Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I want to correct the record of the Dáil. Earlier, I mistakenly said that the shortest-serving Taoiseach in the history of the State was John Bruton at 924 days. It was actually the Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin, at 904 days. Maybe it just seemed longer.

A couple of weeks ago, Deputy Michael Ring made the comment that Fine Gael has been too left for too long. If he decides to join his 11 Fine Gael colleagues and exit politics at the next election, he might make a good alternative career in stand-up comedy. A more right-wing stance on immigration, law and order and climate might have consequences the Deputy has not considered. Isaac Newton once said, for every action in nature, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Society is not becoming more right wing; it is becoming more polarised. A shift to the right in Government policy could trigger a surge on the left, perhaps in the form of activism from young people in particular.

To the best of my knowledge, there was no such thing as an Oireachtas friends of South Africa group in the 1980s, but an Oireachtas Friends of Israel group was apparently revived in February 2022, the same month that an Amnesty International report concluded that Israel is an apartheid state. Should the Deputy who revived that group be the new Minister of State with responsibility for European Affairs? Ireland and Spain have requested an urgent review of the EU-Israel trade agreement in the light of the assault on Gaza, one which could potentially cost Israeli big business interests tens of billions of euro. Is the Minister of State, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, of the Oireachtas Friends of Israel group in a position to vigorously pursue that review? That is one question.

I will conclude on this question for the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Peter Burke. A raft of stories have been appearing in the press linking a package of supports for small business with hints that planned improvements to workers' pay and conditions might be put on the long finger, that the introduction of the living wage would be put back a year, that sick leave entitlements would not increase next year, etc. I urge the Minister not to go down that road because if he does there will be opposition, and quite possibly a storm of opposition. It is the lowest paid workers in the country who need the living wage. It is the lowest paid who go into work when they are sick because they cannot afford to take a sick day. I would like to hear the Minister rule that out as an option.

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