Mr. Gabriel Makhlouf:

Yes, it does. In my opening statement I talked about three particular issues at the end of it. I wrote those in a letter I sent to the Minister for Finance on Friday. I will repeat them now because I think they touch on exactly what the Deputy said. First, the focus of policy right now should be on protecting the productive capacity of the economy and making sure that we do not allow scarring effects of this crisis to happen such as long-term unemployment and viable firms becoming insolvent. The responses of that will vary from sector to sector and from firm to firm, but some of the components will include making sure liquidity is available and thinking very hard about training and skills. It should not necessarily be limited; it will be broad.

The second issue I mentioned in my statement and in my letter to the Minister relates to the Deputy's point about debt. Right now, we are at a time when borrowing at the level the Government has is absolutely essential, necessary and warranted. Currently, it is affordable. The State's debt levels are lower than in 2012 but they are a lot higher than they were in 2005 and we need to think about how we are going to get to a more sustainable position in the long term and not leave ourselves vulnerable to shocks. There is no money tree. At some point we will have to make sure that these measures, which are aimed at dealing with the pandemic, are temporary. They are going to have to be removed. That is again the importance of them being targeted.

The final point in my statement is that at the same time as doing all of that, we need to continue building the economic resilience for the long term. That is not just about debt; it is about making sure workers have got the skills to cope with a different environment in the future. It is also about making sure that we are ready for the challenges of climate change and for whatever changes or impacts the UK's withdrawal from the EU will have. There are some very big challenges out there and we need to plan for them now at the same time as doing everything else.