Mr. Gabriel Makhlouf:

Clearly, instilling confidence in the economy is important but very challenging as we are about to enter into level 5 restrictions for six weeks. The role of savings will be very important in the recovery throughout the eurozone. The nature of savings at the moment is that they have been forced savings, that is, people have not had the opportunity to spend so they have been saving. The budget has played an important role in bolstering and supporting the economy. I suspect that the need for confidence and greater certainty was hit by Monday evening's announcement about level 5, but those sorts of measures, such as plans for capital spending and, more important, plans for the future, outlined not only by the Government but also by businesses and organisations such as the Central Bank, are certainly important inputs in building confidence.

I welcome, therefore, the sorts of measures in the budget. I look forward to the European Union setting out greater detail on its recovery fund because it has an important role to play throughout the EU and the eurozone, which will also have beneficial implications for Ireland. At the moment, perhaps what all of us living in Ireland would like is a greater degree of certainty as to when the pandemic will end, when a vaccine will be available and how ready we will be for the recovery when it comes, because it will come. Building that sort of narrative is quite important and the budget has helped in that regard.