Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

With this huge amount of time, I will try to make about 14 points, all of them worthwhile. In fairness, when we talk about the €100 extra, there is an acceptance across the board of the pressure people are under. There is a need for greater intervention and not enough has been done about price gouging in the retail sector but we will leave that for another day. I will use this opportunity to talk about an issue which I have spoken to the Minister about before, which is reasonable accommodation and grant schemes. There has been an issue with an insufficient number of people making use of it because of the existing difficulties. An employer has to make the application but, in some cases, it is the person with the disability; I spoke specifically about those with autism who may need certain assistive technologies. It would be better if they had and knew how to use them and that then could be introduced into a workforce-type setting. There is a need for some involved in Intreo to liaise with employers from the point of view of those with disabilities.

An issue has arisen particularly with remote and hybrid working for cross-Border workers, North and South. It is an issue that needs to be dealt with across the board but there are specific issues regarding people who will not have stamps and particular payments. PayPal initiated this idea - a number of southern workers needed to be moved to PayPal UK, as it is termed, due to remote working; the building was closed.

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