6 July and the first meeting will be scheduled to take place over the course of the autumn. Brexit matters have, of course, remained firmly on the agenda of Cabinet. The Government has taken a number of decisions recently on Brexit, including to intensify work across government to ensure that we are ready for the end of the transition period. The Cabinet committee on Brexit and Northern Ireland will oversee imple…

I have been very clear in this regard. This is a unilateral action. It fundamentally undermines trust and trust is the foundation stone upon which agreements are made and negotiations conducted. I could not be any clearer than that. I think Deputy Kelly is right. The British Government, via legislation, today is unilaterally seeking to undermine or alter an international agreement. Regarding the conduct of international relations, that is unprecedented in the middle of negotiations. The type of comment made by the …

It is a straightforward answer. I have significant experience of negotiations.

It makes a lot of sense.

They are, that is their decision and they have done it unilaterally.

We will work with the European Union. I spoke last night to the President of the European Commission who is viewing this very seriously. The stakes are high. This is about the manner in which the UK is going to leave the EU. That will have a profound impact for ordinary people on the streets of Ireland, the UK and Europe. The stakes cannot get any higher. Brexit is bad and a no-deal Brexit will be much worse. Today we launched a Brexit readiness plan which seriously takes on board the prospect of a no-deal Brexit a…

The Cabinet committee on Europe was established by the Government on 6 July 2020 to oversee implementation of programme for Government commitments in relation to the European Union and related issues. It met on 16 July 2020, in advance of the special meeting of the European Council held in Brussels from 17 to 21 July, when it discussed negotiations on the multi-annual financial framework, the seven-year budget for the EU and on the next generation EU recovery package. It will continue to meet as appropriate, includ…

What were the amounts the Deputy mentioned?

What did the Deputy say about timelines?

To which timelines is the Deputy referring?

The Cabinet EU committee will primarily deal with the EU Council issues and EU issues more generally. There is a separate Brexit and Northern Ireland committee. We met before the latest EU Council meeting, which was successful. From the Irish perspective, we took a very honest broker approach, believing it was important that the EU worked in a collective fashion to borrow money to assist Europe's recovery and particular member states who will be in greater difficulty than others because of their fiscal and economic…

The treatment of the Debenhams workers has been very shabby, shoddy and unacceptable and I have made that point on a number of occasions. Notwithstanding the difficulties the parent company was or is in, the failure to honour the collective agreements into which these workers had entered is unacceptable, and the manner in which they have been treated is unacceptable as far as the performance of the company is concerned. I have met the workers on a number of occasions, both in the Taoiseach's office and on the picke…

It is the table to which the Deputy has just alluded. She knows what I am saying. Talks should begin. There should be dialogue again between the key interests. The Deputy knows there was ongoing work by Mandate, in particular, to do its best in difficult situations to arrive at and realise a package from the workers. Last Friday, the Deputy welcomed that there was a result from that engagement. However, the scale of the engagement clearly was not sufficient to meet workers' desires, understandably. It did not even …

That assessment will be finished by quarter four of this year.

The Deputy is correct that I met the workers in the Taoiseach's office. They were realistic and they were not easily fooled by anybody about what was possible and not possible within the law. They had no intention of being taken up the mountain only to be led back down again. They were focused on trying to get a realistic package for themselves and their colleagues, who have spent a long time with the company and who have worked for many years. The Deputy knows full well that last week's offer was not a Government …

The Deputy implied it.

No, I did not.