I thank the Minister of State for his response. I spoke briefly to the Minister for Social Protection earlier and she undertook to consider my suggestion that, at a very minimum, a CE scheme for the disabled should be established here. This is not a political matter as far as I am concerned. I am raising this in a non-adversarial, apolitical way. Most of the people who are losing their jobs in Rehab Logistics are not even in my constituency. The factory is located in my constituency but most of the staff are from p…

In the ridiculously short time available to me I am not able to discuss Bank of Ireland but suffice it to say I agree with the remarks by Members on all sides of the House. I will confine myself, in the few minutes I have, to the situation with Ulster Bank. The key question with Ulster Bank is who steps into the breach. Who will step into the breach in relation to SME lending and lending to homeowners? Be it called public banking, community banking, a third banking force or whatever one wishes, unless we move quick…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this very important topic. This State has expended enormous amounts of money as aids to businesses affected by the pandemic, and rightly so. The purpose of this has been to preserve businesses and jobs affected by the pandemic. More important is ensuring that as many businesses and jobs as possible emerge unscathed when the pandemic is over and the country begins to reopen. It seems that despite the billions of euro in expenditure, there is still one missing ingr…

I thank the Minister of State very much for his assurance that it is his intention to have the legislation to provide a system of examinership or restructuring, or whatever one wants to call it, specifically tailored to the needs of these companies in place by summer at the latest. That is most appropriate. If it is done, the necessary addendum to all the money that has been spent on those supports will be in place. I have one question for the Minister of State. I read the report of the CLRG and I note that there w…

I wish to share time with Deputy Flaherty. I take it he is in the House. I cannot see downstairs.

That is fair enough. I will make a few general observations and leave it to my colleagues to ask the questions. We will give the Minister a break from questions. I join with her and other speakers in congratulating the staff of the Department of Social Protection on the wonderful work they have been doing during the pandemic. I say a special word of thanks and congratulations to local staff in Limerick who have performed with unfailing courtesy and provided help above and beyond the call of duty. I thank them for t…

I am sharing time with Deputy Brendan Smith. I would love to discuss many of the points made by the previous speaker but unfortunately my time is limited to three and a half minutes. Despite all the guff and fake indignation we have heard on the floor of the House about the Government being allocated extra time, the longest I have ever been allowed to speak here since the Government took office is four minutes. There has been a huge increase in the social welfare budget, necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Natur…

Deputy Crowe and I have already explained to the Government the central importance of these sites to the economy of the entire region. Thankfully, the Government listened and decided last August to provide funding to enable the sites to remain open. What is quite mysterious to me is the fact that the Government decided to allocate €2.4 million to keep those sites open but it has only been able to spend €700,000, which is about one quarter of what was originally allocated, for reasons that I do not have time to go i…

The Minister's response indicates that we are in the same position now as we were last August. At that time, the Government was prepared to allocate €2.4 million to ensure the continued operation of the sites in question. Only €700,000 of that has been drawn down, which brings us up to Christmas. What is the problem with allocating some more of that money now to keep those sites going from January until April, when they would usually open? Is it more desirable to lose continuity and have people sitting at home draw…

I will confine myself to commenting on three aspects of the Finance Bill because of the lack of time available. I want to ask the Minister about the tax treatment of the pandemic unemployment payments, PUP. The PUP scheme is very different from ordinary social welfare schemes. There are different rates, different conditions and so on. The reason for this is very simple. We are all familiar with the reasons people find themselves on social welfare in the ordinary course of events but people find themselves on the PU…

He has been here forever.

I was going to share time with Deputy McGuinness, but I presume I am now sharing with Deputy Alan Farrell instead. I welcome that this is an expansive budget, which is the proper way to go. It is not possible to cut our way out of a crisis like this. We must spend our way out of it. I welcome the supports for business, particularly the extension of the tax warehousing scheme and the commercial rates remission. I have several questions, however, regarding the new Covid restrictions support scheme. The amount payable…

I am sharing time with Deputy Cahill. I welcome this debate which is taking place in the run-up to the budget, which will, presumably, represent the next instalment of Government measures to alleviate the impact of Covid-19. Covid-19 does not discriminate between individuals but it does have a profoundly different affect on different sectors of the economy. In terms of our economy, the biopharma and tech industries are booming while the hospitality and tourism sectors have been hammered. The level of wages in the b…

I congratulate the Minister on her appointment and wish her well. There is much in this legislation that is useful and necessary, of that there is no doubt. I accept what my colleague, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, has said on remote hearings and so on for the courts, under their own rules of proceeding, to do this sort of thing and I welcome that. It is quite useful and I welcome the fact it is being put on a statutory basis. Some provisions in the legislation are welcome because they are urgently needed due to the Covi…

Like my colleague, Deputy Crowe, I want to use my 150 seconds to make a special plea to the Minister, the Government and the incoming Government to intercede with Aer Lingus to persuade it to reverse the unfair, discriminatory and possibly illegal way it has treated its staff in Shannon Airport for the reasons outlined by my colleague. The Minister may well say that Aer Lingus is a private company and beyond the remit of the Government but we all know there is significant interdependence between Aer Lingus, as the …

I welcome the Minister to the House. We are all familiar with the expression, "I cannot believe what I am hearing." Today, I cannot believe what I am not hearing. We are in a situation where the House is being asked to vote for an additional €6,840 million of taxpayers' money for increased social welfare payments, which I welcome, but without any information whatsoever as to the future of this payment. I have been inundated with questions from people asking when the payment is going to end, for how long is it going…

I am sharing time with Deputies Devlin, Brendan Smith and Niall Collins. I want to be associated with the remarks the Minister made about the departmental officials. They have worked very hard in difficult circumstances and have performed their duties very efficiently. If the Minister does not have time to answer all of my question now, she might respond in writing. What is the Government's intention in respect of the €350 per week Covid-19 payment? Is it due to be extended beyond 15 June and, if so, for how long? …

I want to say a few words on sections 3 to 7, inclusive, the sections relating to social protection. First, I want to congratulate the staff in the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection for the tremendous work they have been doing for the past fortnight under immense pressure. While I welcome the move by the Government to make special provision for people who are in receipt of illness benefit as a result of contracting the disease or isolating on medical advice, nevertheless I am not entirely happy…

I had intended to withdraw amendment No. 27. On the other amendments ruled out of order, the intention of the Government is to raise the basic rate of illness benefit from €203 per week to €305 per week. As the Minister knows, a person with dependants receives a certain percentage - I think it is 70% - of the adult dependant rate and there are also certain rates for child dependants. Are those rates going to be raised commensurately, or at all? I would also like to know the position regarding someone who is diagnos…

I am inclined to agree with Deputy Brady. Practically all the social welfare amendments have been ruled out of order on the basis that they are a charge on the Exchequer. I put down an amendment to prevent the Government from introducing regulations to impose additional conditions of entitlement to the increased illness benefit payment in section 40(A)(1)(e). For the life of me, I cannot see how that could be interpreted as a charge on the Exchequer, yet it was ruled out of order on that basis. I was trying to ensu…