Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that the issues raised are being addressed. The extension, though, is to 31 January 2022. There are still people who are laid off now. Where will that leave them? I refer to situations where it is necessary for people to have recognition of continuous service. Where does this leave those people? Even if we were sitting here and we were able to say that the pandemic is 100% over - and the Minister of State will be aware from listening to medics that they will never be able to say that, while we as lay people may be - there are still people who are temporarily laid-off as a result of Covid-19. I wonder if it would not be prudent to extend this measure a little while. Will we not have people going back to work who are only slightly outside the provisions?

Most people are, hopefully, going to be back in work and going back to where they were working. A small number of people, however, are still laid-off today who would not be covered by this proposal, in the event that they find themselves in this situation when they go back. Would it not be worthwhile, therefore, to have a short extension of this measure, not forever or indefinitely, to encompass a point - and I know we are not going to have anything stupid like a "Freedom Day" or anything like that - when all workers should have gone back to work, or else it can be assumed they will not be going back. I am wondering how this proposal would work for those people who are still laid-off today.