The Taoiseach has probably had the shortest honeymoon period of any incoming Taoiseach in the history of the State. It lasted about two hours before some of his colleagues started turning on him. That has continued for the last week and a half, even up to today. I appreciate that he is only a week and a half in the job but he is not a newcomer to politics. He is one of the most experienced people in the House. There is, therefore, a reasonable expectation that he will hit the ground running and provide stability and a clear direction for the people. Instead, he has had to manage a considerable amount of unrest, commencing with open criticism from his own party. As we now know, one of his Ministers has had to apologise to him and publicly for his driving ban while on a provisional licence.

We will deal with that matter later and I hope we will get full clarity. In the same week, the Minister for Health has stood over an interview in which he admitted taking illegal drugs. That is another matter that needs to be teased out further by the Taoiseach. In addition, a Fianna Fáil MEP ignored the requirement for quarantine when he travelled to the Taoiseach's inauguration.

I must ask the Taoiseach now that Fianna Fáil is back in government, are its public representatives above the law again and above public health advice? The Taoiseach comes from old Fianna Fáil politics. It has not been a good first week for the Government and the Taoiseach must think that. The modus operandi looks to have returned to an old style of cute hoor politics. I am not sure how the Taoiseach's colleagues in government will respond to that style. What kind of example does it give to the public when three senior Fianna Fáil representatives have openly flouted the law and public health rules?

On top of that, the leaders of one of the Opposition parties in this Chamber, Sinn Féin, broke all social distancing rules to attend an IRA funeral and rally, as it turned out, in Belfast. That was the second time that members of Sinn Féin attended a funeral during the Covid lockdown while everyone else had to respectfully stay at home while friends, neighbours and supporters were laid to rest. People might expect the practice of exceptionalism from Sinn Féin but the public may have thought that Fianna Fáil had been humbled since it led the Government during the financial crash.

The first act of the new Minister for Education and Skills was to bellow about a new grant for an extension to a school in her constituency despite the country being in the biggest educational crisis in the history of the State. Fianna Fáil is certainly back in power. The country needs a stable Government, not more of this. This kind of activity needs to end this week. People are rightly concerned about whether they can return to work, whether health services will resume soon, when schools will reopen and how rent and mortgage arrears will be dealt with. When will the Taoiseach be in a position to provide the people with a clear statement on all four of those issues? The Taoiseach must ensure that a plan will be in place for the summer months and September.

I do not accept the Deputy's analysis of the first week of the Government. He can talk about internal party issues pertaining to certain individuals but my focus has been unwavering since I was elected Taoiseach. That focus has been on policy and substance from the beginning. We have an extensive legislative programme for this month, as the Business Committee is well aware. I would say that the programme is unprecedented in terms of the amount of legislation we will try to get through the House in order to deal with the impact of Covid-19 on the economy. We will deal with the Microenterprise Loan Fund (Amendment) Bill, the Financial Provisions (Covid-19) Bill, the Credit Guarantee (Amendment) Bill, the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Bill to set up the Department of Higher of Education and Research and various other items of legislation. The Cabinet subcommittees have already been established by the Government.

I spent a week speaking to the President of the EU Commission, Ms Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the EU Council, Mr. Charles Michel, Mr. Michel Barnier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson - in the context of Brexit - and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, about matters such as the European recovery fund, the multi-annual financial framework and how Europe, as an entity, will deal with Brexit and the Irish position on it. I have been very focused. Other stuff goes on, as it always does in politics, and we will deal with that too. From the perspective of the Government, we must focus on the people.

The Deputy asked about reopening schools and travel advice. The Government has focused on those issues in the past week. We had a meeting of the Covid-19 sub-committee on Friday to deal with the matter of international travel.

We had an extensive consultation with Government colleagues and announced the decision yesterday that the existing advice against unnecessary travel abroad will continue in the interests of public safety and suppressing the virus. Above all, this is to help us get schools open in September. It is a passion of mine that we get the schools open in September because children's development rests on it. We limit the life chances of children if we deprive them any longer of schooling and education. The Cabinet sub-committee on Covid will meet again to discuss that issue now that we have dealt with international travel. The committee will now focus in on education and engaging with the education authorities on the return to school.

I met the Minister for Health and the acting Secretary General of the Department of Health last evening in order to focus in on the non-Covid strand of disease, illnesses and the need for diagnostics, to get resumption of services now that critical care beds have been freed up as a result of the suppression of the virus. The number of patients in such beds has been significantly reduced. I have not wasted an hour since I was elected Taoiseach in the context of concentrating on the fundamentals that face the Irish people. No politician is above the law and no politician should be above the law. In respect of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Cowen, the Deputy will note that punishment was meted out in respect of his transgression four years ago.

I am delighted that the Taoiseach referenced so often in his reply that not one hour has been wasted. He has been very focused. He has gone into an awful lot of detail, he said it numerous times, and specifics. In that context, I want to ask him one question. There are hundreds of thousands of people worried about their livelihoods. The Government has its July stimulus coming forward. As policymakers and as legislators, we do not have the information we need to plan for this crisis. The Central Statistics Office reports that just over 131,000 people were unemployed at the end of June, which is the seasonally adjusted, traditional unemployment figure of 5.8%. However, at the same time, it reports a Covid-19 adjusted unemployment rate of 22.5%. There is a world of difference between the two figures. I do not want figures to be massaged. Given all the specific, detailed work and the fact that not an hour has been wasted, I am sure that today, 7 July, the Taoiseach has the capacity to confirm - to the best of his knowledge, to be fair - what is the real unemployment rate as of today.

Again, the Covid figure is the one I take as my yardstick in terms of the unemployment rate and the reality of the situation for many people. Of course, in the context of those supports, the jobs stimulus programme will focus on that area and on the wage subsidy scheme, which has protected thousands of jobs. We can get into all sorts of statistics, but it remains unclear how many companies will be viable over time. Many companies have been and are being protected by the wage subsidy scheme. Part of the July stimulus programme will be to evaluate that scheme and fine-tune it. No one will come off a cliff as a result of any policy decisions. The July job stimulus is aimed not just at protecting jobs but at creating additional jobs. It is going to be an uncertain time ahead in terms of the employment situation. There are various estimates made by the bodies that project employment figures and so on. I hope some of them are realised in the context of a significant reduction by the end of the year. It is fair to say to all concerned, however, that supports will be necessary in the medium term but also that initiatives will have to be taken to create jobs and alternative opportunities, particularly for young people.