I will be brief in speaking to this Bill and the priorities of this Government, in particular the priorities of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and, unbelievably, the Green Party. Today, the workers of Debenhams have been 251 days on picket lines. Nine years ago, Vita Cortex workers engaged in a sit-in for 131 days to get a fair redundancy. At that time, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael told the Vita Cortex workers, "This will never happen again". Nine years later, Debenhams workers are being shafted because Fianna Fáil and Fin…

I congratulate Deputy Ó Broin on bringing forward this Bill. At the end of the day, it is about protecting people in homelessness and putting in place structures and strategies such that people are not appearing in local authority offices saying that their notice to quit expires that day and they are homeless. This has been the procedure and the policy until now. I welcome the decision of the Government and the Minister to support this Bill, but not the Minister's back-handed compliments and criticism of it. Let us…

-----but the comments he made were disrespectful. He mentioned that he met Cork Simon Community. I will give him some figures. In 2019, some 1,100 men and women availed of the services of Cork Simon Community. It took Deputy Ó Broin to bring forward a Bill to support people in homelessness and to put a plan in place. I welcome the Minister's support. He needs to thank Deputy Ó Broin and support the work he is doing. At the end of the day, when Fine Gael was in government for four or five years, Fianna Fáil supporte…

Yesterday, I sent the Taoiseach a petition with more than 1,150 names calling for the reopening of SouthDoc in Blackpool. He said last week that he would look into its closure. The Minister for Health has confirmed that the HSE has asked for a timeline for the service to reopen but has not received it. Will the Taoiseach intervene at this stage and ask SouthDoc to reopen? The people of the north side of Cork city need this facility, especially before Christmas. It is a vital service.

We fundamentally disagree that people should have to pay for healthcare such as addiction services. I met with many groups recently who engage in addiction services and one issue keeps cropping up time and again. People are being forced to pay out of pocket for assessment for rehabilitation and detoxification services. In fact, there are five facilities in the State that charge people seeking assessments €90 100% of the time. We have already had the issue raised that the time between assessments and treatment is to…

I concur with the Deputy. I have had instances in Cork where people have been turned away although they have declared themselves homeless. This was because they travelled from outside the county. The Minister said that no one is being turned away but that is not what we are hearing. We hear how people are homeless and sleeping in doorways. Emergency action is needed.

I welcome the motion. Sinn Féin opposed the establishment of the rainy day fund because we believe that when the country is in the middle of a housing crisis with a healthcare service on its knees, schools crying out for funding, people scared to leave their homes because of a lack of gardaí and roads that are not safe, we do not need to put money away for a rainy day because we are in the middle of a rainy day. We need to invest in housing, healthcare, schools, gardaí, childcare and roads. Ever since the rainy day…

That is not what we said.

That is because we want to spend.

I thank my party colleagues Deputies O'Reilly and McDonald for introducing this Bill. I welcome the Government's decision not to oppose it tonight. Sinn Féin is committed to standing up for people who need us and who need this legislation. I would like to mention all the individuals and organisations that offer support, including my club, St. Vincent's Camogie Club, and Mr. Liam Cotter from Cork, who is running 100 miles per week for 12 consecutive weeks to raise money for Mná Feasa. Groups and individuals have ste…

One of the only positive things to come out of the pandemic is that the Government put in place emergency structures for the supply of medical cannabis to people such as Vera Twomey's daughter Ava. Before the pandemic, the Government stated this could not be done, and families had to travel to the Netherlands and other places to get medical cannabis. Will the Government commit to making the emergency temporary structures that are in place the norm, so that families will not have to worry and feel the uncertainty of…

I wish to raise an issue I have been raising for many months. It is not a new issue. I raised it first in March, when the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, stated that all student nurses would be paid for the duration of the pandemic. I may be wrong, but the pandemic has not gone away. The only thing that has gone away is the payment for student nurses. The restriction and strain on the health service have not gone away. What has gone away is the Fine Gael promise to look after the student nurses who are wor…

You voted against it.

I thank Deputy O'Reilly for bringing forward this Bill. Not every worker can work from home. Those in meat factories, retail, healthcare and childcare services need to go into work but, unfortunately, some of those places have seen significant clusters. We have been asking the Minister of State for far too long to take the simple step to protect workers' rights and workers. We should not be wasting time. All we need is the Tánaiste to come into the House and give his signature but, once again, we will be waiting on…

I started a petition last Friday which now has almost 1,000 signatures. It calls on SouthDoc to reopen its facility on the north side of Cork. I have contacted SouthDoc and asked whether it will reopen this facility. It has said that the closure of the service has had no impact on service provision. Almost 1,000 people would disagree. I have been in touch with the HSE which said that the closure since March is temporary but it has given me no timeline for its reopening. A comment on the Facebook page says that emer…

This year, during the election, I met a man who told me that he had his first job when he was 14 years old. After working for 51 years, the Government put him on the dole, or the exchange as he called it. After 51 years of work, that was what the Government did to him. He was angry. He said the lack of respect shown to him demonstrated that all his years of service, his work and his contribution to his family and the State were not appreciated. When people reach the age of 65, they want the choice to be able to ret…

We look forward to-----

That is right.

Has the Minister given consideration to providing incentives to encourage credit unions and post offices to lend to people whose income has been temporarily reduced during the Covid-19 crisis so that they are not forced to obtain loans from private moneylenders who are charging exorbitant rates?

I thank the Minister. Sinn Féin recently carried out a household survey and 94% of those who responded were concerned about their household income this year. A survey from last year showed that one in eight Irish parents goes into debt for Christmas, something that will be much worse this year because of the Covid-19 crisis. A financial broker quoted in the Irish Independent said that banks are not lending to those on the EWSS or PUP and are reluctant to lend to people who work for companies that have availed of th…