Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House today. I will leave time at the end of my questions for him to answer them.

At the outset, I pay tribute to the front-line transport workers who have kept Ireland moving throughout this pandemic and I ask the Minister to pass on our praise and thanks to them through his offices.

In relation to the taxsaver scheme, I acknowledge the National Transport Authority, NTA's role in ensuring that over 60,000 commuters will be compensated. This is only fair. I thank the NTA for the speed in which it dealt with that query.

I also acknowledge the role and innovation of many local authorities right across the country, including my own of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, which have responded to the needs of cyclists and pedestrians during this period.

Businesses across the country are taking steps to ensure employees and indeed their customers are physically distanced when they reopen on Monday next. Supermarkets have made great strides in providing gloves and hand sanitisers at the point of entry into their premises.

Some are even washing down shopping trolleys between use by one customer and the next.

What contingencies has the Government put in place to protect the public and limit the spread and transmission of Covid-19 as businesses reopen and the public starts using public transport, mainly the DART, Luas and Dublin Bus services, during the first stage of the lifting of restrictions next week? Will masks and hand sanitisers be provided to commuters? Will bus carriages and the buses themselves be sanitised between uses and between journeys, as is the case in many other countries across the world? If we expect members of the public to use public transport, they have to know it is safe to do so. That assurance needs to come from the Department.

Finally, I ask the Minister to make a statement about those over the age of 70 whose driver licences require renewal and about the national car test, NCT, which was not addressed in his speech.

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