It is nice to see the Minister of State and he is very welcome. On behalf of Sinn Féin, I welcome the motion on sick pay, which will have our full support. I also welcome the speeches made by my colleagues in the Labour Party. Where do I begin with sick pay? I will begin with my own experience of working as a trade union official with red meat workers. What is not often said, and it needs to be said, is that our red meat industry is rife with exploitation. We are not talking about a few bad apples. We are talking a…

The Minister of State is welcome. It is nice to see her and I congratulate her on her appointment. Like me, she was a member of the eighth amendment committee. I remember her as a constructive voice on that committee. It is good to have her in her current role and I wish her well. I will start with the point raised by Senator Craughwell concerning Aer Lingus. It was a fundamental mistake to sell off the remaining stake in Aer Lingus. Indeed, it was a fundamental mistake to sell off the company in the first place. W…

Hear, hear.

This is awkward and I am sure the Minister of State feels a little uncomfortable as well because it has been quite a week for the Bill and the House.

To answer Senator Casey's question, it is awkward because the former Minister of State who designed the Bill has now moved seamlessly to a position of key influence in the industry.

I hear the Leas-Chathaoirleach but I want to make this point as early as possible and I will be very succinct.

Pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill was waived. We agreed to that because we want to be constructive. However, in light of the events of the past week, when former Senator D'Arcy, who was the ultimate architect of the Bill, resigned in the manner in which he did, which I find really odd-----

I am staying with the Bill. Here is the thing. We know from the fallout relating to the Bill that there are concerns about lobbying in the sector. The problem is that when the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO, wrote to the former Minister to express these concerns regarding section 22, the Minister of State who reviewed it and said there was nothing to do was none other than Michael D'Arcy. I am simply making the point that given all that has happened, Sinn Féin's position right now is that we need to go…

Of course.

I emphasise the point that there has been no pre-legislative scrutiny. We have concerns about what has happened here in the past week. I will read a quote we heard in the Chamber last week: "From my experience, investors are significantly ahead of everyone else." That was a contribution from our erstwhile colleague, former Senator D'Arcy. I ask the Minister of State to ponder that. We need proper pre-legislative scrutiny on this Bill and I reserve the right to bring forward amendments on Report Stage.

I really want to echo what Senator Higgins has said. As acknowledged by the Minister of State last week, this is a detailed and technical Bill which runs to 90 pages. The fact of the matter is that the key architect of that Bill has now transferred to head up a key lobbying organisation. The job description says that part of his new role will be to ensure the association's policies and views are clearly communicated in a timely manner to target audiences, in particular, governments, departments and regulators. It i…

Like Senator Buttimer, I raise the issue of aviation policy and call for the urgent appearance of the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport before this House. I am concerned about the airports in the west, particularly Shannon Airport. In fact, I have never been more concerned because, only yesterday, the Minister apparently ruled out any option of bringing Shannon Airport back under Dublin Airport Authority, DAA, management. If that is the case, it will have catastrophic consequences for Shannon Airport. The r…

Except in Catalonia.

The Senator can pick and choose his values.

Hear, hear.

I also congratulate the Leas-Chathaoirleach. I was not around on Friday. I am delighted he is in the position and I believe he is the ideal candidate to take on the role of Leas-Chathaoirleach. He has a been a friend and comrade at the Council of Europe and I wish him well. This is his first day and he should know that it is an auspicious day. It is Bruce Springsteen's birthday. It is a fine day to start.

We should get him over here. I also welcome the Minister of State. As he alluded to, this is a highly technical Bill which is pitched towards one industry, which has its own needs and interests. I am sure the Minister of State will also agree that those needs and interests are not shared by the vast majority of our constituents, who would benefit much more from a reversal of the cuts to the pandemic unemployment payment, solutions to a coming wave of mortgage arrears or increased capacity in our hospitals than from…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I wish to begin by placing on the record of the House my unhappiness at conducting legislative scrutiny in this hurried manner. It is not how we should be conducting the business of this revising Chamber. We are waiving pre-legislative scrutiny and there has been no regulatory impact assessment. The decision to take all Stages in one sitting is all for practice. It means, for example, that no amendment, no matter how perfect or valuable it may be, has absolutely any chance of being cons…

I join the Cathaoirleach in thanking the staff for enabling us to operate in the way that we do in a week during which some dreadful remarks were made about public servants. I hope all of us will join together in recognising the value of the people who enable us to work in the way we do and in thanking them and in wishing them well in the weeks ahead. I raise the issue of Debenhams. This is day 111 of the strike by members of staff of Debenhams who are members of Mandate and SIPTU. They have spent 16 weeks on the p…

I wish to raise a couple of points and will try not to repeat the points that have already been made if possible. We must talk about how we got to where we are today. The simple fact is that we are in this difficulty because, for the last couple of decades under both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, there was very little or no building of public housing. That is how we got into this mess. Both of the conservative parties decided that the market would do. That is the fact of the matter. That is what happened under Fianna …