How was it that the Taoiseach's backbenchers were telling people to engage? How did they know?

I will not withdraw it.

The Taoiseach told me that-----

He is insulting them.

The Taoiseach is insulting the workers.

The Taoiseach now has a package that will not now fly.

Our proposal is to remove section 13 from the Bill in its entirety. Section 13 gives the power to the Minister to make regulations that carry criminal sanctions without reference to the Dáil. That is quite a blank cheque to give the Minister and we are not prepared to do it. We do not think the House should be prepared to do it either. No doubt the Minister will argue that no regulation can be made which is outside the framework of the Constitution or within a timeframe other than that within which the Bill operate…

The Minister said in her opening remarks that the pupil-teacher ratio has been reduced in recent years. That is true, but the point is that it has not been reduced nearly enough. We have 100,000 students in classes of more than 30 according to the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, INTO. We have a pupil-teacher ratio of 25:1 in primary school when the European equivalent is 20:1. Teaching takes place in bigger classrooms in Europe. Here, the largest classroom size is 49 sq. m and there may be a few in recent ye…

The Taoiseach's Government is 67 days old today and here he is asking the Dáil for the third time to approve the nomination of a Minister with responsibility for agriculture. The Government may need to come to us again next week or the week after with another new Minister, perhaps one with responsibility for foreign affairs this time. Never before in the history of the State has this happened. Never before in the history of the State has the Government been reduced to such a shambles. As Oscar Wilde once nearly sai…

It is the final day of this Dáil session before the summer recess and we are discussing changes to the Companies Act, which is clearly a top priority for the Minister and the Government. I do not have any issue with these changes being put through the House quickly but they stand in stark contrast to the foot-dragging in changes that must be made to legislation to protect worker interests, including interests in positions of company liquidation. It is long overdue for legislation to be passed through the House to m…

Why are the leaving certificate results being given out three weeks later than originally intended when the schools provided the information to the Department that they were asked to give bang on time?

No matter what way the Minister spins it this is a delay. What is the real reason for this? Is it that if one postpones the dissemination of the results, one postpones the sitting of leaving certificate 2020 for those who want to sit it? If one postpones the sitting of the leaving certificate 2020, one kills the chance for those students sitting the exam and using those results to get into college for the year 2020-2021. Instead they will use calculated grades to get into college for the year 2020-2021 and all of t…

What about the students who are taking the leaving certificate next year? The Taoiseach informed me yesterday that the syllabus will not be changed and that exams will go ahead but that the students will be offered more choices in order to reflect and take into account the fact that those students have lost much face-to-face teacher time this year. The students are interested in hearing that but want to know what is the extent of the changes and the scope of the choices that they are going to be given. When is that…

The amendment seeks to delete the Government proposal to make it a criminal offence to deliberately and intentionally give false information on a declaration that would say that one's income has been hit by the Covid-19 crisis and, as a result, one is in rent arrears. The Government is creating a situation where a person can face eviction and then, on top of that, face criminal charges for giving a declaration that is false or misleading. Why would someone give a declaration that was false or misleading? There are …

The Minister is in favour of a criminal charge against someone in that situation. There are reasons people give false information. Sometimes it is for the best of reasons. Protecting one's family and children is a pretty strong reason. This proposal should be withdrawn. If the Government is not prepared to withdraw it, I am prepared to press it.

My amendment, No. 10, will add to the category of relevant persons people aged over 65, all those who have lost income and those with underlying medical conditions. There is much confusion in society, created in large measure by people involved in the Government's spin machine. They were on the FM radio stations at the start of the week saying what the Bill would do, which gave the impression that it contains far wider protections than is really the case. Many people have the impression that if someone is receiving…

Thank you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. To be clear on what is being proposed here, the Government is trying to push through without debate a major organisational change in the way in which this Dáil organises its business, namely, to change the order of speaking time in Dáil debates. The aim of it is to ensure that smaller left parties and groups and Independent groups have less prominence in those debates. Why do they want to do this? Just look at what has happened in this House over the course of the past three to f…

Could I speak without interruption, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle?

If it was not for the role of precisely those smaller left groups and Independents over the past few weeks, the Government would not have been called to account in nearly as efficient a way as it was on the issue of the pay increases for the junior Ministers.

It would not have been called to account in nearly as effective a way on the issue of their scandalous attempt to try to deny the pandemic unemployment payment to unemployed people who are travelling. I will conclude on this point, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.