It also would have a huge impact on testing and contract tracing operations.

The question is whether it is better to have contact tracing and testing deployed elsewhere, which we are doing at the moment.

The Minister has announced that there will be an extension but equally there is a need for primary legislation to deal with this issue. The existing legislative base is not solid and could be open to attack and challenges subsequently. We have to get this right. The new law will prevent the eviction of tenants unable to pay their rent due to the impact of Covid-19. It protects them on a statutory footing and it is focused on the vulnerable in our society. It also gives a stronger role to the Residential Tenancies B…

The promised legislation protects renters. That is the purpose of it. It will do so far more effectively over the long term than the current statutory instrument. We are not caving in to anybody. We do not want to go into the courts and lose. The advice is clear. The current statutory instrument is not legally sustainable.

The Government has to act legally. Governments cannot act illegally. It is easy for the Deputy and other Opposition Deputies to proclaim that we should act illegally. Governments cannot act illegally because if we do so, we expose workers in terms of the compensation that would have to be paid, rights and so on. We do not want that. We want to protect renters. We want to protect people from becoming homeless. We want to protect people from being evicted. The legislation gives us-----

-----a stronger primary legislative foundation to do that. That is the objective.

The Minister with responsibility for housing is committed to the provision of affordable homes over the lifetime of this Government, to extending the serviced sites fund and to providing seed capital to local authorities to provide serviced sites at cost in towns and villages to allow individual families to build homes. In that context, I will ask the Minister to engage with the Deputy on the Claregalway situation. The Government cannot necessarily instruct councils but it can engage with them to progress situation…

That point is very well made in terms of stimulating the domestic tourism industry and encouraging it through various mechanisms that are under consideration by the Cabinet sub-committee and the Cabinet. We need to develop incentives and mechanisms to encourage people to spend on bed and breakfasts and to take a weekend away in Ireland over the next number of months because, as we know, tourists are not travelling to Ireland in anywhere near the numbers of a year ago. Of all the sectors of the economy, the travel, …

Insurance companies should honour their commitments. The Government is taking the insurance issue very seriously. The Ministers of State, Deputies Fleming and Troy, the Tánaiste, the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform are all very focused on the need to deal comprehensively with the insurance issue in order that insurance companies will honour people's policies and that we get insurance costs down. The cost of insurance is a significant burden on many viable enterprises that are…

I am not going into the details or announcing anything here. The Cabinet will meet to discuss this and to finalise a variety of measures that are really about sustaining jobs and trying to create alternative employment opportunities for people over the next 12 months. There will be an immediate impact in the context of shovel-ready projects, various initiatives and so on. The latter is not just for this month, it is right through to the end of the year and beyond.

My view is that we should utilise non-governmental organisations in the mental health area and in the addiction services area. Over the past number of years, when I was actively pursuing mental health issues, one of the difficulties was in recruiting psychiatrists and psychologists to various mental health teams throughout the country. I pressed various Ministers to try to work with high-quality non-governmental organisations that could, perhaps, support and complement the work of the public mental health services.…

I will ask the Minister for Health to pursue that matter. Has the team been in touch with the HSE in respect of this?

We will check that out. I do not have the specifics regarding the team but we will pursue that.

To respond to Deputy Ó Cuív, next week we will bring the Criminal Justice (Mutual Recognition of Decisions on Supervision Measures) Bill 2019 back before the House. I will revert to the Deputy in respect of the publication of the mutual recognition of custodial sentences Bill. I agree with Deputy Haughey's points about the need for greater provision for intervention teams in the areas of both education and health. I favour greater recruitment of speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physiother…

I move: It is proposed, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, or in Schedule 2 to Standing Orders, that----- (1) the election of a Leas-Cheann Comhairle as provided for in Standing Order 11 shall take place in the auditorium of the Convention Centre Dublin (CCD) on North Wall Quay, Dublin 1, on Thursday 23rd July, 2020, and (2) the following arrangements shall apply to that election, where there is more than one validly nominated candidate: ( a ) ballot papers shall be provided to members at locations in the…

The Government recognises the importance of regular and open engagement with all sectors of society. This is particularly important as we steer our way out of the pandemic, rebuild our economy and support communities that have been severely impacted by Covid-19. As outlined in the programme for Government, we will establish a unit within my Department to help co-ordinate future social dialogue. This unit will seek to create new models of sectoral engagement with a wide range of stakeholders across civil society. It…

I am anxious to develop and expand the engagement with the social partners more generally. As I said earlier, that is particularly important in the context of economic recovery from Covid-19. The labour-employer economic forum, LEEF, mechanism has been useful. The Tánaiste and the Minister for Finance have been involved in that, as was the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation in the previous Government. That will continue. As we emerge from Covid-19 in the fullness of time, we need to work with various …

Throughout my political life I have had a long-standing belief in the value and importance of engagement with stakeholders in our society, particularly social partners. I have a long record of such engagement in the various Ministries I have held. I also believe in getting the right balance in doing that. This is not about co-opting anybody into any corporate programme. It is about how we navigate change in our society and the prioritisation of housing and healthcare. Ultimately we must all prioritise. In my view, …

I propose to take Questions Nos. 2 to 4, inclusive, together. Since taking office I have spoken by telephone with several leaders, including German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, United Kingdom Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, and the President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausda. I attended a special July meeting of the European Council in Brussels, the focus of which was the budgetary package for the European Union for the next seven years, the multi-…

First, there is an existing health programme within the multi-annual financial framework. There are two dimensions to this, namely, the multi-annual financial framework, which is the seven-year budget for the European Union, and, alongside that, the Next Generation EU recovery fund. Going into the summit, the Commission's proposal was for a €750 billion package. The Commission and the President of the Council, along with a number of member states, including ours - I was a very strong advocate of this - wanted the p…