John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is always a theme of punishment and reward coming from the other side of the House. I trust the Minister on this. I would not rush into it but I do not want that to be misinterpreted as me saying that I am not enthusiastic about this. I support the thrust of it but it could easily end up being quite a divisive issue if it is not handled sensitively. The Minister rightly mentioned the front-line retail workers and I would support any call-out to industry, business and employers, particularly those in the retail space. I am sure many of them have responded in how they look after their employees but we need to get some examples of that. Then there are the unseen who we might not know about and who never get paid anyway. There are carers and SNAs but I trust the Minister and the Government to handle this with sensitivity. If this is handled the wrong way, it could go awry and be very divisive.

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