Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

While I accept that the Minister of State said he hopes a buyer will be found, if one is not found, the very minimum that needs to be done is that these workers should have an assurance that their collective agreement will be honoured at the end of the season. That would be of some consolation to them.

These are really important jobs to Mayo, as the Minister of State said.

There is a further issue with some of these workers who volunteered to go in to get the shops in Ballina and Castlebar ready before 27 December and then they were cut off from the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, even though they had the number of qualifying weeks, etc. I ask that the Minister of State would look at this. It is mean-spirited to cut them off from the PUP payment, particularly on a day former politicians received an extra €16,000 pay increase on top of their €130,000 per year pension entitlement. It gives out the completely wrong message from Government. I ask the Minister of State to extend the PUP payment to them as well and give them the assurances that their collective agreement will be honoured. That would go some way towards fulfilling his obligation toward these workers.

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