When the legislation relating to the CRSS was passed by the Houses, I argued as forcefully as I could that it was unfair on people who did not have a premises, whose premises might be, for example, their taxi or van or whose livelihoods involved overheads in terms of loans or rents on premises that are not public-facing, such as musicians, people who work in the arts and many others who operate small businesses. Those businesses and their employees have been devastated, most of them, particularly regarding taxi dri…

I have no particular difficulty with the individual nominations, although I do point to the point made by many people about gardaí investigating gardaí. I would like to see more civilian oversight of gardaí to ensure we genuinely have independence in oversight of the Garda and that it is perceived to be independent. Given the recognition and acknowledgement that we need a new model for oversight of the Garda that genuinely has that credibility, I believe the case of George Nkencho, referred to by a number of Deputi…

I am sharing time with Deputies Paul Murphy and Barry. Last week the victims of the mother and baby home scandal were insulted. The insult centred on the Government's refusal to value the direct testimony of those victims and instead to follow an official narrative from institutions. This week we have the same pattern of insulting the student nurses and midwives, refusing to listen to their direct testimony and instead listening to the official and, quite honestly, dishonest narrative that it is getting from the he…

I am sharing time with Deputy Barry. For British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Tory right, Brexit was always about a reckless drive to accelerate the race to the bottom, undermine standards in worker rights or the environment, for example, and, no doubt, to further enhance the role of the City of London as a centre for financial speculation and emulate this country in trying to develop a tax haven model that would reduce corporate tax obligations on multinationals in order to encourage investment to the Unit…

As somebody who is a political activist, but also somebody who was adopted and born in a mother and baby home, I have very mixed feelings about this debate and report. I suspect that is true of many survivors and those who went through mother and baby homes. In my case, my outcome was relatively benign in that I was adopted by a wonderful family and I was lucky enough eventually to be reunited with my biological family. However, I am acutely aware that for many other people the outcome was not so benign. I am reall…

It is important to say that the huge and detrimental impact Covid-19 is having on education at the moment is to do with the disastrous strategy this Government has pursued. We argued that it should listen to public health advice in advance of Christmas and that if it did not, we would be in a disastrous situation in January. Tragically, we now are. Now our young people and some of those most vulnerable with special needs are suffering the consequences of the Government's dire strategy, the so-called Plan for Living…

I am sharing time with Deputy Paul Murphy. I will take 50%. I will comment on the leaving certificate briefly. It was discussed earlier. There is no way the Government can guarantee the leaving certificate can happen in June. At the leaders' briefing, we asked Dr. Holohan whether the restrictions would be lifted by March. He said he could not possibly tell us and that he had no idea. There is therefore no way the Minister can remove the stress and uncertainty from students other than by saying they will not be forc…

In the Taoiseach's reply to Deputy McDonald, he was keen to grab credit for Fianna Fáil for things it did in the 1930s. I hope he will be as quick today to accept responsibility for what Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the institutions of the church and the State did to tens of thousands of innocent women and children who were imprisoned and who suffered gross abuse. The mother and baby homes report alone documents 9,000 victims, although there are undoubtedly thousands of more infants and women not covered by it, which…

I hope the Taoiseach will explain to us what the apology is for. Will it be a sincere apology? Will it be an apology that results in actions that give justice and redress to the survivors of the mother and baby homes?

The most important action that can be taken is to put the survivors' needs, wishes, feelings, sensitivities and objectives at the centre of this process and to date that has not happened. In fact, they were further insulted with the leak that came out at the weekend. As for being given this report only 24 hours before there is to be an apology, we do not even know what is being apologised for. I am sorry to say that some of the phrases in the executive summary are unacceptable - they should be withdrawn - in trying…

Every single woman who went into these institutions was in effect a prisoner. It was officially sanctioned. There was criminal negligence on the part of the institutions of the church, Government, local authorities and so on at the time.

There needs to be an honest owning up to that. The survivors need to be put at the absolute centre of this. Even the webinar I heard yesterday was a bit of sham in terms of the disappointment the survivors felt.

Can I join you, a Cheann Comhairle, in extending best wishes for Christmas to everybody in the House, particularly to the service officers, the ushers and the Oireachtas staff for all their hard work in a difficult year. It seems Christmas started early for the Taoiseach yesterday when he entered into a winter wonderland fairy tale where the bank bailout never happened and the €17 billion was never taken out of the pension reserve fund to bail out the banks. Neither was cruel hardship and austerity imposed on large…

-----and that it cost the people of this country very dearly?

To be helpful to Deputy Ó Snodaigh, in one of the more memorable answers I got to a question on the very same matter when Alan Shatter was Minister, namely, what the €2 million for the Secret Service was actually spent on, he informed me that it was a secret. Maybe the Minister will echo that response. This end-of-year accounting exercise, as it is being presented, is quite a fascinating and perhaps eye-watering discussion. This is everything. It is all the money - the billions of euro that were spent, and will be …

The €3 million offer for retraining is an insult to Debenhams workers. The failure by the Government to ensure justice for these workers is appalling. I remind the Taoiseach that he said he could not put money on the table because it would set a precedent. A sum of €18 million is owed to the State by Debenhams. The Taoiseach did not mind setting a precedent when it came to bailing out banks to the tune of €64 billion. There was no moral hazard there, and no worry about the implications, but when it comes to workers…

I am not.

I am just sick of it.

It was for the banks-----

They were.