Mr. Gabriel Makhlouf:

The banks have introduced the payment breaks, as the Deputy stated. More than 250,000 payment breaks have been approved so far. Many of those were for mortgages but some were also for SME lending. The other type of supports in place include those the Government has put in place and they are sizeable. As we mentioned earlier, there is about €9 billion in total, plus €7 billion worth of guarantees etc..

It is really a question for the Government now to decide what other supports it wants to make available. The financial system, the banks and credit unions will be working hard looking at the sustainability of their borrowers and the issues they face. It is in everyone's interest that we continue to work together on responding to this pandemic.