I welcome the Minister's engagement and the commitments he just made. I have given him some new information, which I hope he will follow up. The letter, which he would have got today, elaborates on that. There is Orwellian, Janus-faced double-speak coming from the producers that are getting the relief. In order to get the money, they are telling the Minister that they will do certain things. They are not just quietly not doing them and breaking their commitments, though. Rather, they are breaking them publicly. The…

Again, I genuinely thank the Minister for those commitments and his engagement and interest on the issue. I will make one or two other brief supplementary points for his consideration. There has been much talk about the possibility of a collective agreement as a way of resolving this. I will point out that the producers to whom I refer, and the people who support no change in the situation and who were defending the status quo in terms of denying responsibility for employment, essentially refused to go to the forum…

On the basis the Minister has said genuinely that he will look into it, I will not press the amendment. I thank the Minister for his engagement.

I move amendment No. 69: In page 45, between lines 25 and 26, to insert the following: “22. Within three months of the passing of this Act, the Minister shall produce a report on the effective rate of corporation tax being paid across the country and the effect of the closing of tax loopholes would have on revenue.”. I was hoping Deputy Barry would take up the mantle because I have to go shortly. I will make a brief point. This amendment is about loopholes and establishing a minimum effective corporate tax rate. We…

I thank all those Deputies who rose to support the motion tabled by People Before Profit and Solidarity in support of the students and midwives and our call that they should have the healthcare assistant rate they were given earlier in the pandemic restored and that, more generally, they need to be paid for their placements because it is work, not simply education. The fact that they have to pay fees for the privilege of being exploited on the wards and while working on the front line, not just during the Covid pan…

Even if there is a lifting of restrictions, one sector which is not going to see any significant recovery in its ability to earn an income involves people in music and many of the performing arts. The Taoiseach may have heard a controversy breaking out regarding the 1,400 applicants for the music industry stimulus package. Of those 1,400 applicants, some 83% were refused. That was insulting and demoralising for those musicians who applied for the package, many of whom are household names. That does not really matte…

The biggest international issue we are facing is obviously the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact it is having across the globe. A vaccine that is safe and effective will be critical to exiting this current crisis. If the roll-out of a safe and effective vaccine is going to work, a number of key things have to happen. First, the profit motive has to be removed completely from the roll-out. This means that intellectual property and patent rights, which protect the technology for the vaccine in order that those compani…

I agree with Deputy Murphy. The main point I wish to make concerns another issue. The Taoiseach is taking a very serious gamble, as Deputy Murphy said and as I pointed out yesterday. The gamble will be disastrous if it results in the further restriction of family visits because infections go crazy in the next few weeks. The Taoiseach will be in trouble if that happens. I wish to return to the arts and music industry. I suggest that the Taoiseach acquaints himself with it and develops a strategy. Our writers, poets,…

I repeat to the Minister of State that as we go to the European Council, the question of ensuring a safe and effective vaccine is available to everybody in the world is critical to the effectiveness of the vaccine anywhere in the world, including in this country. People, including European leaders, need to get that into their heads. We do not need a repeat of the disgraceful position with retroviral AIDS drugs, when poorer countries were pleading to have access to the technology to produce generic and cheap version…

I do not think the tax system is the primary way through which to alleviate our extortionate rents but I would support this or any other measure that would give any relief to people paying an absolutely shocking proportion of their income on keeping a roof over their head. I would be surprised if the Minister could stand over the status quo , whether he agrees with this measure or what I think is necessary, that is, real rent controls. By that I mean rent controls whereby a body - it could be a beefed up Residentia…

Is there a limit on my time?

Sorry. The Minister must acknowledge there is a problem that is out of control and that the current policies are not addressing it.

I move amendment No. 10: In page 11, after line 34, to insert the following: “11. Within three months of the passing of this Act, the Minister shall produce a report on abolishing the USC on all those earning less than €70,000 per year and replacing it with an emergency Covid-19 Solidarity Tax on the incomes of those earning in excess of €100,000 per year and on the profits of companies whose net profits exceed €1 million per year.”. The amendment proposes the introduction of a Covid solidarity tax, in line with ca…

I will offer the Minister an example of something that was in the news today which indicates the need for some redistribution. Taking one of the tax breaks that currently go to wealthy executives in some of the big multinational corporations the Minister is talking about - the figures are broadly similar for some of these tax breaks - the special assignee relief programme, SARP, will cost approximately €8 million this year. The Minister will tell me if I have got that exactly right. It is not a huge amount but it i…

The argument has been made but I will make two brief points. Mr. Brendan Boyle, a Congressman from Pennsylvania, spoke on "Morning Ireland" on the day of Mr. Biden's victory. He was asked about Ireland's low corporate tax rate, tax breaks and so forth. He said that is not the main reason they are here. He was questioned quite hard by the "Morning Ireland" team that morning and he said they were not here primarily for that reason but because Irish people are English speaking, there is a skilled and educated workforc…

I have. I will return to the example I gave earlier as it underlines the point we made on Committee Stage on the CRSS. It is that various Covid-related income supports have been made available but very significant groups have been left out. I acknowledge that many of these are important interventions to support the incomes of people who have been significantly affected in that they are either not able to work at all or earn a viable income. Taxi drivers have been left out, which is not fair. Their premises are, in …

I move amendment No. 59: In page 29, between lines 12 and 13, to insert the following: “ 12. Within four weeks of the passing of this Act, the Minister shall produce a report on whether the Covid Restriction Support Scheme is accessible to and has provided meaningful financial support for self-employed/lone traders in sectors such as the taxi industry, music, arts, live entertainment and other similarly affected sectors.”. The Ceann Comhairle was on a roll there. I thought I might get this through on the back of al…

The vote was very close, with a very narrow majority supporting the Government amendment not to pay our student nurses and midwives - a disgraceful decision. Since the margin is so close, under Standing Order 83(3)( b ), we call for a vote other than by electronic means in order to give all the Government Deputies from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party a moment to reflect on whether their decision not to pay our student nurses and midwives for their work on the front line was, in fact, the decision they re…

People Before Profit has been unique, clear and consistent in arguing that to deal with Covid-19 we need a strategy to eliminate community transmission, so we can avoid a constant cycle of going in and out of one lockdown after another, which is what we believe the Government's strategy is inevitably going to result in. We think the Government is wrong to ignore critical parts of the advice given by the public health experts in their letter of 26 November. In rejecting some of their key advice, in particular around…

There is no doubt that the intense hardships people have suffered, and the collective solidarity people have shown have helped staved off the worst disasters in respect of Covid-19. However, the Government is taking a gamble in rejecting the NPHET advice, and it is very clear about that, in respect of the potential impact of opening the hospitality sector, which could lead to the family gatherings we all know need to happen at Christmas actually being imperilled. That is a serious gamble. However, when it comes to …