During the first year of lockdown, more than 20,000 fines were handed out for the breaking of Covid regulations. A special hotline was set up for people to report illegal gatherings. Some 3,000 people were fined for attending social gatherings that broke the law, while another 700 were fined for organising those events. Last summer, a group of young people socialising on South William Street were batoned simply for the crime of enjoying an outdoor summer. Instead of a visit by the Garda, the champagne party in the …

And the law.

One of the many scandals of Covid-19 in this country has been how our pupils, teachers and schools have been treated. One of the latest episodes is that right across the country today and for the last couple of weeks, people are attempting to teach and learn in temperatures of 8°C, 9°C and 10°C. This is almost impossible to do in those circumstances. The reason is that the Government failed to act on our repeated requests in the Workplace Ventilation (Covid-19) Bill 2021, which was passed more than a month ago, and…

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. There has been much talk about watershed moments and I agree that this moment has the potential to be a watershed moment. It can and must be a watershed moment. What struck me last week, attending the vigil outside the Dáil, is that often you go to large assemblies that are powerful partly because people are shouting and making noise, but what was so powerful about the vigil last week was the silence. There was a profound, long silence as people flooded up. There …

I wish to focus on the underlying issue of the Bill, which is the central issue, that is, the ban on fur farming. I will make two points on that. One, there needs to be a just transition for workers engaged in these industries that will have to be shut down and for which we have been campaigning for a long time to shut down. It is not just an issue of redundancy payments. It is also a question of alternative employment and retraining, as is the case with fossil fuel workers who will lose their jobs in the context o…

As the Taoiseach knows, for a long time we have been stressing the importance of ventilation and filtration in a strategy to fight Covid-19, which is an airborne pandemic. We were therefore very glad that People Before Profit’s Workplace Ventilation (Covid-19) Bill 2021 received the support of the entire Dáil. The Minister of State, Deputy English, who contributed to the debate on behalf of the Government, pledged that he would contact me that afternoon to arrange a meeting to discuss how its aims could be rapidly …

The Government information on HEPA filters in schools has been all over the place, to put it mildly. After months of campaigning by People Before Profit, trade unions, parents and teachers, the Government has been dragged, kicking and screaming, to accept the necessity, in some limited circumstances, of HEPA filters in schools. It is progress and some new money actually promised this week, but it is inadequate. I ask the Taoiseach to consider the amount of money involved. I recently spoke to the principal of a scho…

Recommendation 3.4 of the report is: To increase certainty for individuals and businesses, publish a timetable that shows how the national broadband plan roll-out is being brought back on track This was clearly conceived before the latest and emerging very significant scandal relating to National Broadband Ireland. I found the Taoiseach's answers earlier wanting in him seeking to kick the matter to the Minister's regular questions later today. To be blunt, we know from very good work of The Currency , in summary fo…

The role that the Irish Government is playing in blocking people around the world getting access to Covid vaccines is criminal, murderous and absolutely scandalous. We are one year into the global roll-out of the vaccines and just one in 12 people in poor countries have received even one dose. In Haiti only 1% of the population has been vaccinated. In many African countries vaccination rates are between 2% and 5%. Three quarters of healthcare workers across Africa are not fully vaccinated. It is not because of a la…

In response to a parliamentary question last week, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Varadkar, stated: I have an open mind on the alternative suggestion of a TRIPS waiver. I have always said that if we receive a WTO proposal [in writing], we will examine it. That has not happened yet. This is misleading, to say the least. The first formal proposal from India and South Africa to the WTO came in October 2020. As for the open mind, why is the Irish Government lobbying at European Council level …

Hear, hear.

Two and a half thousand children will be homeless this Christmas. They are children living in hotels and emergency accommodation and families with no kitchen to cook in or dinner table to gather around. For some of them, it will be the second Christmas in those conditions. They are tough memories that, we now know from multiple reports, will stick with them throughout their lives. There are others, some of whom I am dealing with, who have a home and a roof over their heads but who have an eviction notice facing the…

I spent the morning with Pete Brennan from Kingswood, Tallaght. He caught Covid at the end of last year. He went to Tallaght hospital and ended up in intensive care. He was in a coma for three months. It is a really terrifying story. Pete's family were told to prepare for the worst but he managed to recover, defying the odds. Like tens of thousands of others in this country, he is now suffering from long Covid. He described to me his brain fog, post-traumatic stress disorder and difficulty breathing. He still needs…

I echo that point. There is a serious issue. I wish to raise with the Taoiseach a case I have raised with him a number of times, that is, the gross and sexist abuse of power by retired Kerry judge James O'Connor. I have brought a number of testimonies to the Dáil of women in vulnerable positions before him on family law matters where he used his position to completely, inappropriately pressurise and pursue them for sexual relationships. When I raised this with the Taoiseach on 29 September he said: "I am very conce…

The Taoiseach said he would revert to me.

For a brief moment, the value and essential nature of workers, those who are on the front line doing the work, had to be recognised in the pandemic. Chief among them, or certainly up there, were supermarket workers, who universally were accepted to be keeping our shops open and providing an essential service when most things were locked down. Even their employers were forced very briefly somewhat to recognise that, for example, with a 10% pandemic bonus from Tesco for its workers. However, as soon as they could, th…

The Taoiseach just confirmed that this is not extra money and that it is a matter of choosing between toilets and HEPA filters. That is an absolutely scandalous position that he has been trying to avoid spelling out all afternoon. I have been listening to him. In any case, I want to ask a question about the sneaky fine print with regard to the announcement made by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, which brings in a new rock bottom pandemic unemployment payment, PUP rate of €150 per week, which is less than the dole a…

What does the Taoiseach expect me to say?

There are thousands of people out of work.

What if they lost their jobs two weeks ago?