The House has agreed that, for the duration of the Covid-19 emergency only, the rapporteur's report of the Order of Business shall not be read out but shall be taken as read. Arising from it, there are three proposals to put to the House. Is the proposal for dealing with today's business agreed to?

It is not agreed. The PUP recipients losing their income on the basis of travelling is extremely serious. Not only does it appear to have no sound legal basis, it is also blatantly discriminatory. When Mr. Billy Kelleher MEP of Fianna Fáil openly broke the travel guidelines there was no impact on his income. We know that the rules were changed to facilitate tax exiles, maintaining their status during the pandemic. There is also the example of high earners who are recipients of substantial tax benefits under the special assignee relief programme, SARP. They do not lose any of those if they travel and break the guidelines. It is only those on PUP.

We cannot have a debate on the matter.

Certainly. The point is that we have a motion on the Order Paper which would annul the statutory instrument and end this blatant discrimination. We believe the Dáil must debate and vote on it today.

As I said earlier to the Taoiseach, it is clear that this is blatant discrimination against one section of the population. It is a policy that would penalise them uniquely, not others, for travelling overseas even though the Government's advice is just advice, and confused and ambiguous advice. It is important that the statutory instrument in question is rescinded. There is a motion on the Order Paper and it is imperative that it, or another motion brought forward by the Government, is taken. This situation cannot continue. It is essential that every citizen is treated equally before the law. At a time when the claim that we are all in this together is repeatedly made, people who are out of their jobs because the Government closed the economy down need to know that they will be treated respectfully and equally. That is currently not the case.

On the same issue, there is a need to have a debate on rescinding this discriminatory order on the Statute Book. It is incumbent on us to treat everybody who leaves the State with respect regardless of who the person is. This is discriminatory and must be rescinded as a matter of urgency.

First, I note that Deputy McDonald was saying last week that it was reckless for people to travel - that was her position - and that the Government was adopting a reckless policy generally. She was dead set against any travel whatsoever, but has obviously changed position within a week. Equally, the line now being trotted out is that the Government closed the economy. The interim Government with the support of Deputy McDonald, my support and the support of every other party in the House agreed that there had to be a lockdown to protect human health and the safety of the people. There is a great deal of shallow propaganda emanating from the Opposition now. Somehow now it is some Government over there that closed everything down. We all know why things were closed down. The response was to put 600,000 people on the pandemic unemployment payment, which I believe was a good and genuine response to try to help people deal with the loss of employment. There was also the wage subsidy scheme. At one stage, there were 1.1 million people on subsidy from the State.

I ask the Taoiseach to address the question.

That must be acknowledged. We discussed this on Leaders' Questions. As I said with regard to any individuals who are genuinely wronged, I have no issue with those cases being reviewed. There have been compliance measures at airports and ports since 2012 in respect of social protection.

There is a law before the House.

This must be kept in perspective. There are 287,000 people legitimately on the pandemic unemployment payment. That will continue and we have extended it to the end of next March. We are talking about a handful of cases here. I have no issue with those cases being reviewed and fair play being applied to everybody. However, there is an extraordinary schedule of legislative activity to be completed today and tomorrow so we must proceed with the schedule as agreed by the Business Committee.

A Cheann Comhairle-----

No, there can only be one spokesperson per party.

To be helpful to the Taoiseach-----

No, you are not the leader of Sinn Féin.

Do the right thing and annul it.

Resume your seat, please. The Deputies have made a proposal and the Taoiseach is not accepting it. I will put the question.

Is the proposal for Wednesday's business agreed to? Agreed. Is the proposal for Thursday's business agreed to? Agreed.

On questions on promised legislation, 34 Deputies have indicated. We have limited time remaining. I call Deputy McDonald.