In regard to childcare providers, as the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, said earlier, I would encourage childcare providers and their representative bodies to engage with his Department and-----

-----to reconsider whether taking action that would effectively withdraw childcare supports for three days next week should go ahead. I can state that for all three parties in government and certainly for the Minister, childcare is a big priority in the build up to this budget. Last year, there was a significant increase in funding for childcare. I suspect this budget will also prioritise childcare so I can promise the Deputy that the industry has the attention of the Government here. We want to hear what providers…

-----and we want to respond to that as best we can in the budget. I do not believe that causing significant disruption to parents is helpful in those efforts, even though I can understand the frustration, having met a number of the childcare providers in my own town. On the question of the four-year-old boy, Logan, I will ask the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, to respond to that.

I will look at that case if it is helpful. We obviously want to use the industrial relations machinery of the State to good effect. Many Iceland workers find themselves in a very uncertain position and I can understand their frustration and anger as result of that. An examinership process is under way by court order. I have to be careful with respect to any political intervention here but the WRC is there for a reason and I will follow up on the issue after the Deputy has raised it here again with me.

We had quite a long discussion on this at Cabinet today. A range of positive things is happening in terms of modern methods of construction. We will see much more social housing delivered using this technology - about 1,700 homes this year and next year - to show that this can be done cost effectively and produce quality homes while doing it. The Deputy asked about higher buildings using certain timber products and so on which are being used in other parts of Europe but not in Ireland. That requires some further wo…

I will take that. The Deputy knows that we met to discuss this issue to try to find a way, if it exists, to support some of the families in properties that have been damaged by that freak event. There is not an easy way to do that. From the point of view of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, it is not predominantly businesses that have been damaged but residential houses. I am happy to continue to talk about what is possible and what is not, but it is important to be honest with people about what t…

As the Deputy knows, the EU has to date adopted 11 packages of sanctions in response to Russia's illegal and unjustified war of aggression in Ukraine. The trade measures linked to those sanctions are sophisticated and targeted but do not prohibit all trade. Individual exporters need to decide whether to continue to trade with Russia when such trade is not prohibited in the sanctions to which we have signed up. Of course, they also must factor in other considerations, including how the consumers of their products wi…

The food sector falls within the remit of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and his Department keeps in close contact with the relevant actors in that sector. Fairness and transparency in the food sector are essential, as is ensuring that consumers have access to sufficient and accurate information before making a purchase. That is why the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, is establishing the new agrifood regulator under the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022. Price development along the food…

First, I acknowledge the role of my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, in terms of the retail forum. That focus on ensuring that consumers are getting a fair deal from a competitive marketplace in the retail sector continues. There will be another retail forum in early autumn and that conversation will continue. The food industry is an industry that I know reasonably well, having been Minister Agriculture, Food and the Marine previously. It is a sector, by the way, that needs to be competitive in te…

What I will commit to is having a conversation with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine about what the appropriate direction here is in terms of what we should be doing together as a Government and in the context of the new regulator being set up. It is important to say that we import a lot of food from large food companies like Unilever, Nestlé and lots of others. We are a price-taker as a small, open economy that imports very large volumes of food across many products. When you speak to retailers, a…

I thank the Deputy. I would like to have more opportunity to discuss this issue if I could. Maybe we can do that in the next few weeks. First, I want to say that I know yesterday was another difficult day for all the staff in Tara Mines and my first concern remains for the impacted staff and their families. This includes the 650 staff employed directly by the company in Navan but also staff and companies impacted which have contracts with Tara Mines. There are many people in that position. My Department, the Depart…

That engagement will continue right the way through this process. Even if it moves into a care and maintenance situation, we want to continue to talk to both the workers' representatives and management to try to make sure that period is as short as possible. It is important to say and put on the record that the management have been really clear with me that they are 100% convinced that this is a temporary care and maintenance situation they are now facing and that Tara Mines can and will open again. I have to take …

Enterprise Ireland is also engaging with other companies that are subcontracting, for example, into Tara Mines to try to find alternative work for those companies.

The Chair might give me a slight bit of latitude and I will finish then. On the core question, certainly, I do not believe that the management has rejected the proposals from the union leadership. What they have said to me is it is not enough in terms of cost savings to be able to avoid moving into care and maintenance for now. Of course, we need then to look at what is possible in terms of state aid in supporting, for example, the company to help compensate for the dramatic increase in energy costs it has experien…

I hear what the Deputy is saying. With regard to supports in the labour market, of course, the Government is always open to looking at new and more impactful ways of doing things and looking at international best practice and so on. With regard to Tara Mines, it is important to be upfront about the scale of the financial pressures on the company. The predicted loss for 2023, when the decision was announced a number of weeks ago that the company was going to move into care and maintenance, was approximately €100 mil…

I thank the Deputy for making me feel old this morning.

Ireland has a robust suite of employment rights legislation to protect employees. Where employees believe their employment rights have been breached, they have the right to refer complaints to the WRC for an adjudication and possible redress. The Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 to 2015 provide that where an employee has been unfairly dismissed, an adjudication officer and, on appeal, the Labour Court may make an order for the reinstatement, re-engagement or awarding of compensation to the employee. It is a matter for t…

I accept the principle that there has to be a real deterrent to prevent unfair dismissal. That is the point of having industrial relations machinery that deals with that. Nevertheless, we have to try to get the balance right between, on the one hand, protecting workers and making sure there is not unfair dismissal, with an appropriate deterrent in that regard, and also having a proportionate response in the context of potential income loss, other job opportunities and so on. I accept the point. I am sure the Deputy…

I do not want to talk about any individual case on the floor of the Dáil but I want to make it very clear that it is unlawful to dismiss a person from his or her job simply because he or she is a member of a trade union. Nobody should lose his or her job because he or she has chosen to join a trade union in Ireland. It is important to say that. I take the Deputy's point in terms of the strength of the jobs market at the moment but we have to pass legislation for all circumstances. Who knows where we will be in five…

The protection of democracy is extremely important. We have seen rogue actors trying to influence elections. There are multiple examples of that across democracies. AI is another more advanced tool for state and non-state actors to try to intervene and affect election results. My understanding is that Art O'Leary, the head of the Electoral Commission, is very engaged with this issue in terms of trying to ensure that we do everything we can to look at international best practice in order to protect against the poten…