I believe this is also relevant to the debate around our ability to have committee hearings. Public health advice about the health implications of proximity is acting as a barrier to having further committees to cover the many different areas in our society where people are in real trouble and need their voices heard. We are told we can only have one committee because of physical constraints relating to public health guidelines. It looks like these are just excuses. I will throw a real spanner into the works now. T…

This House is doing essential work to represent the people of this country.

Spokespeople for Fianna Fáil and Ministers from Fine Gael have been expressing horror at the idea that people who may have earned less when working before Covid-19 are now getting €350 a week. They are trying to justify suggestions that the €350 payment should be cut for those people and many others who have already seen a reduction in income. Does the Taoiseach think that is fair? Does it chime with the motto "we are all in this together" for Ministers and Deputies who earn multiples of €350 a week to tell people …

The Taoiseach went way over time. The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty, has talked about cutting and tapering the Covid payment, saying it is unsustainable. Deputy Rabbitte of Fianna Fáil has said that the payment is unfair and unsustainable. It is not. People who are earning multiples of the amount of the payment are suggesting it is unfair, unsustainable and needs to be cut. It is good if the Taoiseach is backtracking on that position but he should give a clear commitment to p…

I am sharing time with Deputy Barry. I should probably be directing this question to the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, but I will ask it anyway. I have made fairly well known my views that the box-room, rabbit-hutch accommodation known as co-living is not something that should be allowed in this country. It is just a way to make money for developers and to maximise the value of a site, rather than providing decent quality accommodation for people. If that was true prior …

It is back and forth. I will come back.

There should be no buck-passing. The guidelines just need to be changed as this is public health we are talking about. These overcrowded conditions were unacceptable from the get-go but now they just simply are not compliant with public health guidelines. Accordingly, these guidelines should be changed. One of the rather grim facts of the Covid-19 situation is the pretty awful spike in domestic violence and violence against women which has been reported by Women's Aid, the Rape Crisis Centre and other bodies that d…

I have raised repeatedly the plight of particular groups of workers who find their livelihood and employment devastated as a result of the crisis: the 2,000 Debenhams workers; English foreign language teachers; workers in the arts, music and live entertainment and gig economy; and taxi drivers - all of whom need specific roadmaps and specific packages of support. In the short time that I have I will zone in on two of these groups. With regard to the arts sector, €6.5 billion is being given to big business in grants…

Companies that are giving massive dividends to their shareholders, making big profits and who are big multinationals are benefiting from these schemes, as I raised with the Minister for Finance yesterday, whereas the arts get €1 million. It is a stark contrast. The taxi driving industry has been absolutely decimated, with 70% to 80% of people off the road. The Taoiseach may be interested to know that of the few taxi drivers who are still on the road, many are over the age of 66. This is because the Government has d…

It is right and proper that we should direct huge and necessary resources to protect the jobs and incomes of ordinary workers, small businesses and struggling businesses that are impacted by the economic fallout of Covid-19. Does the Minister agree it would be completely unacceptable for companies that are hugely profitable and paying large dividends to shareholders or, for example, that are registered offshore for tax purposes, to gain significant benefits? I am aware of one company, which I will not name, but whi…

Are we not doing the Order of Business?

We are sharing time. I urge the Government and this House to start working immediately on a new deal for workers facing the prospect of protracted or long-term unemployment. I hear that the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, briefed the Green Party and Fianna Fáil about potential economic devastation and a return to a 1980s-style depression with long-term unemployment. I do not think we should sit back like astrologers and wonder which way the stars are moving or which way the wind is blowing. We need to proactively act to …

I am sharing time with Deputy Paul Murphy. I wish to press the Minister on the issue of public and private healthcare. Given that Covid-19 will be with us for the foreseeable future, any consideration of a return to the two-tier system is untenable. The Government needs to make up its mind. Fianna Fáil seems to be somewhat sitting on the fence and even hinting that we should go back to the two-tier system sooner rather than later. I want to push in the exact opposite direction and it should not be for a few months.…

I think we need to go further now. There was never a justification for a two-tier system. There has been a general acknowledgement with Sláintecare that that is the case. Now that we have the private healthcare capacity in our hands, why on earth would we go back? It does not make any sense. There is a problem with this contract because it is essentially rent to people who are making profit from health, whatever way one puts it. Why not take it directly under public control? That is the only way we can establish ho…

Nationalise them.

I will be sharing time with Deputy Paul Murphy. As the person who asked for it, I thank the Ceann Comhairle and the Business Committee for agreeing to have this debate on the arts. I ask the Minister to imagine at the best of times what it would be like if we had no music, comedy, film, theatre or art. Imagine going through the past two months if we had none of those things. It is too awful even to contemplate. The United Nations is talking about a mental health crisis. Imagine how bad that crisis would be without …

I will be sharing time with Deputy Paul Murphy, with five minutes each. Bus Éireann is flouting the Government's protocols for the return to work, published on 9 May. They require that if bus workers cannot social distance on Bus Éireann buses, there should be screens. There are no screens, however and bus workers are very concerned about the return to work that will see passenger numbers on the Bus Éireann fleet rise on Monday. Frankly, I think they would be right to walk off the job. There are no screens on 90% o…

I am sharing time with Deputy Barry, in accordance with the questions-and-answers format agreed by the Business Committee. Today, People Before Profit and Solidarity Deputies launched an online petition calling on the Government to abandon plans to cut or taper the €350 pandemic unemployment payment, at least until the pandemic has passed and all the employment losses and economic impacts of the pandemic have been overcome. We also call in our petition for the payment to be extended to groups that have been unfairl…

The Taoiseach has not given a clear commitment that there will be no cuts or tapering until the pandemic is over and until all the employment lost as a result of the pandemic has been restored. The Taoiseach should give a commitment, and I am asking for a commitment, that the over 66s and the under 18s who are being unfairly discriminated against get the payment also, and that many workers in the gig economy who did not happen to be working at the time but might have been working a week or two later would also get …

He was over time. That is why I was.