Mr. Padraig Cribben:

There is no doubt but that as we reopen with capacities reduced, probably to a maximum of about 50%, with no tourism, conventions or big gatherings, the staff numbers required will drop. That is unfortunate but it is also short-term. We need supports until we can get back on our feet with tourism, businesses and events coming back. Redundancy, certainly, will be an issue. There is absolutely no point in finding ways to inject liquidity into businesses on the one hand and having three or four redundancies shortly afterwards that will suck that liquidity out of the business again on the other. We have to get back to the position of some years ago where the vast majority of the redundancy costs were borne by the fund. We have raised this issue on a number of occasions with the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. We know that the current position regarding the application for redundancy has been deferred for a period but we also know that that needs to be extended. Otherwise, there is no point in having liquidity going into businesses that will be sucked out in that way.