I did not interrupt the Deputy. Notwithstanding the political differences he may have with Sinn Féin and the Opposition over the motion, a proposal was put forward by Deputy Pringle at the Business Committee to save us having to incur additional cost and the impact on staff of having to move to the convention centre today. The Government did not accept that, purely for political reasons, precisely because its Deputies wanted to be able to get up and play political games in here and point fingers at people.

It was said that the argument was most vociferously conducted by Deputy Griffin in pretty much the same breath as he said we should effectively do away with the Business Committee.

That is the real agenda. The Government wants to do away with any cross-party co-operation on how we set the schedule of this Dáil-----

-----because it wants to steamroll whatever it wants to go through the House, regardless of the feelings of the rest of the democratically elected Opposition.

I was late to the Chamber and missed the Minister of State's reply. I take it that he is saying that the CSO, for public health reasons, feels it cannot go ahead with the census. That is perfectly understandable in the current circumstances. However, the Government could use the interregnum to prepare for a census to take place a year later and ensure we use the information provided by it. The census offers an enormous wealth of information that is underutilised much of the time. It provides us with enormous detail…

Whatever about the finer details and implications of the matters concerning the Tánaiste yesterday, one implication is definitely that there are many groups of workers who are scratching their heads and wishing that they had such matey backchannels with the Tánaiste or Taoiseach of the day. One of those groups of workers that the Taoiseach has suggested it is in his DNA to communicate with is the Debenhams workers who have now been seven months on the picket line fighting for a just redundancy as we face into the w…

The Taoiseach has an invitation to meet the shop stewards today to hear directly from them. They are also holding an online mass meeting on Thursday. The Taoiseach is also invited to that and they would be very happy for him to attend to hear from them. Successive Governments failed to legislate for Duffy-Cahill and now the Debenhams workers find themselves in a situation where a company is once again hiding assets. They are furious that the Government, Revenue and the liquidator show no interest in the fact that t…

I want to ask the Taoiseach about the Land Development Agency. In my area, the councillors on Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council are going to be asked to vote for the disposal of public land to the Land Development Agency, supposedly to build social and affordable housing, which we and others have campaigned for on the Shanganagh Castle site for a long time. There is, however, absolutely no statutory basis to the Land Development Agency, LDA. I do not know why on earth councillors in Dún Laoghaire or anywhere el…

After the debate that took place on mother and baby homes in the Dáil, we, like many other Deputies, were overwhelmed by the response from people and the anger, anxiety and concern expressed, particularly by those who had been in those institutions and suffered abuse in them. I held an online public meeting which was attended by hundreds of people, many of whom had suffered horrific abuse and who were very angry. Their anger can only have been magnified by the information that has emerged since then that the Minist…

I wish to apologise to the ambulance paramedics because I meant to raise this matter last night in the context of the debate with the Tánaiste. There are many angles to that discussion, but one is the attitude the Government takes to negotiating with trade unions or representative organisations. A huge contrast was glaringly apparent, and this is directly related to the issue of social dialogue. At around the same time that the then Taoiseach was sending backchannel packages to his mate in the National Association …

NASRA is not doing that.

I am something of a political nerd when it comes to finance Bills. I am fascinated by the way they provide a mechanism to transfer the wealth generated by society and by working people into the hands of the very wealthy in an opaque manner, year after year. For the most part, working people do not know the details of how they are being robbed of the wealth they collectively produce. I play a game with the finance Bill every year in which I try to find the tax relief that will benefit the rich. I then try to find th…

My group has not spoken.

I am trying to be helpful.

To save time and, hopefully, for us not to be forced into a vote which would actually be a waste of time at this point, if it is only a minute in the difference, why will the Government not just agree to the original proposal, which was ten and five minutes? With due respect to Deputy Mac Lochlainn, I do not agree with the splitting of seven and eight because it will just mess things up from our point of view and from some of the smaller groups' point of view. For the sake of a minute, will the Government just do t…

It is not agreed. The Solidarity-People Before Profit group wrote to the Business Committee to state our view that time should have been made available this week to discuss the significant concerns regarding health and safety in schools, particularly in the context of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland ballot. It expressed concerns about the failure to apply the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control close contact protocols when it comes to positive Covid cases and raised other issues pertain…

I was asking about Wednesday. Wednesday is what we are talking about.

I asked specifically about Wednesday and a debate which is of considerable public health importance.

The Taoiseach did not answer me.

He did not give an answer.