Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the new Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy McConalogue. It is a logical appointment given his role as Opposition spokesperson for a number of years. I met him last week and congratulated him before his appointment. I presumed it was going to be him. I sincerely wish him the best in the role. I also wish Deputy James Browne, the new Minister of State, the best in his role. I nearly felt sorry for the Taoiseach as regards the political outcome of what happened at "golfgate". Public anger was at a level I have never seen before. I acknowledge Deputy Calleary. It was remarkable that he grasped the situation and resigned so quickly. I wish others had followed his example.

The new Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has enormous challenges from day one and even straight away. We have a real issue in the meat industry. I welcome the fact that the Taoiseach has said he is going to have a full review of the industry. We all know the history and what the Irish public has done for the meat industry in this country in the past. Things are cyclical sometimes and here we go again. Are we going to put the meat industry before the public? What balance are we going to get? The public always comes first. I have spoken to the Taoiseach privately about this. We need to ensure that this industry is regulated, and I mean regulated. I worked in the industry as a student for a number of summers. It has not changed that much. It was not a very good experience but I needed the money to go to college. It is still not a very good experience. We need to deal with fundamental issues here as regards workers, their living conditions, activities, transport and most of all their working conditions. I repeat to the Taoiseach that if we do not deal with sick pay in this industry, somebody will be melodramatic but it will not be me. The Taoiseach may live to regret the fact that he is not acting quicker on this. If we end up with lockdowns in other counties because of outbreaks and clusters, I will be reminding the Taoiseach of what he said here today. This issue has to be dealt with. Everybody knows the conditions under which many of these workers work, their options to go into work, the risk of losing their jobs and their contracts of employment and the choice between working and not getting paid. When we are living in Covid, it is not an acceptable choice for society. The Taoiseach needs to deal with it. There are a number of other issues that the new Minister is going to have to deal with as regards Brexit and its outcomes. There is the issue of the family farm and how we are going to protect incomes across the country. I genuinely wish the Minister well. I and the Labour Party spokesperson, Deputy Sherlock, will engage with him in a very positive way.

Hopefully the Government has crossed the line and the shambolic situation we have seen since its commencement will change. When it comes to health, we need to see the winter plan that the Minister keeps promising. He needs to ensure that we can now live with a capacity in healthcare which is Covid and non-Covid. We had conference calls during the week with him as leader, and with the acting Chief Medical Officer, the head of the HSE and so on. They need to be supported. The HSE and Paul Reid in particular need to be supported from a current and capital funding point of view like they never have been before. I hope the Minister is able to deliver that because it has to be delivered on behalf of the people.

On education, I acknowledge that the Minister for Education and Skills changed her position in respect of school profiling. My colleague, Deputy Ó Ríordáin, led on this all summer. He fought for this. I acknowledge that the Minister has made that change. However, there are other issues. We need to ensure that the process is dealt with by which outbreaks in schools are managed as regards who is going to mind the children. I note that we have another one today. That is why we need the parental change I have outlined before. Finally, the issue concerning school transport is a complete and utter disaster at the moment. I will give the Minister and Taoiseach some private information if they so wish. It is a disaster particularly around rural areas and it needs to be got to grips with immediately. I have had four messages since I came in here from parents of children who cannot get bus tickets. They are getting €13 million. The Minister should do something about it, please.

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