Mr. Shane Dunne:

I thank Deputy Clarke. We have gone through a number of these issues already but I will touch on them again. There are practical additions to the PUP, such as rent and mortgage support, which are key to everyone working in this sector. We need to avoid people being forced onto jobseeker's payments. These people are not jobless but currently are unable to work for a reason beyond their control. Once they end up on jobseeker's payments we all are in agreement that we will lose them, and will lose them for good. We have touched on the rest of it already but we need some kind of a roadmap immediately, which could be the start of the event industry task force we have talked about already. We need the rest of the requests to be agreed to, namely, a break in VAT and insurance, which is a big one. This may become a national insurance that is Government-backed to cover events, because insurance companies are not going to do it. It is going to be a very difficult industry for us to operate in and this applies to everybody, both funded and non-funded activity. If we cannot get some kind of a handle on insurance, we are going to have a major problem.

Those practical additions to the supports would be great but all of the requests need to come to fruition for this industry to come back, to strive and to develop again, as it will. We are confident it will but it needs help and support immediately. We have mentioned the end of July stimulus in order that we can get through this difficult time and come out stronger on the other side.