Let us be 100% clear. Joan Burton had nothing to do with the changes to the PUP brought by the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection on 12 July through the statutory instrument, SI 242/2020. With no public notice, the Minister changed the rules for the Covid-19 PUP and for other unemployment payments meaning that recipients could not take holidays abroad. Previously, they were allowed two weeks in any calendar year for a holiday without losing entitlement to jobseeker’s benefit. The Taoiseach has no…

All the world is a stage.

I am very conscious of Deputy Gannon's earlier intervention. On the point the Minister made, in my earlier contribution I said that there were questions about the regulation, as the travel advisory on which it is based has no legal standing. People were not informed of the changes so there was potentially a legitimate expectation they could travel under the normal rules that previously applied. I have also asked other questions of the Minister which have not been answered. There are further sections to be discussed…

I previously asked about the status of the Social Insurance Fund. I may have missed the Minister's response. In her speech, she said: "This is an accounting mechanism that does not have any impact on the entitlements of claimants." This is, however, to be paid for from the Social Insurance Fund. What exact figure will be extracted from the fund? It is vital in funding retirement and this measure may have an impact on whether the retirement age in this country is lowered.

I support the amendment. The Government has said this stimulus package is worth more than €7 billion. For a sum that would be quite small relative to the cost of the stimulus package, although the figure is indeterminate at present, the livelihoods of those within the sectors for which we have all spoken over the last number of hours could be sustained. The most vulnerable could be supported. They are culturally and economically productive and they are our own people. When all of the analysis is done and all the fi…

-----will have been relegated to the lower tiers. The Government has an opportunity to recognise the sectors that we celebrate and which export this culture as part of the soft diplomacy of international relations. We sell this globally as a major comparative advantage economically, and we are doing the culture and entertainment sector a disservice by not supporting it. I appeal to the Minister to reconsider her position in respect of this. I ask her not to make it so onerous on people who have lost their jobs in s…

There is a long-standing convention in this House that speeches would be circulated.

Will the Acting Chairman allow me to contribute? It is an important issue.

It allows us to digest the speech while the Minister is speaking and if there are issues inherent in the speech that we do not necessarily pick up on on first hearing then we can digest them. It is vitally important that we do not lose that convention, Acting Chairman.

I thank the Acting Cathaoirleach and I am grateful to have the opportunity to speak and support the motion brought forward by Deputy Funchion and Sinn Féin. I welcome the Minister’s speech on the basis that he has set out some form of a blueprint here to be proceeded with. It is only fair that we give the new Minister an opportunity to set out his stall and follow through on the many promises that are being made within the speech. It is for us then to support that as those initiatives roll out or call the Minister …

I rise on behalf of the Labour Party to support the Sinn Féin motion. We welcome this unambiguous motion that should warrant the support of the majority of the Members of this House. I reread the Minister's speech as I found part of it quite difficult to understand. She stated: The change being sought is complex from a legal perspective. It is not as simple as is being suggested. Adopting the proposed measure would require me, as Minister for Justice and Equality, to bring forward primary legislation to amend the M…

I congratulate the new Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton, on her appointment. I have not had a chance to do so formally and I wish her the very best of luck with the journey ahead. People may be aware that we were in the same year in college at NUI Galway, so I am very proud of her accession to such a high position. Well done to the Minister of State. I will speak briefly to keep the Mallow relief road on the political agenda. The M20 is very much on the…

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. Again, I wish to reiterate the point that while there are statutory processes to be gone through in respect of Transport Infrastructure Ireland's responsibilities in that regard, it is important to state that there is considerable political capital in delivery of roads. That political capital comes from the fact that Government decisions are made in respect of infrastructural projects like roads throughout the country. I am again calling on the Government, once the consu…

I rise to support this Labour Party motion. We are now in what I call a dark age in terms of public housing projects in this country. From the 1930s to the 1950s there was massive State intervention in respect of public housing build in this country. This was done because there was a will to do it. At the heart of the motion before us is the supply of housing as the ultimate goal and, in the interim, protection for renters and the introduction of a State support scheme to ensure nobody is put out on the street such…

With the Ceann Comhairle's permission, and if the Minister is amenable, I would like to ask some very simple questions and have an engagement with the Minister.

I seek clarity on the 7% target being spoken about in the context of Government formation. We know that the climate action plan has set out targets of 3.5%. My question is very simple: does the Minister envisage that the target set out in the climate action plan can be increased to 7%? Is that feasible? Is it possible? Is consideration being given to it?

The Minister referred to the 2050 net zero target. The more immediate target is the 2030 target. We are talking about going from 60 million tonnes to 33 million tonnes, approximately. The question then in terms of policy interventions by 2030 is how we achieve that target. For instance, is the Minister's stated policy ambition to take diesel cars out of the equation by 2030 still a stated policy intervention? Is it still on the cards? Furthermore, there has been some discussion about ring-fencing the carbon budget,…

I want to discuss sectoral issues. I know the Minister is not the line Minister responsible for agriculture but he will have a view on agricultural emissions. The Labour Party espouses a position whereby the Government needs to consult the stakeholders in agriculture to talk about agricultural emissions. Everyone recognises that there has to be a reduction in agricultural emissions but how we get there remains to be seen. I am hopeful that the State is moving beyond thinking and into real policy interventions. We w…

It is very interesting to hear Deputy Eamon Ryan, who may be a prospective Tánaiste, giving us a sense of his vision. The potentially continuing or next Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is also here to listen to that view. I am in no way being facetious about this. The view espoused by Deputy Ryan, possibly soon to be a Minister, is a vision that broadly we would all like to buy into. It is a picture of an Ireland that existed in the not-too-distant past, when one looks at grassland management, forestr…

When will PDFORRA be able to affiliate to ICTU?