Sorry, the minutes are five weeks behind.

I echo Deputy Barry's call with regard to the Debenhams workers. It is shameful that 1,000 workers have to continue their protest for this length of time to get basic justice and decent treatment from the liquidator. Debenhams clearly does not care a damn about them. The Taoiseach must exercise the influence he has to ensure those workers get a just settlement. Martin in Blackrock, whom I mentioned earlier, repeats his invitation for the Taoiseach to, in all seriousness, sit down with him, Eilish, Viv, Helen and ot…

Personally, yes.

Yes.

We agree with that.

That is what it is worried about.

The true history of the attitude of successive Irish Governments to culture, arts, music and events, and to the crews that stand behind them, is a history of lip service without tangible support. That is most obviously reflected in the fact that we spend one sixth of the average spend across Europe on funding arts and culture. The events and music sectors have never received a penny, essentially, and there was even no engagement until they began to get themselves organised in the last few months through groups such…

I apologise to the Minister of State. I did not hear her opening comments because I was at a meeting. I thank Sinn Féin for tabling the motion and making it an all-party effort. It is absolutely imperative that we discuss the UNCRPD and its full implementation, particularly given the huge impact on disability services that Covid-19 has had. As Deputy Pringle just said, we signed up to the UN convention and 11 years later, only after long hard campaigning by disability activists, with protests every couple of months…

Barely a week goes by that President Donald Trump does not do something else that horrifies me and threatens either his own society or the wider world in some way. One of the more disturbing suggestions of recent times is that he would not accept the outcome of an election if he lost it. That is a serious business when one considers the extremely tense situation that exists in the US. Has the Minister any reaction to those sorts of suggestions from President Trump?

The problem is that we are dealing with President Trump. I have definite views and want the President to lose the election. I do not have much faith in Joe Biden but we have to get rid of President Trump. I do not expect the Minister to say that. The President was essentially threatening civil war. That is not an idle threat when one considers what has happened in the United States over the past few months. There has been war on the streets and cities have exploded. The President is leaning on terrifying and, in so…

Something that people rarely remark upon is that the country that produced the Nazis was the most developed and advanced society in Europe, almost bar none, at the time. It descended into horror beyond belief. That was a political force that never gained more than 33% support in an open election and which engineered its rise to power through a lie about the burning of the Reichstag. Those events start to have terrifying echoes. I am not saying that Donald Trump is Adolf Hitler but he is playing around with politica…

The problem is that despite the statements of sympathy with the plight Palestinians are faced with, the silent transfer and annexation prosecuted by Israel against Palestinians to remove them from places like East Jerusalem and other parts of the West Bank just goes on and on. Nothing is done to stop it. The Minister is stating that he is appalled by it but nothing can be done, which is his essential line.

Since January there has been a 55% rise in the number of structures targeted for demolition or confiscated in the occupied territories and a fourfold increase in the number of displaced people. While all these statements are being made, the situation continues to get worse. In East Jerusalem, 24 structures were demolished last month. It just goes on and no action is taken. There are no consequences. Is it any wonder that Israel believes it can do what it likes? The Minister and Europe keep talking to Israel and exp…

The people who work in live entertainment including music, the arts, the performers, the sound people, promoters and the crew have been crucified as a result of the pandemic and the restrictions which, with the current trajectory of infections, are set to remain so for some time. I have asked repeatedly for months, as have the people involved, and the Minister will know they have been campaigning, for real supports in terms of retaining the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, and other financial supports for reduce…

I genuinely welcome the fact that the Minister responded to that informal approach, which I made on behalf of the Events Industry Alliance, to get more representation on the task force. Even since then, however, the situation has deteriorated. With more severe restrictions being imposed in Dublin, and possibly elsewhere, it is a very grim picture that is facing the events, music and arts industry. Frankly, if we compare the additional supports that have been provided with the position in New Zealand, it has given m…

Let us be clear. With the cuts in the PUP, the retrograde decision to allow the banks end the waiver on mortgage repayments and so on, the financial pressure on the 35,000 people working in this sector will become unbearable. They then have the ongoing costs of repayments, insurance and warehousing; we can go through the list of costs. There will not be a sector unless there is a dramatic improvement in supports. Many of these people will not be able to pay their bills so the PUP issue is critical. That has to be a…

We covered some of this ground in a previous question. The €5 million announced in the July stimulus for 35,000 people is a pittance. The Minister says this is just a pilot, but a pilot is not good enough for the dire situation that faces those 35,000 people. The Minister will know that the EPIC working group, The Events Industry Alliance, the National Campaign for the Arts and the Music and Entertainment Association of Ireland, MEAI, representing musicians and so on, are looking for a hell of a lot more. What they…

Let us make a comparison. The Minister might not give me the exact figures that she is recommending in the negotiations but in New Zealand, the package for arts, music and live entertainment is €175 million. This dwarfs what is being given to, let us remember, a live music and events sector that has never received a cent from Government, and never asked for it, and an arts sector which is one of the most poorly funded in western Europe. We have taken our arts workers, musicians, crew and live entertainment people f…

Let us be clear. At the best of times many people who worked in the arts were in borderline poverty situations. Cuts to the pandemic unemployment payment and the employment wage subsidy scheme will, potentially, drive thousands of people into poverty. Without sufficient grants to cover insurance costs, warehouse costs, debt repayments and other ongoing payments, people are going to go under and they are going to go under soon. Historically, we have undervalued, in terms of the support provided by Government, the ar…

The programme for Government commits to addressing the ongoing and shameful homelessness crisis. The Green Party and Fianna Fáil when in opposition supported our Bill to halt evictions. In the context of Covid-19 the Government was forced, rightly, to bring in an eviction ban because making people homeless is totally incompatible with public health, yet the Government has now allowed that ban to lapse. We sought to bring forward a Bill in our Private Members' slot next week which is essentially the eviction ban, bu…