Mr. Shane Dunne:

I would like to add a minor detail to what Ms Dorgan has said but I echo everything she said. We have spoken to a number of SMEs within the sector in recent weeks. Across all sectors, SMEs are viable, profitable and successful businesses. The one thing that SMEs do not have is large stores of cash and massive reserves. That is why they are SMEs. We have found in recent days that SMEs have been granted a three-month or six-month loan break. An SME might have borrowed €1 million to buy equipment such as a public address system. Those SMEs are now being told that they will have to make those repayments in 2021. In 2021, those SMEs will have to pay 18 months' worth of payments instead of 12, in a year when they will most likely not have any money until the end of the summer season, assuming we get one.

Returning to the mental health issue, these are, in some cases, businesses with four, five and up to 20 staff. The business owners are worried about their staff, bills, children, childcare and mortgage costs. They are worried about their businesses. In many cases, business owners have spent five, ten, 25, even 45 years building up that business and are watching it crumble in front of them with little or no help from the banks or insurance companies, although that is a discussion for another day. Ms Ridley touched on this point, but those SMEs need support now and a little chink of light at the end of the tunnel will help them immeasurably over the coming months.