The July stimulus will be a multibillion euro package of supports to small and medium-sized enterprises impacted by Covid-19. Today's Revised Estimate is a smaller affair entirely but, to an extent, this debate is rehearsing certain lines of argument on these issues. In that sense, the debate, important in itself, has a greater or wider significance. A package of supports for SMEs is one thing but such a package without strong terms and conditions is rather different. For instance, should a company which refuses to…

I have a question for the Minister on the issue of mental health services. Before I deal with that, I want to make a couple of points about the deal between the State and the Private Hospitals Association. There have been various criticisms of that deal, some of which are valid and others not. One criticism is that it was bad value for money because there was only a 36% bed occupancy rate during the crisis. I do not think it would have been possible to foresee in advance that the occupancy rate would be at that lev…

Will there be a youth revolt in the lifetime of this Dáil? The country voted for change in February. The Green Party benefited from that vote but today it betrayed it by putting Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael back in the saddle. The vote for change may not have been sufficiently decisive this time, but no such argument can be made about the votes cast by young people. Young people did not vote for a Government led by conservative parties and they most certainly did not vote for a party which won the votes of fewer than …

The former Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, told the House this morning that Civil War politics has now ended in Ireland's Parliament. I do not often agree with Deputy Varadkar but I think he is right on this one and the official end of Civil War politics is a significant moment. Irish capitalism has had two key parties down the decades. For almost 100 years now, there has not been a single Government that has not been led by one or other of those parties or their direct predecessors. When Fianna Fáil lost popularity, F…

The pandemic has hit the aviation industry hard. How can European governments respond to this crisis in aviation? In Germany, Lufthansa received a state bailout of €9 billion and in return the state took a 20% stake, making it the largest shareholder. Presumably this gives the German state significant leverage now in determining airline policy. The option that I would favour is the nationalisation or renationalisation of airlines. This would allow the State to act directly to defend jobs, wages, conditions and serv…

"I'm the oldest sister, and I was abused from the age of four upwards, so I would say to all women, never mind Traveller women, all women out there, that was abused, or anything happened to them, come forward, [do not be afraid]." The nation was shocked by the horrific rapes and abuse meted out to the O'Reilly sisters and to their aunt. In equal measure, however, the nation was powerfully impressed by the brave words of Helen O'Donoghue and the brave actions of all those women. I support their call for an inquiry i…

I want to start by talking about State racism. Now 20 years old, the direct provision system is cruel and heartless. It deliberately puts asylum seekers into miserable living conditions to discourage others from travelling to here from outside fortress Europe, and it deliberately separates asylum seekers from the rest of Irish society, the better to make it easy to deport people whose applications do not succeed. It is the major example in this country of State racism. We have had reports in recent days of plans to…

Front-line workers in the health service have been selfless and have made big sacrifices. At the end of May it was reported that 8,000 health service personnel had contracted the Covid-19 virus with 9% of them having contracted it in the workplace, which underlines the point about the selfless work that has been done here. Throughout society, it has become commonplace to applaud the work of health service workers. Ministers have joined in doing that. However, it is not right that health service workers would be app…

I think the Minister has said what I want him to say.

I will leave it at that.

I want to ask the Minister about the Covid-19 crisis and the question of mental health. A recent article in The Irish Times entitled "Ireland facing a 'tsunami' of mental health problems", cited international evidence to show that the pandemic has served to intensify the mental health crisis in other countries. In the United States, for example, 45% of people with suicidal thoughts recently had explicitly linked them to Covid-19. Maynooth university and the centre for global health at Trinity College Dublin recentl…

This is a timely debate, both because of the enormous climate crisis and because the Green Party may be on the verge of going into government. I will start with a couple of big picture points. I read a report the other day that said climate emissions may be down 12% in the State this year, not because of any actions by the Government, but because of the virus. It is like what happened ten years ago when there were declines in carbon emissions because of the crash in the economy rather than anything a conservative G…

I want to raise some points about the intervention of the Garda in an industrial dispute. The dispute I refer to is the Debenhams dispute. Debenhams workers, who are members of the Mandate trade union, have balloted 97% in support of industrial action. That makes this the first official strike of the lockdown and, therefore, something of a test case. In Cork city last week, staff from a security company removed a safe from the Debenhams store in St. Patrick's Street containing approximately €40,000. Nothing moves i…

The Irish Times last Saturday reported the following: "It is also understood the department is exploring the idea of a “tapered curriculum” when schools return." It also reported: "Some elements of the junior cycle are also being curtailed, with incoming third-year students now required to complete a single classroom-based assessment in most subjects, rather than two." Will the Minister clarify whether this is the case? Is he considering a tapered curriculum for leaving certificate students of the class of 2021? Th…

Sure.

I made the point in an earlier debate that the world watched with horror the brutal police murder of George Floyd and that many, myself included, watched with admiration the multiracial uprising of young people in the US against its President, police forces and an entire system that is riddled with inequality and racism. In this debate, I wish to make some further points and bring that discussion back to Ireland. President Trump has repeated the phrase once used by a racist police chief, "When the looting starts, t…

In her introductory remarks the Minister said that the Revised Estimates are proposed on a no-policy change basis. The Minister also said that she intends to bring forward proposals for some changes within the next week or so. I believe it is fairly clear as to what those policy changes might include. It has been pretty well flagged by Government Ministers and Fianna Fáil Front Bench spokespersons over the last week. Government Ministers have said that the €350 pandemic unemployment payment is unsustainable. Superm…

We were informed that for the end of March the numbers living in emergency accommodation had gone below the 10,000 mark for the first time in quite a long time. Apart from anything else, that does relieve pressure on local authorities and it shows the value of having a ban on evictions. There has been a crisis, however, in the private rental sector for a good while now. It is about to get a major new twist with the Covid crisis. There is the probability of a major spillover putting local authorities under more pres…

In the Watergrasshill area, which is on the border of my constituency, there is a Kepak meat plant. Kepak has 650 workers there, of whom more than 120 tested positive for Covid-19 last week. All over the world, meat plants are hot spots for Covid. In the United States, where President Trump has come in for particularly sharp criticism, more than 10,000 meat workers have been affected and at least 30 have died. That international criticism has been justified, but the USA has 100 times the number of meat plants that …

To be clear, Mandate Trade Union, as well as almost 2,000 Debenhams workers or people who worked at Debenhams, is calling on the Minister, tonight, to appoint an authorised officer to intervene in the Debenhams liquidation. The union cites European law that gives the Minister the power to do so, but even leaving legal powers aside, there is nothing to prevent her bringing to bear political and moral pressure for the extension of the period of consultation. She should do so and not offer mealy-mouthed excuses in the…