Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I offer my sympathies to the families of people who have lost their lives due to Covid-19 and other illnesses, and to the families and friends who could not attend funerals to show their respects due to the health restrictions in place. I have questions for the Minister about payments, which have been increased from €203 to €350, which I welcome. I get questions every day from part-time workers, apprentices and trainees, whose incomes might only have been €200. They are afraid that when they apply for this funding, if it is €350 when they were only earning €200 to €300, they may be told that they have to repay the balance at the end if they have been overpaid.

Our front-line services are doing an amazing job, from our healthcare services, to shopkeepers, to chemists and across the board. If one is an apprentice blocklayer, plumber, electrician or plasterer, one is paid a wage when doing one's training. The nurses in our front-line services do not get anything while they are training, and should get an immediate subsidy to allow them to survive, since we need all of our healthcare staff.

People who are over 70 are made to turn up to the motor tax office in person to renew their licences. They have to travel by themselves because they have nobody who will take them, because they are afraid to pass anything on. This has to be changed.

The banking sector is freezing payments, which is welcome, but if one has a term loan of two, three or four years, a bank will freeze it for three or six months, but it wants the full payment within the term of the loan. That means that when this comes back to normality, one has to pay the full amount to the bank within the term of the loan. This has to be changed. Due to this crisis, people might be living in rental accommodation with someone elderly and with their children, because they are on a housing list. They are now looking for alternative accommodation so that they can have a separation distance from their loved ones, so they are working. Many people need to be looked after in this crisis.

Some insurance companies have shown that they are liable and some have shown that they are not. As a goodwill gesture, all insurance companies should freeze all insurance payments at this time for three months to allow businesses that had to close down not to pay the premium. Their cover should be held in place for three months as a goodwill gesture. It should be made law that this must happen immediately.

The companies that are liable can be dealt with afterwards. In the interim, insurance should be frozen for small, medium and large businesses and everything should be kept in place. In order to maintain one's insurance cover, a hotelier must have somebody in the hotel 24-7. Otherwise, one's insurance is invalid. A measure must be introduced to deal with this.

To return to our nurses, if anything comes out of today it should be that our trainee nurses and our front-line staff immediately receive a payment to allow them to continue to provide the help and front-line services we are asking for.

See this speech in context