What exactly is the state or nature of those discussions? When will PDFORRA be able to affiliate to ICTU?

I want a reassurance that there is no impediment on the Government's part to ensuring that, as a principle, PDFORRA can affiliate to ICTU.

On pay and conditions, the Minister of State spoke to the issue of engagement with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform regarding those who have either returned from overseas deployment in Lebanon or are going out. He told us that there is full engagement with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and that he hopes to come back to Members on the various issues that have been raised as soon as possible. The latest UN deployment to Lebanon took place in mid-November 2019 and would have ended in M…

I welcome the Minister of State's response, because he is aware of the issue and is sympathetic to the plight of those people. I return to my point that this money would have been budgeted for anyway and through no fault of their own, this situation has resulted in a serious loss of income for these people. We know the consequence of that loss of income for a Defence Forces family, especially in terms of keeping a household and managing bills. If there is a process of engagement with the relevant authorities, I ask…

There have been two Ministers who have come in here and have used the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for a bit of cover. I am not sure how acceptable it is.

I believe the Minister is a very fair-minded person. By any objective analysis, he has always been distributional in terms of his ethos and of funding across the State. A point was made earlier about urban renewal. There needs to be new thinking around tackling the level of degradation of buildings, particularly in urban areas, villages and towns where there is a rural hinterland. I refer to areas in which buildings have been left abandoned, there are absentee landlords, and there is an absolute need for a coherent…

LEADER delivery contracts with the local development companies will expire in December of this year. Will the Department notify the development companies that the Minister will be extending their contracts after December 2020? What is the Minister's view on the extension of the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP? What are the Department's intentions on the LEADER timeframe and the budget for LEADER in the context of CAP? The Minister has not referred to that in his speech but I would welcome a written reply on that ma…

I wish to raise a number of issues with the Minister. I will ask a question, receive the answer and then follow up with subsequent questions. The first issue is the fact that as public representatives people are coming to us who are concerned about the wage subsidy scheme and its impact on them as employees in respect of their pension entitlements down the line. I would like the Minister's assurance that people's statutory pension entitlements will not be affected by the fact that they are being paid under the temp…

I appreciate the Minister's reply. Perhaps he could circulate his response to all our colleagues here, as I think it is a question they have all been asked. There is another similar question on people's minds. Will a tax liability arise from receipt of the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payment?

I thank the Minister. The next issue I wish to raise concerns correspondence I have received via the Irish Cancer Society. This body wrote to the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty, with whom I intended to raise the matter directly today. The Irish Cancer Society stated: It has come to our attention that a number of cancer patients who have been advised to cocoon are not entitled to the COVID-19 Enhanced Illness Benefit payment of €350 per week... the Irish Cancer Society is askin…

Is the Minister in receipt of correspondence from the National Campaign for the Arts in respect of those issues? We have probably all received them in recent days.

I will start with the quality of life issues facing working parents, particularly working mothers, for whom childcare has become a crucial issue. We have the first research findings from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, on the adverse effect it is having on working women in particular. The CSO press statement on the employment and life effects of COVID-19 survey published on 13 May states: It found that more women ... than men ... are caring for a dependent family member or friend because of the COVID-19 crisis.…

I have ten minutes and many questions.

With all due respect, I made a general point-----

I asked one very specific question.

Yes, please.

My next question relates to the Federation of Early Childhood Providers. Will the Minister intervene directly to ensure that the federation, which I understand represents 1,400 providers, will be included in the advisory group?

The Minister referred to the Norwegian model in connection with the next phase of opening up. There is no reference in her speech to floor space. This will be crucial to the operation of any model because it will have an impact on the number of children who can be catered for at any given time. Regarding full-time provision for children between zero and six years, I understand the floor space is anywhere from 3.5 sq. m per child to 2.3 sq m. per child. Under the Danish model, on which I have information, the area i…

My final intervention relates to insurance. I seek a clarification from the Minister on the statement I understand she made to the effect that Allianz is providing 95% of the insurance cover in this area at present and that Covid-19, or the risk of it, does not arise. I may have misinterpreted what she said. I just want further clarity as to who exactly she or her officials are talking. Is it an umbrella body or is she talking to specific insurance providers. If it is the latter, to which providers is she talking?

What is the nature of that conversation? Is Allianz setting preconditions or laying down any benchmarks which the Department must reach before it can be satisfied that it can provide cover to the providers in any new scheme?