Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCeann Comhairle agus leis an Aire. Sa tseachtain atá amach romhainn, tiocfaidh deireadh leis an sos a dtugtar do shealbhóirí morgáistí agus d'aisíocóirí mar gheall ar Covid-19. Beidh tionchar aige seo ar na mílte daoine agus teaghlach ar fud na tíre. Beidh na daoine seo i riaráistí agus i dtrioblóid le haisíocaíochtaí muna gcuidíonn an Rialtas leo. Impím ar an Aire, ar an Rialtas, ar na bainc agus ar na hiasachtóirí eile céimeanna a ghlacadh agus cinneadh a dhéanamh go sínfear amach an sos…

Individual banks can always extend a payment break. They always could and always will be able to do that. However, what it means for customers is that they will be in default and will have a negative credit rating. What it means for the banks is that they will have to hold additional capital. The European Banking Authority has recognised the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic across Europe. The authority has said that if a bank announces a payment break before the end of this month, which is in six days' time, its c…

KBC Bank Ireland has been fined €18.3 million for taking €154 million from 3,700 of its customers. The bank did not just wrongly take the money from those accounts but in 11 cases it took a family home. The bank wrongly took 66 properties in total from individuals, 39 of those during the investigation. Until October last year, KBC Bank Ireland was wrongly taking money from accounts and overcharging them. What is going to happen? The problem is that the banks have collectively stolen €1 billion from customer account…

May I ask the Minister this?

Will the Government introduce the legislation that the Central Bank has called for in order to hold individual bankers to account in order that people could be jailed for the type of practices that have gone on over the past decade in this State?

I asked about individual accountability. It has been examined since 2017.

Ba mhaith liom ceist na monarchana feola a ardú leis an Tánaiste. Tá imní mhór ann anois faoi na figiúirí sna monarchana seo. Tá na gnáth-oibrithe ag fulaingt. Tá an cuma air go bhfuil brabús níos tábhachtaí ná an baol sláinte agus beatha na n-oibrithe seo. Tá an dearcadh ann nach bhfuil an Rialtas ag déanamh a dhíchill ná go leor le déileáil leis seo. Instances of Covid-19 are, regrettably, on the rise. The situation in Dublin is profound and, no doubt, we will have the opportunity to discuss this further througho…

The Tánaiste has been telling us for some time, including during his tenure as Taoiseach, that we have the capacity to carry out 100,000 tests for Covid-19. Last week, we carried out 72,000 tests. Yet, testing in meat plants was being suspended. Our concern is that what we do has to be based on evidence. The evidence tells us that nearly four out of ten workplace clusters are occurring in meat plants. It is having devastating consequences on local economies and communities, and the people of Kildare, Laois and Offa…

There were 7,000 inspections of pubs.

There have been five.

No, there were nearly 7,000 inspections of the pubs that are open.

That was why the testing was suspended last week. The capacity did not exist, despite being at 72,000.

On one occasion on which I raised this issue the Tánaiste said my contribution was "quite a diatribe". Perhaps he will be more considered in his response today given that since that time, the Central Bank's investigation, which was prompted by my dossier, found that what I said was true and that dual pricing is being used by the majority of insurance companies. This is a practice that rips off consumers. The Central Bank is so concerned at what it has seen that it has called for immediate action. The courts have fo…

Gabh mo leith scéal.

Since the public health emergency began, and in order to contain the spread of the virus, sectors of our economy have been entirely closed while others have suffered severely reduced activity as a result of restrictions which were necessary at that time. As a result, thousands of workers have lost jobs and their incomes. With trading brought to a halt, many businesses are currently fighting for their very survival. Chruthaigh an pandemic seo agus na srianta sláinte a tháinig léi deacrachtaí móra dár gcomhlachtaí, i…

Cuirim fáilte roimh an díospóireacht seo. Déanaim comhghairdeas leis an Aire agus leis an Aire Stáit as na róil nua atá acu. Ní bhfuair mé deis é sin a rá ar urlár na Dála roimhe seo. Léiríonn an phaindéim seo dúinn go bhfuil sé ar chumas an Stáit bogadh go gasta le ioncaim, le sláinte agus le poist a chosaint má tá an toil ann. While the level of spending to confront this threat has been considerable, it is not unparalleled and we should remind ourselves of that. On previous occasions, the State poured €44 billion…

Tráthnóna inné, dhearbhaigh Feidhmeannacht na Seirbhíse Sláinte do mo chomhghleacaí as Tiobraid Árann, an Teachta Martin Browne, go raibh stad láithreach curtha le scrúduithe do Covid-19 sna monarchana feola. Sílim go bhfuil sé seo dochreidte, gan chiall agus gearr-radharcach. Tá a fhios againn gurbh iad na clusters sna monarchana seo an chúis ba mhó leis na srianta a cuireadh i bhfeidhm i gcontaetha Chill Dara, Laoise agus Uíbh Fhailí an mhí seo caite. Yesterday evening, the HSE confirmed to my colleague from Tipp…

I want to go to the core of the issue. Workers in meat plants were supposed to be tested yesterday. A decision was taken at a national level to postpone those tests and they will not be carried out until next week. We know that at least 1,500 Covid cases have been associated with meat plants. We know that the meat plants and the outbreaks within them were the primary cause of the entire lockdown of three counties. Can the Tánaiste confirm that we currently have the capacity to test 100,000 people per week? Of cours…

Earlier this week the figures provided by the National Screening Service to my colleague, an Teachta Cullinane, show a massive backlog in cancer screening throughout the State. It highlights that a catch-up programme is urgently needed. The figures show that fewer than 100,000 people have been screened through the State's three cancer screening programmes this year compared with five times that - half a million people - who were screened last year. More than 450 cancers and 1,600 precancer diagnoses may have been m…

This was not only an issue of delay but also of misdiagnosis. It was an issue of serious flaws at management level in Letterkenny University Hospital, at Saolta level, but also at governmental level. One of the recommendations of the review is that a maternity or obstetrics ward would be commissioned. That ward was built, not yesterday or the years before that but in 2000. A state-of-the-art theatre has lain idle for 20 years which has resulted in some of the issues I outlined. We cannot brush over the fact of the …