Can I respond to that?

Today, we were presented with a paper that rebutted the very proposition we were agreeing last week so I do not see the necessary progress and we will push this to a vote.

This is an incredible shambles. Members had been informed on social media that the Dáil was adjourned until next Tuesday. I work with a team of 37 Deputies, and there are 160 Deputies in total. There was a clear schedule of business, including questions, statements, and a Private Member's motion. It was hours of business. We were trying to relay the information we were given in a complete vacuum. I am the whip for a party with 37 Deputies and nobody from this institution contacted me this evening. Nobody told me wh…

What I am interpreting, based on the Ceann Comhairle's guidance, is that the Government's advice to him left him with no option but to make the call that he made. That is the interpretation I take from that. Then no whip on the opposition side, and there are seven in total, or leader was communicated with directly, apart from Deputy Alan Kelly's conversation with the Taoiseach. There was no direct communication with us from the Government side to outline to us ideas about how we would deal with the schedule, whethe…

I referred earlier to the Irish inshore fisheries sector strategy which was launched in January of last year. In dialogue I have had with the inshore fisheries sector, questions are being asked as to when the implementation group last met and the plans to implement the strategy.

I am sure the Minister will agree that it is absolutely stunning that the last time the implementation group met was November 2019. The whole country has gotten used to conducting meetings online. We have all conducted countless meetings online every day. Could this group not have met online? The aforementioned report refers to an industry-led approach, which was really welcome and which was in stark contrast to the approach adopted 20 years ago. The last time there was a major report like this, the industry was no…

I ask that the Minister would include in his diary for the upcoming period a meeting with the National Inshore Fishermen’s Association, NIFA. I met them online in recent weeks and they raised a wide range of issues with me. They feel utterly abandoned by the Government with regard to supports during the Covid crisis and the price of produce. I cannot stress enough that they are in crisis. The recent deal between the EU and the US on lobster tariffs is another threat, so there is a range of issues. There is a sense …

It is not agreed. As the Ceann Comhairle will be aware, we have had some dialogue today and my party has made a submission which would permit all Dáil business to return to Leinster House. The optics of us being in this cavernous space while we are asking hundreds of thousands of workers and students to wear masks and keep 1 m apart if they cannot achieve 2 m are not good. It is unsustainable. Increasingly, there is agreement around the House on this. This motion is premature in that we need to find a solution to t…

The Deputy is a charlatan.

Deputy McGrath is a political bluffer and everyone knows it.

Fishers all around our coast were shocked and outraged when they learned that the Taoiseach had signed off on the statutory instrument introducing regulations containing a penalty point system. Those fishers learned about this 11 days ago and I have spoken to many of them since. I was speaking to fishermen on Arranmore Island yesterday and they are absolutely shocked that the Taoiseach signed off on this when he voted against exactly the same statutory instrument in 2018. The Minister also voted against the proposa…

I thank the Minister. I wish him well in his brief and look forward to working with him constructively. He is, like me, from a coastal county and knows well the concerns of fishermen and the sense that they have been criminalised. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has been focused on enforcing rather than facilitating and supporting our fishing community to take the maximum wealth possible from our seas in order to have sustainable communities all around the coast. I am really alarmed at the range …

For weeks the various political parties and groupings on the Dáil reform committee and Business Committee have debated the issue of proportional speaking, dealt with the issue of committee formation and a range of other issues to try to make this place work for everybody and be fair to everybody. The secretariat brought forward proposals a number of weeks ago relating to modelling for proportionality to be fair to everybody. Those proposals were not accepted and we had Government proposals as we come to the end of …

I am. I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "That" and substitute the following: "notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, and unless the Dáil shall otherwise order, the following compromise speaking arrangements for Second Stage of a Bill as put forward by Sinn Féin at the meeting of the Business Committee on 30th July, 2020, suggesting: Government 20 minutes, Sinn Féin 20 minutes, all other Groups 10 minutes each, Government 20 minutes, Sinn Féin 15 minutes, all other Groups 10 minutes each, and G…

I ask the Taoiseach to pay particular attention to those who provide school transport. They were left blowing in the wind for months and the Taoiseach is now asking them to step up and support the initiative he announced in recent days. I particularly draw his attention to the plight of bus and coach operators in that sector, especially in rural counties like Donegal who fill significant gaps in the absence of public transport. It is urgent now that he puts in place a package that really gets them back on the road.

I am sharing time with Deputies Browne and Tully. We will take five minutes each. I will raise two issues with the Minister. The first is the issue of carers, which has previously been mentioned. They are obviously a vital group in our society but they have not got the appreciation they deserve over the past three months. They have taken on incredible responsibility and been under incredible pressure without the normal respite support they would expect. That ranges from children with disabilities to looking after p…

The next issue I wish to raise is the investment that will be required in the health service as we emerge from this crisis. I will take the opportunity to give the example of my home county of Donegal, with which we are both familiar. Letterkenny University Hospital is the sixth largest hospital in the State and a major acute hospital. Let us consider the situation before this crisis occurred. There were 17,000 people from the county on waiting lists for inpatient and outpatient procedures and appointments. If one …

I will speak for three minutes and allow the Minister of State a minute to respond. He will know that there are many thousands of homeowner families across the State who have been devastated by a range of serious latent defects in their homes, from the pyrite crisis in Dublin and north Leinster to the scandal of Priory Hall and the mica and pyrite problems in Donegal and Mayo, as well as the fire safety and structural defects discovered in homes all across the State. We have resolution schemes for pyrite and for th…

The Minister of State is responsible for local government. The local authorities in Donegal and Mayo have hundreds of homes that will possibly have to be rebuilt. Will he ensure the Government directly supports those local authorities?

As the Minister knows, I represent County Donegal. There are large numbers of workers resident in Derry, west Tyrone and Fermanagh who work and pay taxes and social insurance in Donegal, making a major contribution to the county's economy. They have been left blowing in the wind by the Minister and her Department, which is absolutely disgraceful. They were told to go across the Border into the North, and unfortunately, as a result of partition and the actions of the British Government, they receive a third of the a…