Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her response. She has outlined how the system is supposed to work and should work, but new cases are coming to my attention daily. We need to get this matter resolved because I cannot go back to these people, whom we both know in many cases, and tell them essentially that the Department says it is their fault they have not received payment. These are hard-working people who want to open their businesses in the first instance. They want to get back to work. That is their primary objective. In the meantime, however, they want a little support. It should be remembered that these people do not have the payment breaks from the banks that they had previously. In many cases they are coming under pressure from landlords and the like. They are therefore asking the Minister to step up on their behalf. I was speaking to some of them today, people who have been affected by this debacle and others, many of whom were less than impressed by the Minister's speech earlier, in which she decided to defend the indefensible by going into the gutter and engaging in what I would describe as a rotten display of deflection. I remind the Minister that when she attacks Sinn Féin, she attacks many very good, decent-----

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