Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have two further points. From what I am hearing from Dr. Cassidy, it seems he would not necessarily agree with the Tánaiste's remarks. I do not believe there is any evidence basis for them, frankly, and that seems to be what Dr. Cassidy is saying. One of the policy interventions that was made last year was an intervention that my party and I have been calling for in the context of how we might deal with a potential no-deal Brexit. I refer to the introduction of the initial temporary wage subsidy scheme, which has since evolved into the employment wage subsidy scheme. Would Dr. Cassidy be of the view, given the exposure of the locally traded sector to the decline we have experienced and the clear challenges that certain economic sectors will face in re-establishing themselves, that we should, as a feature of the labour market, have embedded into our system a formal short-time working scheme equivalent, for example, to the that which operates very successfully in Germany and which supported jobs and businesses through the financial crash in the late 2000s and early 2010s? Is this something he thinks we should consider, perhaps with a condition attached around training and upskilling? We have a serious issue on our hands in terms of productivity and competitiveness for SMEs and an ongoing challenge in the context of upskilling and retraining. I ask Dr. Cassidy to comment on that broad policy issue.