Hold on. Last month, the Government also approved the extension of Covid-19 illness benefit to the end of March 2021. It is important to note that the Covid-19 illness benefit payment and the pandemic unemployment payment are also available to people living in direct provision centres as well as to applicants for international protection who live in the community outside of the direct provision system. I discussed this with the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Heather Humphreys, over a …

I know that. I accept the necessity to intervene here. We all agree on that. As I said to the Deputy, I will constructively engage with his legislation, which has more longer-term implications for the broader workforce.

We have intervened in direct provision.

We have discussed this with the acting Chief Medical Officer. We are collectively on the same page with regard to this. We have made provision for it from the State's side so that workers know-----

-----that if they get sick or have to self-isolate, they will not lose out. That is something we have communicated and will continue to communicate.

I thank Deputy Murphy for the series of questions raising very real concerns and issues relating to people from the Deputy's county, the impact of the lockdowns and the whole situation around high-risk areas such as meat plants, which to a large extent represented the perfect storm in the spread of the virus, and related issues. Again, the decision to intervene in the three counties by bringing in severe restrictions was necessitated by advice from the public health doctors. I was in regular and almost daily contac…

I am very clear that we must have this engagement with the meat industry and with other sectors that are important and which create employment. The rights of workers in the meat industry need strengthening and I believe collective representation for those workers is important. That will form part of the Government's continuing engagement with the industry.

Of course I will visit the areas. I did not want to do so during the period of the severe restrictions but we were in touch with the chambers of commerce. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, the Tánaiste and others were in touch with affected people in the three counties and we will continue to engage with them. On the data hub, the Deputy heard yesterday from the acting CMO that the next uploading of data will be in September. I have asked for greater provision of data. NPHET wa…

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The Government is not about punishing anyone and has not been from the outset of the pandemic. The key responses in terms of the pandemic unemployment payment and the wage subsidy scheme have, as I have said before, been unprecedented and significant and have supported a significant number of people. This week approximately €17.2 million will be paid out to approximately 225,000 people in respect of the pandemic unemployment payment. That is a decrease of about 5,500. We n…

The whole thrust of Government policy is not to punish; it is to support. Any objective analysis of Government interventions to date would have to accept that was the case. The level of State intervention is unprecedented, and rightly so, because it is an unprecedented global pandemic. Both schemes are being extended to April - that is the fact. The Deputy is talking about the rates. From 17 September, the PUP will be paid at three rates: people who previously earned more than €300 per week will receive €300 per we…

We will continue to work on those issues. I take the sincerity of the Deputy's comments in regard to Debenhams, the workers of which we are continuing to engage with.

I move: The Dáil Éireann approves the nomination by the Taoiseach of Deputy Charlie McConalogue for appointment by the President to be a member of the Government. It is my intention to assign to Deputy McConalogue the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. As the House will know, Deputy McConalogue's knowledge of this area is both broad and deep. A proud son of Donegal and the Inishowen Peninsula, he brings with him a perspective rooted in communities which have always been defined by their spirit and dete…

The Deputy loves throwing accusations about the place and assertions in relation to the Government's overall policy. She is basing her claims, and is trying to throw away the political consensus that has served the country well in dealing with Covid-19 over the past five months, on the fact that as few as 100 people have had their pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, suspended because of overseas holidays. I understand and appreciate the need for robust political debate, but I also believe there is a need for honest…

As Deputy Kelly said, they were there before that as well. They have been there for a long time. The fact that we are extending this payment until the end of next April shows our commitment to helping and supporting people. Alongside that, we have also put together a very substantial job activation programme under the July stimulus to help people secure alternative employment. All we are getting from Deputy McDonald is play-acting. She is deliberately undermining what has been a genuine effort to reach out to peopl…

These are the facts and the Deputy must know them. She is being completely disingenuous in her attack on the Government on this issue. As regards her question about reviews, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is there to hear reviews. We are not out to undermine anyone on the PUP or to single them out in any shape or form. I want to make that very clear. On the contrary, the pandemic unemployment payment is working and has worked, along with the wage subsidy scheme, to underpin the economy. …

The Deputy says she is against all foreign travel. Is that what she has said?

Is she? I have been hearing different messages from the Deputy on this for the last week or two.

Regarding the compliance issue, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection carries out compliance inspections at ports and airports throughout the year. My notes state it has been doing so since 2012. The legal basis for the control and compliance checks is section 250(16) of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, as amended by section 17 of the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2012. Since March 2020, some 2,000 PUP claims have been closed as a result of checks carried out in Dublin Airport. That…

I did not send inspectors out to the airports.

They have been going out for years and well the Deputy knows it. What she has tried to do in here is to turn an issue which involves 100 or 200 people into some massive political philosophy or ideology that is out to get people when, in fact, that is not what the Government is about. The Government has extended this scheme to the end of April. It currently caters for up to 287,000 people and we have underpinned and strengthened it to give additional protections to deem those people to have made their social contrib…