Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister in advance for dealing with these very important issues. I know they have been touched on before, but on behalf of my constituents and people who have contacted me I wish to ask the Minister to strongly support the call for maternity leave to be extended. I raised this earlier with another Minister. Maternity leave should be extended for mothers at this time. It is a matter that has been raised by many representatives. There is a massive signature campaign going on, with more than 20,000 signatures collected so far. The call of people who have had babies during this pandemic to have the length of leave extended is a very fair, reasonable and sensible suggestion to make.

Another issue about which I and others have contacted the Minister is the extension of the Covid payment to seasonal workers. She knows that in the county I come from we have a massive number of people working in the tourism industry. If this crisis had struck a month or six weeks later, an awful lot of people who are debarred from qualifying would have qualified, and it is most unfortunate that they find themselves at home. They do not have work but, because of the nature of their work in restaurants and bars and the hospitality sector, they had not worked on 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 March and they lost out. That is most unfortunate.

The other group I wish to talk about are people who are over 66 and who are on a pension. They might have owned a small country bar or some other type of small business.

These people were getting their pensions and supplementing their livelihoods with the little amount of money they earned from their small businesses. Those businesses are now gone. The people in question are not coming to me saying that they want €350 per week on top of their pensions. However, if they are on a pension of €220 or €240 or €230 per week, they want to know whether the Minister could not look at giving them an increment to take them up to €350 and put them on the same level as everyone else. They would be grateful for that. The number of people who have asked me about that is striking. They have stated that they are not looking for €350 on top of their pensions but they are looking to get to €350 in total. That would compensate them in some small way for losing their businesses. I have one couple in particular in my mind. They have been loyal servants behind the counter of a local bar in County Kerry for many years. That bar is now shut. They were offering a great service to their community. The business is now gone and they are left with only their pensions. They are finding it really difficult to manage.

I have no wish to eat into the Minister's time - I want to allow here to respond - but the matter of the Debenhams workers has rightly been raised already. I stood with those people this week in Tralee. They really are being blackguarded and treated most unfairly. I would like to see the Minister supporting them, as I know she would. I am grateful to her in advance for saying that she supports them.

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