Deputy Richard Bruton:

I might come in on a second round but I will ask a couple of questions first. One of the issues that concerns me is that we design now in the interventions that we put in that we will have a sustainable recovery pattern as we come out of this in order to create a recovery. To what extent is the Department embedding repositioning for structural changes in the instruments it is offering? I am thinking of climate change, the digital transformation, the change in work patterns and the decline in the use of cash. I know there are some online instruments, but there is a deeper form of change going on here that will impact on a lot of sectors. I wonder if the Department is having a good look at that and perhaps structuring in audits to some of its supports so that there is a requirement at least that enterprises would audit some of their weaknesses in these areas. While it might not be immediate for them to find cash to solve them, at least it would put them on the radar.

In the estimation of the witnesses, how many enterprises are likely to require restructuring as we come out of this period in terms of the restructuring of their debt and rental leases? What is the progress on a lighter form of examinership than the very expensive High Court approach?

I fear that quite a number of enterprises may need that sort of restructuring and we may not have the instruments to support it.