Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 9 June 2020

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response

Reopening the Economy: Supports for Business

Photo of Michael McNamaraMichael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

One of the most worrying economic or financial aspects of the restrictions was the extent to which all economic activity was driven into the hands of multinationals, many of which are headquartered outside of Ireland and pay their taxes elsewhere. Farmers' markets, for example, were inexplicably shut down and people had to go to supermarkets, all of which are indoor, in order to buy food even though all the scientific evidence shows that the risk of congregations indoors is far greater than outdoors. Likewise, with drink suppliers, we hear anecdotally that there was a big increase in the sale of alcohol but it was primarily the big companies which were in a position to benefit from that rather than small micro breweries. How long do the witnesses think it will take for the customer practices that have developed, with people not going to local shops because they were closed and going to the big multinationals like Tesco, Lidl and Aldi, which benefitted hugely from this but which pay their corporation taxes outside of Ireland, to reverse and change?

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