Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

My point is made but I want it to be recorded. The Minister of State, with respect, is here and he made a contribution which was well put together and was appreciated, but the Government cannot go on the airwaves and in the media and suggest that the Opposition is not being constructive, that the Opposition is part of the problem or that the Opposition is trying to sow confusion when in the middle of a contribution by the Opposition the Tánaiste decides to leave. He left halfway through it.

We are all in this together. We are all doing our best. We are all trying to show leadership in our communities and to say to the people we represent that we can get through this, that we will get through this, that there will come a day when we can hug our grandparents again, meet our friends again, walk to the shop again, not have to wear a mask again, go to a football match again and that there will come a time when we do not have to be worried about this virus again. That day will come and we will celebrate that day. Hopefully, when that day does come we will have an economy and a country of which we can be proud. So many things have been ripped open and exposed by this virus, including the inequality, the housing problems, the issues of low pay that I mentioned already, with 23% of Irish workers on low pay - I am sick of saying it - and large numbers of young people in insecure work. All of these issues have been ripped open, including the issues in education with overcrowded classrooms but we can work together on these things. We can find solutions together on these issues. We can actually prove to the people of this country that when it comes down to it, Irish politicians are better than what is happening in the UK or the US right now. We are a collective that, when it comes down to it, has the Irish nation at its heart. We should be able to say, on examining the Irish nation, how it is formulated, the economy, society and all of the rest of it, that when we went through a pandemic, we came out the other side of it and we actually decided to repair what was wrong - the disadvantage, the housing, the inequality, the way that our systems and our Parliament are formulated. We can work on a huge amount of that together. I have spoken to the Minister with responsibility for higher education, Deputy Harris, about his belief in doing something about adult literacy. I have spoken to the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Foley, about her belief in doing something on free schoolbooks. We have spoken across this Chamber about things we can achieve together and we actually have achieved an awful lot together on a cross-party basis. That is what the people of this country want. They want to see us working together.

It is perfectly legitimate for the Opposition if it sees something that is wrong or inherently contradictory in a presentation by the Government to point it out. Two minutes ago, before the Tánaiste walked out, I said that there seems to be some confusion about the number of people who can meet together in their own family home compared to in a pub or a restaurant. I raised a legitimate point and sought clarity because we are all are getting phone calls from our constituents who are asking what they can and cannot do in the context of the regulations. Can I leave the county or not? Is the Government serious about not leaving the county or is it only half serious? To go back to my earlier point, midway through my contribution, the Tánaiste decided to get up and leave in some kind of mock protest. I wonder if there is any point in me engaging with the Tánaiste on this level because he seems to find it tedious when people decide to raise such issues with him.

I have already referred to the live events industry which employs 35,000 workers. It is at a very serious point. It absolutely accepts why the restrictions were introduced and the rationale behind the Government's decisions. It has suggested that the Government reinstates a support payment of €410, the previous level of the temporary wage subsidy scheme and €350, the previous level of the pandemic unemployment payment which is vital for the skilled workforce in the sector until it fully recovers. The sector is unique in that it is almost entirely closed under Government mandate, with no opportunity to trade. This is the real issue here. This is not about it trying to re-establish a relationship with its consumer base; it is mandated by the Government not to operate. A sector by sector, strategic investigation by the Government as to how we can recover certain elements of the economy would be beneficial to us all. Issues concerning workers' rights, low pay and representation rights for workers were dealt with in the previous debate this evening, so I will leave it there for now.

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