The next item is the least contentious. As Deputies know, the House has agreed that for the duration of the Covid-19 emergency, the rapporteur's report will not be read out. There is just one question to be put. Are the proposed arrangements for the week's business agreed to?

Not agreed. The Planning and Development (Amendment) (Large-scale Residential Development) Bill 2021 will finish Second Stage at 4 p.m. tomorrow and will begin Committee Stage at 6 p.m. Meanwhile, Report on Final Stages of the Maritime Area Planning Bill, involving exactly the same spokespersons, will be on in the Dáil Chamber between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. That is completely unacceptable and people cannot be in two places at the same time.

It is also unacceptable that the time allocated for the Maritime Area Planning Bill, which deals with offshore development, has been guillotined to three hours, which will not allow many of the amendments to this incredibly important Bill to be discussed. We still have not seen Thursday's Bill to deal with mandatory quarantine but it will also be guillotined. Friday's health and criminal justice Bill is to give sweeping powers to the Minister and his Government but there has been no pre-legislative scrutiny of that, despite demands from the committee that there should be.

We are being asked to guillotine legislation to restrict the rights of citizens in this country and this must be balanced against the scale of the threat posed by this virus. It is important we see the legislation and we have not as yet. There is no proposal whatever to discuss the advice that primary school children should now wear masks or a mechanism to have this reviewed, as was advocated by the Ombudsman for Children this morning. He has also raised a legitimate point about the treatment of children if their parents do not support measures around wearing masks. We need clarity on the guidance now being issued by the Government.

Home care assistants are reeling from the news that the travel allowance element of their pay will not be paid to them before Christmas and they will instead have to wait until January or February. We in the Rural Independent Group have sought for the relevant Minister to come before the House this week and explain this. Every Member of this House knows and appreciates the excellent work that home care assistants do throughout our country, taking care of older and vulnerable people. That they must wait until after Christmas for the travel element of their money is fundamentally wrong. We want the Minister to explain to those people why it is happening and to rectify that wrong as a matter of urgency.

The Taoiseach has heard from Deputies Doherty and Pringle.

I can tell him that there are serious concerns coming from Donegal and other counties in the west of Ireland on the square foot issue. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, urgently needs to come before the House to make a statement and take questions about this. He needs to give urgent clarification. There is serious concern coming from families in the affected counties already. The Taoiseach avoided answering questions from Deputies Doherty and Pringle. The Minister needs to come in and urgently deal with this issue today or tomorrow.

On the Order of Business, I call Deputy Pringle.

I refer to the Health (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill, which is proposed to go through all stages on Thursday, and the Health and Criminal Justice (Covid-19) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, which is scheduled for Friday. Neither of these Bills has been published yet so we do not even know what is in them, and amendments were to have been submitted last week. What is the situation with them? The debates should be adjourned to allow for proper scrutiny of them.

Unless you have a time machine.

I object to the Order of Business. First, many of us have amendments down for the planning Bill, which certainly fails to address the reduced standards in planning in recent years. It is not acceptable that such an important Bill should have Committee Stage rushed in the House. It should go to the committee for proper consideration and amendment. Second, the Health (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill has not been published yet. We do not know what is in it. It is only reasonable that we should be given an opportunity to consider it and adequate notice from the point of view of tabling amendments. The handling of both of these Bills is not acceptable.

First of all, as a general point nothing at all is rushed in this House. It takes a very long time to get things done in this House and to get legislation through this House. I make no apologies on housing because we have had too much delay on housing right across-----

It is planning actually.

That is related. Members of the Opposition are having an each-way bet every day and every week on a whole range of issues. It seems to me that it suits the Opposition at times that there is paralysis in getting things done. Let us consider the Maritime Area Planning Bill, which is essential. Last week, Deputies were complaining that a major wind energy company was pulling out because we did not have our planning frameworks through. The Bill has been given a fair degree of consideration-----

It has been sitting there for five years.

-----and it will be given more consideration, but it needs to be dealt with. They have been talking about it for years.

The same spokespersons cannot be in two places at one time.

When I became Taoiseach, I was determined to get it published and through the House in order to create a landscape for the next ten years so that people who want to develop wind energy in this country, and fulfil our climate change objectives, can get on with it. I make no apologies for that either.

It is directly clashing.

The planning Bill will go to the committee. On mandatory quarantine, the Deputies know what that is. It was not so long ago that they were all screaming for it in a previous phase of the pandemic. We could not bring it in fast enough.

Yes.

It is the same Bill almost coming back in. Now, the Deputies are claiming that it is outrageous that they have not seen it. The same principles apply. Likewise, on the public health measures, which way do the Deputies want it?

Every way.

They wanted a zero Covid approach at one time. Now, they are saying we are bringing in legislation that will be restrictive of citizens' rights. It is more incoherence and inconsistency. They label the Government with that from time to time. Every single month it changes in here. I am simply saying that the public health measures have to be extended. That is all we are doing. The Deputies are familiar with them. We debate and discuss them at committees and the plenary session. They are not the third secret of Fatima. That is all that is being put forward. What is happening is the consolidation of existing different pieces of legislation. The Health (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill will be published and that is what is in it essentially. We want to have the mandatory quarantine capacity on the Statute Book again. There was an expiry date in the previous measures.

What about home care assistants?

The Minister will check that out. Perhaps the Deputy will put down a Topical Issue. We will follow that through. I take the Deputy's point.

Will we hear from the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien?

The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, will look at these, but we will have to see whether it can be fitted in this week's schedule. We have no difficulty with this. Deputy Mac Lochlainn knows the Minister is prepared to come before the House and debate that.

I am moving on. Are the proposed arrangements-----

Can the Business Committee convene to sort these issues out?

May I speak very briefly? It is not a political point. It is actually about-----

The question is on the Order of Business.

Yes, I am speaking on the Order of Business.

The Deputy has had a chance, as has everyone. The Taoiseach has responded.

He did not respond to the question I asked.

I am now-----

Honestly, he did not.

Have we agreed to schedule a meeting of the committee?

He did not respond to the question I asked about two things being set against each other where the same people are-----

The committee has discretion in that regard.

There is the Deputy's answer. We are moving on.