I live with a plan.

Sinn Féin supports the motion. Obviously, the rainy day fund needed to be used for the rainy day we found ourselves in with the Covid crisis. It goes without saying that we are far from through this period. We are still in a very difficult situation. We need to look at the entire way our financing operation works. We need to look at our health system from a point of view of doing all that can be done at this point in time. That entails the use of booster vaccines and ensuring a best-case scenario for contact tracin…

I ask the Minister of State to give a bit of detail on the specialist insurers he is talking about engaging with. I dealt with the Minister of State before on the matter of a particular business that is now facing the cliff edge. We are talking about a pile of firms and Deputy Doherty and others brought up the case of another firm in Dundalk earlier. We will be hitting that cliff edge in February, March or April. We need the duty of care legislation and then we need more providers to come into the sector to provide…

We will support the Bill, which will transpose an EU directive and EU legislation. I have spoken many times about the criminal confraternity and the high level of interconnectivity within crime. To a degree, criminals have at times been miles ahead of where the legislative or investigative process and our capacity as a State or as states have needed to be. We absolutely recognise the need to do this. People smuggling, obviously, happens across borders, so we welcome the fact this measure will apply throughout the E…

I thank Deputy Harkin for this necessary work and for the opportunity to speak about the necessity of our credit unions. It is in the public domain how hamstrung the credit unions are at this stage. We need Government to step up to the mark. We have heard about the multiple reports that have been done. We all know what needs to be done. We all accept the situation we are in. We know that there needs to be an increase in the products and financial services that credit unions are able to provide. We need that so we c…

The budget is literally how we set in train how we pay for everything and I suppose it sets the general level of intent in how we order society. I accept there are certain constraints in how we operate. For example, we are still dealing with the outworkings of a pandemic and we do not exactly know where that will lead in future. That is accepted. The State had to pay a huge amount to provide necessary supports, and that was about keeping society ticking over and ensuring we had something at the tail end of this. Th…

The Deputy will be able for it.

We are back in this situation again. We probably all bore ourselves at this stage by saying that we accept that this pandemic is going to continue into the future and that we are still in an incredibly precarious situation. Many of us have probably enjoyed, for want of a better term, the reopening of certain events, but obviously we are looking at everything with trepidation as regards the numbers. The situation has continued and there are very bad circumstances in hospitals. Staff are out and staff are under sever…

It is fair to say that we are not beyond the Covid pandemic yet and are still dealing with something that is incredibly serious and dangerous. That needs to be top of the agenda at the European Council. It goes without saying that the conversation on vaccines must include a discussion on booster shots. That is absolutely necessary and everyone here would be very supportive of that. That said, I add my voice to those who have said that we need to get to grips with the fact that none of us is safe until all of us are…

Deputy Funchion has already stated that we support the Bill. There is a logic to educational welfare issues being returned to the Department of Education. This is probably similar to a conversation I had with the Minister previously about the range of beneficial work that falls within the ambit of Tusla. However, Tusla has specific pieces of work that make it difficult for certain vulnerable families to deal with it. I echo what Deputy Function says about the vital work that is done by the school completion program…

I have a reasonable excuse for missing my slot earlier. I was with National Broadband Ireland and I pointed out all the areas where there is room for speeding up and accelerating the national broadband plan. I hope I will be taken up on all those points, so remember this. This is one of the many aspects we have dealt with in recent times in updating our legal framework on banking and finance as we try to deal with the modern world we are operating in. This is a world where international criminals were far ahead of …

The Minister said that we are dealing with a dysfunctional rental sector which is part of a broader dysfunctional housing market. We all accept that this will only be addressed through housing delivery. That is why Sinn Féin is talking about 20,000 units per year comprising about 12,000 social housing units delivered by councils and approved housing bodies, 4,000 affordable units and 4,000 cost-rental units. That is what we need to be looking at every year. In terms of the rental sector, every Deputy has figures fo…

I have had previous interactions with the Minister of State about right home care. We all accept we need a solution to this because families are desperate to gain home care packages so they can keep their loved ones at home. CHO 8 is one of those pilot areas, and we are still having difficulty. The representations I send in are still being returned. We have difficulty in getting people recruited. I did welcome the strategic workforce advisory group when I first heard about it. I am aware the first meeting has yet t…

We all recognise that the mood music on the pandemic is not as good as we thought it would be. The mood music from our neighbours in Britain has also not been particularly helpful in recent times, particularly on the Irish protocol. It has given succour to some of the more extreme elements within unionism but in fairness the European Commission has shown a willingness to offer solutions to those in the North who may have difficulties with supply chain issues. That is where the emphasis needs to be. When we talk abo…

All present accept that we are in a different and better place at this point. I add my voice to the voices of those who have commended the people working in social protection and the necessity of making sure those payments were made. However, there are still certain sectors which, although they are reopening, will not do so to the degree necessary. It is about making sure we have all the connectivity and protections that are needed. There are certain skill sets in event management and so on that we would not like t…

Obviously, I welcome this move. It is logical that the Minister cannot remove the PUP until, at least, all sectors are open. However, there will not necessarily be a big bang after which every sector will have opened. We need to avoid certain cohorts and people falling into gaps. Similar to Deputy Lahart, I would be interested in getting granular information in respect of those who have moved sectors and so on. That is necessary information from which we should probably learn. All Members know that a cursory audit …

The main thing is that protection has been provided and will be maintained for those who deserve it or need it in the relevant sectors. I agree with the Minister that the sectors have to make themselves attractive places to work. Members are aware of the difficulty caused by the fact that families cannot get home care packages because there are not enough home carers. That is a sector we have to facilitate. An element of work is being done by the Government in that regard, but these are the gaps that need to be fil…

We need to get the maximum amount of leeway in order to deliver.

The Minister has spoken about the review of the expert panel on childcare and early education. I am quite hopeful, on the basis of what he said, that he is keeping up to date from the point of view of ensuring that a number of issues are dealt with in the budget. Pay and conditions are vital in terms of delivering a service in the long term and ensuring it is sustainable. We also have to deal with the remaining issues with the NCS and others.

The logic of what the Minister has said is that in the long term this will morph into a public model and that will provide a greater element of control. Within that, pay and conditions can be dealt with, possibly to a greater degree than in the context of a JLC. Beyond that, a roadmap can be provided for people in terms of a career path. I will digress slightly because a number of people have spoken about the NCS. We accept that it works as a job activation tool. There are difficulties with regard to disadvantaged …