Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Last Monday morning taxis from all over Cork city and county arrived in the suburb of Mahon as taxi drivers prepared for the biggest taxi protest in living memory. They were attempting to draw attention to the terrible financial plight that they face with their families and the lack of action on the part of the Government. If Cork is moved to level 3, their financial position will worsen, as will the financial position of many other working people.

People need supports, including the supports that have been taken away from them. Those supports must be put back in place. I refer, among other things, to the cut in the pandemic unemployment payment. People had €50 or €100 per week which they need taken from their pockets last week. That must be reinstated. Incidentally, taxi drivers and other people who are aged over 65 years need that payment too.

Yesterday, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government released information about the numbers living in emergency accommodation in the State at the end of August. The number in emergency accommodation in Cork had increased from 376 adults at the end of July to 400 adults at the end of August. It is insane to force people to go traipsing around the city looking for accommodation instead of keeping them in their current accommodation. The blanket ban on evictions, which the Government ended at the beginning of August, must be reinstated now, at the start of October. That is not special pleading for Cork or Dublin. It must be done nationwide.

Catriona Twomey is a well-known figure in Cork. She is the head of Cork Penny Dinners, a soup kitchen for needy people. She recently expressed her fears and concerns to The Echoin Cork about the effect of a continuing pandemic coinciding with the winter season on the mental health of the people with whom she deals. She said:

We have already lost so many people. Now we're worried that we are going to lose more. ... This [the issue of suicide] hasn't levelled off since March and the Government is going to have to take it seriously.

Implicit in those words is a feeling that the Government is not taking it seriously. The spend on mental health in the State must be doubled immediately. Catriona's call for on-street, one-to-one mental health supports must be acted on straight away.

See this speech in context