Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witness. I appreciate others hope to follow up on that. I have another question linked to a witness coming before the committee later today. The witness mentioned earlier the implications and real dangers of the necessity for a repeated national lockdown or a localised lockdown. Ironically, the SME sector feeds into hotels, restaurants and other businesses in communities and this is an interlocking matter. Ultimately, SMEs are part of the community. They comprise the people in the community, including neighbours, friends and families that we meet every day. They are the SME owners throughout the country.

Does the witness have a view on international travel into the country? There is much talk about Irish people going abroad, but what about opening our country to international travel? Without it, there are tranches of SMEs that will fail. That will happen if nobody arrives into Ireland, no matter how good a staycation is. Is Mr. Moran in favour of limited opening to support SMEs or does the organisation take a position on this?