The Deputy's assertion is untrue. I did not have sight of that offer.

I am telling Deputy Barry the truth. Will he withdraw what he just said? I did not have sight of that offer before the workers.

The Deputy cannot be making assertions of that kind.

What is happening, from Deputy Barry's perspective, and has happened from the beginning of the dispute, is that this is about the politicisation and exploitation of the issue to the best political advantage of the Deputy. I put it to him bluntly that that is what he is about. My focus is on what I can do practically for the workers.

I am not into some sort of ideological war.

There are two things we can do from this date. We will do whatever we can to put pressure on to get a deal, a respectable package, for the workers. We need to change the law as well to protect workers in future by protecting collective agreements. That has to happen. As I said, I had preliminary discussions with ICTU. They were not on the agenda. I had a general discussion with representatives of ICTU last week in the context of the social dialogue unit we are establishing in my Department. In the context of that d…

Yesterday was a special day for the thousands of students in the class of 2020 and their families. It is fair to say these students have endured a lot of anxiety and uncertainty over the past year due to the severe impact that Covid-19 has had on their lives, education and leaving certificate examinations. School communities and teachers articulated more than a sigh of relief that we have got to the stage when results have been issued. I pay tribute to all involved in the calculated grades system, including the tec…

We are keeping a very strong watch on this and will do everything we can to try to ease the pressures on those securing places this year.

As I said, the Government has approved 5,000 extra places this year to try to ease the pressures. The calculated grades model is robust and as fair as it can possibly be. The decision to take out the socio-economic profiling of schools was correct and was broadly welcomed in the House. The Government does not have within its capacity the power to create places for every single person who wants a place in third level, unfortunately. Third level institutions do not have the capacity. Ministers have worked with third …

The report did not make specific proposals for changes to the Companies Act 2014; rather its proposals were primarily concerned with amendments to employment law and the company law review group has considered options in respect of company law. The Tánaiste has asked it to do so now with a view to protecting the rights of workers where collective agreements have been arrived at. Clearly there has been a breach of a collective redundancy agreement here by the company, which is in liquidation. The parent company was …

It is not as simple as bringing in emergency legislation.

We had to in terms of the Covid payment, the pandemic unemployment payments and the wage subsidy scheme for hundreds of thousands of people.

They were very straightforward measures to give a legislative basis to make sure that workers did not go without during the pandemic, particularly before the summer recess. In this situation, it is about changing company law and bringing in recommendations - a combination of both - that emanate from the Duffy Cahill report. The Duffy Cahill report in itself would not necessarily, in some cases, help a situation similar to that in which the Debenhams workers are but it could not be applied retrospectively and it wou…

New loopholes emerge.

We have got to make sure we do this properly this time. We must ensure that loopholes are boxed off, that there is a greater emphasis on protecting collective agreements in employment law into the future and preventing bad practices in terms of separation of assets from trading income and a whole load of mechanisms that can be used by some companies to exit from their obligations.

I was only going to suggest that the eloquence of the Deputy proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that it is impossible to gag him.

Quite clearly, what happened in the summer was that many backbenchers of other parties wanted to have their say as well and wanted their opportunity.

No. They are backbenchers elected by the people, just as Deputy Boyd Barrett is elected-----

What the Deputy is asserting is that he has rights that are superior to those of other Deputies in this House.

He always is. Essentially that is his argument.