Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 9 June 2020

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response

Reopening the Economy: Supports for Business

Mr. Danny McCoy:

I will take the first part of the Deputy's contribution. He mentioned comparison with other countries. In fairness to Ireland, our reaction has been to get liquidity quickly to people. That is being done through the pandemic payment and the temporary wage subsidy scheme. That is done directly, through the employer and into the household, and that was important to keep the stay at home message. As for the scale at which it will be comparable with other countries, very often in those countries loans are the main part. Again, this goes to the heart of the reaction not to take on extra debt or knowing exactly how much debt one can take on, given what way one's business will be. In other societies, the jurisdiction beside us, the UK, being a classic example, the capacity to get the liquidity to the employers to give to their employees was incredibly slow. Here it was remarkably quick. I think that is a reflection of the fact firms had to borrow from the state schemes just to keep them liquid and to keep their employees paid in other jurisdictions. I think that is what the Deputy is seeing in those comparisons. The question that really matters is this: when we open up, will the scale of the liquidity measures match the required need? That is the heart of my point earlier. We need to see the opening up to see what damage has been caused in the past quarter.

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