I thank the Minister again for his reply. In fairness, when I ask a question, he always gives an honest answer. People have space in their homes, including garages, spare bedrooms or in other locations. Would the Minister consider giving an adaptation grant to help people? If a person is waiting to reclaim tax, it could take a long time. People are struggling at the moment. One can get an adaptation grant of maybe €4,000 or €5,000 to do up a garage. It is a snowball effect. Apart from making life more bearable at h…

I thank my fellow members of the Regional Group for their hard work in bringing this Private Members' Bill to the House. The main purpose of the Bill is to increase the penalties for those found guilty of an offence under section 26 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004, which deals with fraudulent actions. The aim of the Bill is to act as a genuine deterrent to those people who make false claims and, in turn, increase the penalties for such offences, and to have such matters referred to the Director of Public…

There are a number of issues I would like the Government to raise at the forthcoming European Council meeting. The first and most important one is that of the roll-out of the Covid vaccination. As the Government knows but will not admit, we are way behind in getting vaccinations administered to the public. We need help now from our European colleagues to increase the number of vaccines we are receiving. What we are getting is simply not enough. I saw a statistic over the weekend that showed that on the previous Sun…

I worked with the Minister for Justice for eight years when I was in Fine Gael. In fairness, she is a fantastic worker. I wish her and Paul the best of luck. I commend the Taoiseach on letting the House know as soon as possible the position with regard to the Minister taking leave. What Deputy Bríd Smith said is important. It is important that we define the job the Minister for Social Protection will do. In fairness, having two senior roles could dilute the service. I would appreciate if the Taoiseach could explain…

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Private Members' motion and I thank the Deputies who have brought it before the House. It raises some good points that the Government needs to address in a constructive manner. In the main, I fully support the motion although there are aspects of it that are aspirational and would not be workable. I come from the Dundalk region of County Louth and the Dundalk Institute of Technology, DkIT, is on my doorstep. DkIT is, without doubt, one of the most recognisable landmarks in…

I welcome the opportunity to take part in the debate today. I would like to start by commenting, once more, on the failure of this Government and the HSE to reach its vaccination target for the second week in a row. It is unacceptable this has happened, and to make matters worse, it has happened two weeks in a row. As the Minister knows, the people of this country have been in lockdown for the best part of a year. Their only hope of getting back to life as they once knew it is with the vaccine. It is soul-destroyin…

I very much welcome the opportunity to take part in this debate. As we all know, the New Decade, New Approach agreement was signed in January of last year and it was to bring a lot of hope and opportunity to the people of the North of Ireland. Nobody could have predicted then the great difficulties we were about to and continue to face. At the time, we had Brexit looming large and today it is on our doorstep creating much difficulty for people and businesses on both sides of the Border. Unfortunately, what the Covi…

I am looking for the Government to intervene on promised legislation. In the programme for Government, the Central Bank (Amendment) Bill 2018 is due for pre-legislative scrutiny in the autumn. Will the Tánaiste give an update on this Bill? The reason I am looking for this update is due to the fact that many of the main banks are reneging on loan approvals for PAYE workers whose employers avail of the Government's temporary wage subsidy scheme. It will be disgraceful if banks are allowed to get away with this. Many …

Earlier, I raised the issue of the banks that were refusing to honour approvals in principle for house mortgages to employees whose employers had availed of the Government's temporary wage scheme. I am dealing with many constituents in the Dundalk area who are affected by this approach. As the Tánaiste knows, the taxpayers paid and continue to pay a heavy price for the help the banks received during the financial crisis. For banks to behave in this manner now is disgraceful. I am working with many young people, inc…

I want to raise with the Taoiseach a very important issue in respect of which clarification is needed. Last week, my local radio station, LMFM, made a number of claims in respect of the HSE temporary accommodation programme. It claimed that the HSE is using a local hotel under the scheme to accommodate healthcare workers who are Covid positive and those who are not Covid positive. It has also claimed that a healthcare worker who contracted the Covid virus while at work was told to stay at the hotel to isolate as th…

Late last night, the HSE contacted the local radio station and confirmed that the incident it had raised was true. This is a very serious breach. We have healthcare workers who are putting their lives in danger for other people. They are being put in hotels with others who are positive for coronavirus. I am a wee bit disappointed. Yesterday, I gave the Taoiseach's assistant the full details of the question I would ask today and I thought at the very least the Department would contact the HSE for an update. I am ver…

Yes. It was confirmed to the radio station.

The station was contacted.

The front page of today's The Irish Times leads with a headline stating that new Covid restrictions will target foreign travel. It also states that a revised plan for living with Covid will be unveiled by the end of the month and that there will be some form of restrictions until at least the end of the year. It further states that the Minister and officials intend to introduce legislation next week which will provide for mandatory quarantine in hotels for incoming travellers. I find it incredible that we are still…

I welcome the Minister's statement and the measures he has announced in recent weeks. I welcome the announcement of youth funding of €67 million for 2021. In particular, I welcome the announcement of €968,490 for the Louth and Meath Education and Training Board. However, this allocation seems low compared with allocations in other areas. Will the Minister clarify the rationale for the difference in allocations to various education and training boards? I welcome the announcement of €12 million for national youth org…

I am sharing time with Deputy Verona Murphy. I will take four minutes and she will have four and a half. The Minister recently brought a memorandum to Cabinet proposing the extension of the pandemic unemployment payment scheme until the end of March. This is very welcome news and an action I support. In light of the extended lockdown, and the prospect that it could be extended even further, will the Minister confirm that the pandemic unemployment payment will be extended beyond the end of March? As she knows, the n…

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak. I thank the Members who brought this motion to the House and in the main, I fully support it. Student nurses and midwives must be treated fairly, with respect and above all, with dignity. Student nurses and midwives who are working on the front line are no different to other essential workers on the front line and this has never been more apparent than during the current pandemic. The bottom line is that they are front-line workers and as such, must be treated as front-li…

I wish to raise a very serious concern around the vaccination programme and the fact that only 100 minutes has been set aside this week to debate this very urgent topic. I and many other Members are facing phone calls from our constituents to get answers on the roll out of the vaccine programme. In my Louth constituency there are major concerns about the roll out of the vaccine in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. Midwives and nurses in the labour ward of the maternity section were promised the vaccination …

I am delighted to hear that a fourth vaccine could be available to this country very soon.

A 97-year-old woman in Dundalk is being looked after by her six daughters. The family has contacted the GP and I have contacted the HSE. I have her details. She is no burden to the State. Is that the reason she is not entitled to get the vaccine? At 97 years of age, she is entitled to get it.