I would like an answer to the questions I asked on the section. There was a specific request to discuss those sectors that are in trouble before the Dáil session ends. Is the Minister open to that, given he expressed sympathy for the sectors mentioned? This amendment was attempting in another way, as had some of our amendments, to address the concerns of those groups that we have talked a lot about tonight, namely, the arts workers, the music workers, the defence workers and the taxi drivers. If the Minister is gen…

I really do not want to stretch this because I know Deputy Doherty wants to get to his amendment. What the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, told me was the direct opposite of what the Minister just said. I do not accept this pass the parcel. I talked to her the other day. I asked questions and she said insofar as the resources allocated to her have been made available, she had put in some supports. That was her point about the €25 million. When it came to the issue of income subsidies, she told me I needed to tal…

Yes. I intend to share time with Deputies Bríd Smith, Mick Barry and Paul Murphy, who I hope will be here shortly.

The slithering, sliding and U-turns of Fianna Fáil and the Green Party in particular have begun in earnest with this Bill. This is a shameful betrayal of tenants that opens the door to a new wave of evictions into homelessness in the midst of a pandemic. It allows for the unthinkable. We were warned yet again this morning on national radio by Mr. David Nabarro of the World Health Organization that a second wave is coming and, more than ever, we must ensure physical social distancing but this Bill allows for the res…

I did send the details. I emailed the Minister last week. If this Bill goes through, the vulture fund that has been trying for three years to evict those tenants will succeed in evicting ten households, including families who have paid their rent for years and have never missed the rent. They are working people who will be evicted into homelessness as a result of this Bill's passing which will allow the vulture fund which bought that complex to evict them on the grounds of sale. It is shameful and runs completely i…

Tairgim: Go gceadófar go dtabharfar isteach Bille dá ngairtear Acht chun an Bunreacht a leasú. I move: That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to amend the Constitution. This is the same Bill I introduced to the Dáil in 2017, and at that time it was narrowly defeated. It is worth saying that although Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael voted against the Bill at that time, the Green Party supported it. In the new programme for Government, the new Government has committed to introducing a right to housing Bil…

Tairgim: "Go dtógfar an Bille in am Comhaltaí Príobháideacha." I move: "That the Bill be taken in Private Members' time."

It is remarkable news that the Cabinet committee on housing did not meet in advance of the significant and hugely retrograde decision, made in the Bill now passing through the Dáil, to open the door for a resumption of evictions into homelessness in the middle of a pandemic. I find that extraordinary. I do not know if the Government does not understand or, worse, does understand the implications of the Bill now going through the Dáil. Let us be clear, however, that it removes most of the emergency protections that …

The climate situation was an emergency that needed to be addressed before Covid-19. The urgency to address the climate emergency has now been multiplied very significantly by the advent of Covid-19. There is a very important natural intersection between the destruction of biodiversity and the proliferation of pandemics. Some serious scientists are, to some extent, suggesting and have evidence to believe that the frequency of pandemics in recent years is linked to the destruction of biodiversity. H1N1, swine flu, bi…

To allow for physical distancing, as well as refurbishments we need extra physical space. This was true prior to the onset of Covid-19, where we had the most overcrowded classes in western Europe. They were unacceptably overcrowded. Now that is completely intolerable and incompatible with human health. While I understand refurbishment using libraries and sports areas is not ideal because at some time we will need those spaces again, we need additional physical capacity. There needs to be an ambitious and aggressive…

The Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Varadkar, and the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, have been under the spotlight for the disgraceful move to cut pandemic unemployment payments, PUP, for people who engage in non-essential travel. The Minister himself has not been under much scrutiny but I put it to him that he is significantly responsible for this mess. The statutory instrument which the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Prote…

Is the Minister saying he is now a public health doctor, an epidemiologist or a virologist?

I am not. However the Minister has ignored the advice of the virologists, epidemiologists and the public health experts. He did not answer the question because he knows it would not suit him and would show that the Government has departed from the public health advice, from the expert advice. The Minister is saying there is no threat of bringing the virus back from these countries because they have a lower infection rate but what about solidarity? We might be taking the infection to them. Has the Minister considere…

It is shocking.

I do not make accusations lightly but the Minister has just misled the Dáil, just as he has been misleading the public. Under a heading that mentions general advice to avoid non-essential travel the website states, "In accordance with Government policy, which is based on official public health advice, the Department of Foreign Affairs continues to advise against non-essential travel" but then it states: as of 21 July, travel to a very limited set of locations is exempted from this advice. The security status for th…

Being dishonest does not make it clear either.

I must state that Deputy Costello is in the wrong Government if he is looking for legal action on Israel's flouting of human rights, international law or a Government that is going to fight in any serious way for justice for the oppressed Palestinian people, because the Government has stated that it will not pass Senator Black's Control of Economic Activities (Occupied Territories) Bill which would impose some sanctions. I do not understand why the Government will not do that, or step up and insist that the EU ends…

Hello.

I wish I could be light-hearted about this Bill but unfortunately I cannot. This is disturbing evidence of the deceit and dishonesty that is starting to characterise this Government within a very short time of entering office. One of the first deceits is that the note that was provided on this Bill made absolutely no reference to the fact that the Government was changing the goalposts on the pandemic unemployment payment, as far as eligibility was concerned. Let us remind ourselves that this is a payment that was g…

Apparently that is okay but the Government is going to punish poor people, those who have lost their job through no fault of their own, for following the advice that is on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website. That is what is going on. It is shocking, as are the double standards behind it. If the Taoiseach were to decide that he fancied going to Italy, Hungary or Cyprus, would he have his salary, which is public money, docked? He would not. The Government is singling out people on social welfare paym…