Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to return to retail workers again this morning. Clearly, with all of the worries of Brexit and what we may be facing in the new year it becomes even more concerning. One particular issue has raised its head, and I hope the Leader might be able to help. I have written to the Minister but I understand that she is very busy right now. As the House will be aware, our retail workers returned to work in large numbers this day last week. A number of workers volunteered to get the stores ready from the previous Friday. These workers who volunteered to get us back up to speed in retail now find that they will not qualify for the Christmas bonus under the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP. This is even though they have the 17 weeks requisite PUP. They have found that because they volunteered to come back to work on that Friday, technically one has to have received that payment between Friday 27 November to Thursday 3 December and these workers will now miss out on that payment. Everyone will agree this is grossly unfair. Mandate trade union has been in touch with me to highlight this. It would not take much to fix it. Surely if we are serious about supporting retail workers, and not just saying that we support them, then we should be able to fix this. I call on the Government to urgently address the matter because, clearly, the payment will be made very shortly. I am hoping for Government action in that regard.

Unfortunately, in the new year we will be facing a number of other liquidations and closures.One of the problems with those liquidations and closures will be the amount of time workers will have to wait to get any funds back. Perhaps we need to consider setting up a statutory agency to carry out liquidations and administration processes. It would have the advantage of removing one creditor from the process and ensuring quick access to funds for workers. The current system clearly is not working, as anyone who speaks to a Debenhams worker will know.

In the four seconds remaining to me I call on the House to remember John Lennon on this, the 40th anniversary of his death.