I take the Cathaoirleach's point. I am not singling out any individual. I am just saying that I would expect the Green Party to make a statement on this Bill.

In that case, I apologise. We intend to hold this Government and its three constituent parties to account at every stage. I wish the Minister well and I look forward to hearing her responses.

This is a political forum.

We beat the Senator's party in the election.

That is fair enough.

It is nice to see the Minister, and I congratulate her. I had the pleasure of working with her on the education committee in the last Dáil and she was a genuinely progressive and radical voice. I hope she will be a radical Minister. The good news is that I am going to give her three opportunities to be radical over the next five minutes. The first opportunity is in respect of the Shannon Group, which has been mentioned already. It is an absolute disgrace that the Shannon Group has decided to shut down King John's C…

I hear what the Acting Chairman is saying. I welcome the Minister and congratulate her on her appointment. I wish her well because, to be absolutely clear, everybody wants to see the schools reopened on time and for all our students to be able to go to school safely in order to learn. It is absolutely crucial that this happens. I have concerns, although a few are based around the need for more detail. I welcome the points made about well-being but I want to understand exactly what the well-being programme will look…

The Chair does not want us speaking in this Chamber, that is clear.

I congratulate the Minister of State on his appointment. I have gotten to know him reasonably well through the Council of Europe and have no doubt he will be a dedicated Minister of State. I wish him well before I disagree with many aspects of Government policy. The Bill is broadly to be welcomed. It is indicative of the extraordinary times we live in. The purpose of the Bill is to address operational issues in respect of compliance arising under the Companies Act 2014 and the Industrial and Provident Societies Act…

It is disappointing that the amendment was ruled out of order. I only received notification of that at 12.40 p.m. This shows the difficulties we all have. While we understand the urgency of the Bill, it is frustrating that this happens. I want to make the point to the Minister of State and I suspect he will agree with me that we urgently need a legislative solution for tactical insolvencies. The Duffy Cahill report was produced four years ago and, as Senator Bacik mentioned, we had Clerys before that. To be blunt, …

I am disappointed the amendments have been ruled out of order but I want to adopt a positive stance regarding what the Minister of State said. He said a couple of significant things. I think I am right in saying he has given a commitment that the numbers required to form a co-operative will be reduced in a Bill that is coming, hopefully, in the near future. He has also mentioned a legal definition for co-operatives. I would stress worker co-operatives in particular in that regard. We all know the potential of worke…

I understand the amendment has been ruled out of order and I am disappointed. We spoke about meat factories earlier and we know there are real concerns about health, safety and welfare at work for our workers. The meat factory problem would be solved if trade union officials were allowed to go in to meat factories. I was a trade union official with SIPTU for ten years. With the exception of one factory in Nenagh, I was never allowed into factories. They would not have a trade union man or woman about the place. Whe…

I support the comments of Senator Black about Palestine. Abandoning our Palestinian friends in their hour of need represents the very worst form of betrayal. This morning I want to raise University Hospital Limerick. There are 43 patients on trolleys there this morning. If one looks at the records over the last number of weeks, one will see that University Hospital Limerick is consistently top of the list by some distance. The next nearest this morning was Sligo University Hospital with 18 people on trolleys. I hav…

The Minister of State is always welcome to the Seanad. On behalf of Sinn Féin, I welcome the Bill. The main reason for it is to remove the 50% portfolio cap under the Government's Covid-19 credit guarantee scheme. The removal of the cap is a welcome move by the Government. It negates a problem relating to the scheme whereby banks were refusing to lend to small businesses in dire need of affordable credit. This aspect of the scheme was a problem that Sinn Féin identified many months ago and outlined in a letter to t…

I do not wish to belabour the point. We have been clear that we support the Minister of State on this Bill today. It is important, however, to get the facts correct. I accept entirely that this scheme is not for the benefit of the banks. This scheme is for the benefit of SMEs and that is why we support it. To be absolutely clear, the banks will make money out of this scheme.

Sinn Féin's position is very clear: the banks should not be allowed to defer tax on any of their profits. That is an ideological difference between us on the left and those on the right. The idea that they can defer tax, particularly in this scheme which will be backed by the State, is fundamentally and morally wrong.

Well said.

I promise to keep to time. In Limerick on Monday last, my colleagues in Sinn Féin, Councillors John Costello and Sharon Benson, called an emergency meeting to deal with the crisis in Shannon Heritage and, specifically, the decision to close iconic sites such as King John’s Castle in Limerick and Bunratty Castle at the end of August. This was a disastrous decision. The councillors received great cross-party support, not only for insisting on keeping those sites open but also, more significantly, on calling for the t…

Six and two, yes. I congratulate the Minister of State. I welcome the introduction of the Bill, which speaks to the broader European response to this crisis. The economic fallout of this health crisis is a European problem requiring a European response. The level of debt refinancing necessary to deal with this crisis requires a radical departure from the past. As the European Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, stated, we need to face an extraordinary crisis with extraordinary tools. An essential tool in…

I put on record Sinn Féin’s support for the amendment. I accept what the Minister of State says and we are not going to oppose this Bill today and we are going to support him in getting it passed. However, Senator Higgins has identified a very important gap in terms of support for public services and how we go about setting up our public services. I will give one example. We have all been rightly happy to applaud public sector front-line workers who have literally put their lives on the line in the last few months.…