I wish to speak to the section, which refers to the Title of the Bill. Lets us remind ourselves of the Title. It is the Social Welfare (Covid-19) (Amendment) Bill 2020. In other words, this is a Bill that is supposed to be a response to a public health pandemic. I put it to the Minister that she should change the Bill or its Title because it is clear when one reads the text and hears Government policy on the matters we have debated on Second Stage that the Government is not trying to address Covid-19 or assist in t…

This is the section that arms the Government to harass people into whatever jobs it feels they should be forced to take up. This work will, in most cases, be low-paid and this measure will be directed against the people who have been hardest hit by the pandemic. These include groups some of us in this House identified as really getting hammered by the Government a number of weeks ago including taxi drivers, arts workers and those who work in music and live entertainment. The Minister says she is very concerned abou…

The Minister should not talk down the clock.

Masks like the one I am wearing are sometimes associated with stick-up robberies. It is kind of appropriate that it is politicians who are now wearing the masks that are associated with such robberies. It might be even more appropriate for the chief executive officers of some of the largest and wealthiest corporations to be wearing them, given the scale of their theft of tax revenues that should accrue to society in general from the absolutely staggering profits those corporations make. Those profits, which they ma…

Congratulations again, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, on your victory. I welcome the establishment of a Ministry responsible for higher education and research. It is a very positive move. If the importance of investing in research in medicine and other areas needs to be underlined, one need look no further than the lessons of the pandemic itself. There is clearly a deficit in these areas, but we have a lot of skilled and talented young people, graduates, postgraduates and so on. We need to invest in them and in research …

It is nothing short of nauseating that the Government would consider it okay to increase the already staggeringly high salaries of super junior Ministers of €124,000 per annum by €16,000. How can it possibly justify that when nurses who were infected with Covid-19 on the front line did not get sick pay? That is the reality. Nurses recruited to the call for Ireland on agency contracts and on a fraction of the salary of these super junior Ministers did not get sick pay when they were infected with Covid-19 yet three …

It is. A lecturer recruited post-2011 starts on a lower wage than a person recruited pre-2011. That is a fact. That pay inequality exists for lecturers in third level education. It is unacceptable, apparently, for super junior Ministers to have to put up with pay inequality. The double standards are nauseating. It is a pity Government has tarnished a good Bill, which has the good objective of setting up a new Department of higher education and research, with this backdoor attempt to boost the salaries of three peop…

For some weeks the Government has been promising the famous July stimulus, the details of which we will get soon, with legislation presumably to be discussed next week. Is it not the case that the term "stimulus" is completely a misnomer when what was leaked today and was in the air for the last number of days is that there will not be a stimulus for some of the people on the lowest incomes and some of the people who have been hardest hit by loss of income and unemployment, caused not by any fault of their own but …

How is that fair to people who have already suffered hardship as a result of the pandemic?

That is really not good enough. I will tell the Minister of State who deserves pay rises for their level of responsibility. It is the nurses and the health workers who fought on the front line to protect our health, and the many workers in retail and other essential front-line services, often very low-paid workers, who worked throughout the pandemic. They deserve an increase. The people who do not deserve pay increases are politicians and Ministers. It is shocking and disgusting that Ministers of State on €124,000,…

I will support the Minister of State if he gives our nurses and front-line healthcare workers the pay rise they deserve and gets rid of the absolutely shameful pay inequalities suffered by public servants at every level in the public service, where new entrants have to suffer the indignity of working on lower pay than people doing exactly the same job, just because they came in after a certain arbitrary date when austerity was imposed on them. Whatever way the Minister of State cuts it, in the current climate where…

Our arts, music, live entertainment and events sector is facing an absolutely dire crisis as a result of Covid-19. Our artists, performers and skilled crew see no roadmap to recovery and have seen their incomes absolutely devastated. What has the Minister asked of her Government colleagues in the July stimulus to respond to the crisis being faced by arts, music, live entertainment and events?

I certainly hope that is true. The arts, music, live entertainment and events sector will be watching closely to see if it is true. While I welcome the fact that an additional €25 million was given in response to campaigning by the National Campaign for the Arts and the Minister alludes to some supports for small businesses in the events sector, some of the signs are not very good. The truth is that the cuts in the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, have already impacted very significantly on many artists, perform…

The Minister is slightly dodging the question because the reports are that the TWSS is going to be tapered, that is, reduced - I love these euphemisms - and that the pandemic payment is going to be cut. That is going to hit disproportionately the musicians, performers and live entertainment and events sectors. That payment should be turned into a minimum income above and beyond which people can earn something. Some of the other big requests that are being asked for are whether we can take measures to make sure peop…

According to the section on health in the programme for Government, the Government's priority is to protect public health by following public health advice. On the day that another front-line health worker has tragically lost his life as a result of Covid-19, does the Taoiseach really believe it is a good time to start abandoning adherence to public health advice of the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, on the issue of foreign travel? What is happening is quite extraordinary. This morning, the Minister …

It is confusing and clearly not in line with the public health advice being issued by NPHET on foreign travel. How does the Taoiseach explain that?

As has already been alluded to, NESC produced a paper in June on the implications of Covid-19 for housing and it was unequivocal in saying that the eviction and the rent increase ban should be extended. It was very clear from the commentary in that report that it did not mean for ten days. It correctly pointed out, as part of its argument, that the huge numbers of people who have suffered income loss or job loss may have built up arrears and therefore if the ban is lifted there is a real danger that many people who…

It is one thing to have a lack of coherence and co-ordination about foreign travel and green lists before a Cabinet meeting, but it is something else to have that lack of coherence and co-ordination after the Cabinet meeting where, presumably, the matter was discussed. The Taoiseach is just not acknowledging that what the Minister, Deputy Coveney, said today did not clarify matters but confused matters more. He said that the green list included countries whose infection rate was at the same level as Ireland or belo…

Why is the Government telling people not to go there?

To echo the sentiments of Deputies Duncan Smith and McDonald, of course we are cognisant of and sensitive to people and families in situations of difficulty and having to get back, essential workers and so on. That is not the point here. Indeed, the point is not just the green light symbolism and what that signifies, which Deputy Smith referred to, although he is absolutely right on that point. The Taoiseach did not answer my question. After all the controversy and in circumstances where it is clear there is confus…