Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Ó Ríordáin asked about the cost of living measures and the remote working legislation. Suffice to say that the Government allocated approximately €1 billion in the most recent budget towards cost of living issues, from taxation relief of some €630 million to more than €500 million in respect of social protection measures. That was added to last week by a package of more than €500 million, which included cutting electricity bills by €200 and an increased fuel allowance payment of €125. That is on top of the €5 increase in fuel allowance, extended eligibility and extension of the season that were introduced in the budget. The drug payment scheme threshold has been reduced to €80, there is a front-loading of the working family payment, a 20% reduction in public transport from the end of April until the end of the year, which will help some 800,000 people who are currently using the services, and a reduction in caps for school transport fees for the next academic year. The package is not a sticking plaster. It is an effort on top of what was done in the budget to help people to get over the cost of living issue in terms of the inflationary cycle we are currently experiencing. We have to work with Europe, the European Central Bank and others in weathering this storm and navigating our way through it to ensure we do not undermine our economy and that we keep it on the track it is on at the moment, which is one of extraordinary growth and development and increased employment.

The remote working proposals are going through the pre-legislative scrutiny process and we will take on board people's input to that process. The Tánaiste will review the Bill once it gets through pre-legislative scrutiny. There is a balancing required in this and quite considerable work yet to be done on it.

In response to Deputy Boyd Barrett, regarding any specific employment, we have a voluntarist system. We have the WRC and the Labour Court. There are mechanisms for workers' representatives to pursue issues. I would say to Aer Lingus that it should respect its staff, many of whom have given long service. The Government intervened and gave assistance to the company for two reasons: one, to protect workers and their jobs; and, two, because, let us be honest, aviation took an awful and extraordinary hit during the pandemic that went to the very core of viability, all over the world, of airlines, airports and so forth. There was a need to underpin and keep that which is essential to Ireland's connectivity because that connectivity is key to jobs, the economy and exports. We have had record exports from this country announced today, again because of our connectivity and the infrastructure around that connectivity.

The same applies to the situation at Tesco, which was raised by a number of Deputies. Again, there are labour relations mechanisms there for having these issued resolved. Workers' rights should be respected in regard to their entitlements to pensions, pay and conditions in any such transfers and there should be proper negotiation processes in that regard.

Deputy Ó Laoghaire raised the situation of school secretaries, which I dealt with earlier today on the Order of Business. There has been a lot of progress made in the discussions at the WRC. There was significant progress following discussions on 13 September last year. Subject to agreement on all elements of the claim, the Department of Education has offered to move school secretaries' pay rates to a scale that is aligned with the clerical officer grade 3 pay scale on a pro ratabasis, according to secretaries' current working pattern. The Department has also offered to improve the conditions with regard to sick leave, annual leave and maternity provisions for this cohort of staff. Further dialogue has taken place between the parties on these issues since 13 September with the aim of reaching an overall agreement. The talks continued most recently at a meeting of the WRC on 26 January and the parties are to meet again later this month following reflection on matters discussed.

I will pursue the issue raised by Deputy Flaherty. It is a very important piece of information that €6 million has already been spent on the Mullingar to Longford road. I will again talk to the Minister about making sure we can get continued progress on that.

I will come back to Deputy Cahill on the issue he raised regarding the harvesting of peat. There have been legal impediments because of the European directives, court cases and so on, which have proved very problematic in terms of this matter. I will talk to the Minister about the issues the Deputy raised.

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan, to be fair, has consistently raised the issue to which he referred today. I will talk again to the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government. There are issues around capacity for HIQA in regard to what is proposed.

In the first instance, the funding agencies and the homeless fora in the different cities should be making sure that if they are allocating funding to emergency centres, they should meet certain basic standards.

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