Mr. Declan Hughes:

I thank the Deputy. I would like to make a couple on points on the design of interventions. The enterprise base came into this crisis at the end of last year and the early part of this year in quite a strong position. It had come through the last crisis. I refer also to the internationalisation of the enterprise base and the strength of the domestic economy. That helped with some of the early adjustments. However, there is no doubt that the last six months have seen an acceleration of some of the significant disruptors the Deputy has mentioned, namely, digitalisation, the impact of climate change, remote working and changing patterns in the use of cash and other payment forms. That has applied across all sectors. Sectors in which we were not getting traction, which had significant difficulty with the transformation of their businesses, have gone on that journey in the last six months. I am particularly thinking of the domestic service economy's uptake of digitalisation. There have been almost 9,000 applicants for the trading online voucher, which is offered by the local enterprise offices, in the last six months. That is almost equivalent to the previous five years' worth of applications and awards. The significance of that is not limited to funding. The scheme requires enterprises to go through a formal process, including a web seminar, to make sure they have a structured programme in place.