Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This week we reached a major milestone on Monday. I congratulate everybody – all the workers - for all their hard work. I hope the trajectory will continue in this way in terms of the volume of deaths and the volume of cases.

I have a number of questions for the Taoiseach today to which I would appreciate his response. I will allow enough time for him to respond to the individual questions. However, before I start I wish to make a plea to the Taoiseach. I have never come into this House and stressed something as passionately or emotionally as on this occasion. We have to do something immediately to change the way in which we are dealing with funerals. We all work together. We are always working in our communities and supporting one another but we are also together in death.

The rules are too rigid and ten people is too small a number. At many funerals the families are bigger than that. The social conditioning, the things we have all refrained from doing and the ways in which we have all changed, supports an increase in that number. I beg the Taoiseach to increase the number to 30. A friend of mine buried his father. His immediate family comprises much more than ten people. A funeral director told me a very sad story about grandchildren crying outside a church. We can do better. I plead with the Taoiseach to change this. I suggested a figure of 30, but everybody knows the social conditioning we have to work with. I hope everyone in the House can support me on this.

I was very struck by the report published today by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, entitled "No Going Back". We will need a new social contract. I want to raise some questions relating to where we go from here and I would appreciate the Taoiseach's responses. We must continue the pandemic unemployment payment, which we have argued for but some of the conversation around it is unacceptable. It is said that some employers cannot get workers. They are obviously not looking too hard. The Contract Cleaning Association of Ireland is now saying that it will not honour an employment regulation order requiring a 40 cent pay increase for contract cleaners. These are front-line workers who are putting their lives at risk to clean and save all of us. These cases demonstrate a narrative that I do not want to see continuing. I ask the Taoiseach to recognise the fact that we need to continue the pandemic unemployment payment. Furthermore, as we come out of this we will have to provide stimulus for several different sectors. This should be conditional on those sectors honouring industrial relations decisions arrived at by the State mechanisms. This is our chance to do that.

The Government has made two attempts at a proposal for childcare for front-line workers and healthcare workers. We must get this right. The Taoiseach's answer was not good enough. He said the Government will allow them to open. That is not going to work. It is not a case of allowing them to open. We need to create conditions where that is viable. This is the fulcrum around which all of our economy and society will turn. I am not sure this message has got through. The Government has failed twice. This needs a lot more attention.

I refer to the HSE's roadmap. I 100% believe that we need a plan for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. I have spoken to families in which children and adults are losing the will to go on. Intervention is needed now. I also want to see screening. How will the Government deal with disability organisations and various other section 38 and section 39 organisations that do what the State should? How will we chart a roadmap for them? They cannot all be funded through "The Late Late Show". We need a plan. What will it be?

A cross-reference group is needed along with NPHET to assist the Government in working through the Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business with the participation of the social partners because critical decisions will have to be made. If things go the way they are going, the roadmap will have to change. We need a way to manage this.

My final question relates to antibody testing. We have spoken about how we are going to conduct our business in Dáil Éireann in future. It is very obvious that we are going to have to live with this virus for a considerable period. We are going to have to use antibody testing for the economy, society, schools and everything else to function. I have taken an awful lot of time to research this and I have spoken to a lot of people. A huge amount of work is going on. It could be introduced relatively quickly. What is the status of that?

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