Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

These are the questions. With all due respect to the Minister, maybe he can answer them. Maybe he cannot. They are questions to the Taoiseach.

This one the Minister might be able to answer is in relation to a number of briefings from the Government in the early days of March. The community health organisations were identified as having carried out investigations of all centres where people were living in congregated settings. I would like the Minister to outline the number of assessments that were undertaken and, where each assessment was undertaken, the ways in which people living in congregated settings were adequately protected.

The Minister probably will not be able to answer my second question; the Taoiseach might have been if he had been here. It has been indicated that Debenhams, which, as the House will be aware, announced its closure in Ireland last week, was not helping staff with the processing or payment of redundancy in any way. Does the Minister believe that it is right and fair for a company to use the Covid-19 crisis as cover to jettison workers and renege on its responsibility with regard to redundancy?

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