I wanted to hear from the rest of the Opposition. This is a change in the speaking order but I will speak anyway. In the self-obsessed, self-serving bubble in which the Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Green Party Government seems to exist, the cut in the PUP does not really matter because those parties are more concerned with trying to hold together their stumbling Government, petulant-----

I think Deputy Sherlock is right.

I was saying that I think the Deputy is right. I said he was right.

Deputy Sherlock should not insult me, then.

But-----

It is not an argument but this is a fundamental break from the normal speaking order.

I genuinely do not want to delay proceedings and I know the Leas-Cheann Comhairle is in a difficult position but I agree with Deputy Sherlock. I do not know why he is giving out to me. This is our motion. We have introduced it and we want to hear what the other parties have to say before we respond.

Can we change the order now?

We could just revert to the normal order.

Can I just make a proposal to the House? I propose that we simply move to Sinn Féin now and Solidarity-People Before Profit will come back after the other Opposition parties; in other words, after the Independent Group. That is the order we previously followed.

We are all in this together; give me a break. If the Government goes ahead with the cuts instigated for the PUP, not only will it do a great injustice to hundreds of thousands of workers who have lost their jobs and income as a result of the pandemic and the measures taken by the Government to address it, but it will also do something very dangerous in undermining the collective social solidarity that we need, now more than ever, to address the rising infection rates and the new restrictions that must be imposed, w…

It is now, incredibly, day 180 of the Debenhams dispute. The Taoiseach has promised that the Government would legislate to rectify the sort of situation that the Debenhams workers find themselves in. When does he propose to do that? Even if such legislation is enacted, it will not resolve the situation for the Debenhams workers. What proposals are provided for in the legislation that will surround the budget or are to be introduced in the short term to address the situation? The workers have proposed, among other t…

As the Taoiseach knows, I have been shouting very loudly for a long time about the need to fund and support the arts and particularly arts workers in the current situation who have been starved of funding and supports to date. However, in one area of arts funding there has been great largesse and I call for an investigation into this. It is on foot of a dossier that has been produced by the Irish Film Workers Association. If these allegations are true, and very credible facts are put forward, there is a scandal in …

People elected the Taoiseach, Deputies, including me, and Ministers to this House. Of course, Ministers, Taoisigh and Cabinet members have significant additional responsibilities but they also have a huge number of public servants and civil servants around them. To have on top of this an extensive layer of multiple highly-paid advisers raises questions in ordinary people's minds, particularly at a time when hundreds of thousands of people are on their knees economically and financially, having lost their jobs and h…

I wanted to bring up Lesbos and the call that we would take 400 of those who are being evacuated after the fires there. We should consider seriously doing that. As awful and harsh as the situation we face with Covid-19 is, these are people who are fleeing absolutely appalling situations, who have been driven from their homes and live in appalling conditions in holding camps in Lesbos. We need to put out the hand of support. It is very much in line with the tradition of this country as a people who side with the opp…

To follow on from that, I wish to add to the point I made to the Taoiseach earlier. The EU fiscal treaty rules have been waived in the context of Covid-19. Unless there is something we do not know, there is nothing whatsoever in those rules preventing the Government from spending the extra money that would be necessary to restore the PUP, the wage subsidy and other supports. As Deputy Paul Murphy just indicated, we could achieve this by imposing a solidarity tax. Considering that savings are growing among certain g…

The Tánaiste launched a really cynical, politically motivated attack on the public health team in order to cover over the Government's failure to use the summer period to resource our ICUs to the level we need, our hospitals generally and a tracing regime that would allow us to chase the virus, rather than be chased by it, as is currently happening. Regardless of the cynicism of the Tánaiste's attack, if infection rates continue even at their current level or if, as predicted by the modellers at NPHET, they get wor…

If the Taoiseach wants an effective campaign of public information in the situation we are in, he should not have a control freak attitude, which is fearful of public debate. In fact, he should use the resources he is making available for online activity or announcements to actually facilitate debate and provide more detailed information than is currently available. There is a tendency for the Government to insult the intelligence of the public and not to believe in their wisdom. In the end, these debates are force…

A lot of the considerations are not.

At five weeks behind.