Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am similarly obliged to the make the case to the Chairman and the committee for the efforts of the Government and the effect they are having. I ask the country to have faith in our reopening strategy and to look at how many vaccinations have been administered in the country, a total of 1.1 million doses. Some 140,000 vaccinations happened last week and at least 170,000 will happen this week. Despite all the ups and downs last week, Thursday and Friday were the busiest days of vaccination that our country has yet experienced. As for the supports the Chairman described, I should, in the interest of transparency, say that the €12 billion includes the cost of the pandemic unemployment payment, which has gone to support our citizens at a time of need.

Let us take the example of an individual retailer who is required to close due to public health guidance. I acknowledge the additional costs he or she is facing and the help needed to reopen, a point I will come to. Nevertheless, if the retailer is required by public health guidance to close, the State is paying back up to 10% of that retailer's turnover through the Covid restrictions support scheme. If the retailer is still employing somebody, the State is paying a large share of that person's wages. If the retailer pays rates, those rates have been waived, and if he or she has taxes that cannot be paid, the taxes are being warehoused. If costs were incurred when the retailer tried to reopen during 2020, those costs were co-funded by the restart grant. We have, through the wage subsidy schemes alone, invested more than €5 billion of taxpayers' money to protect the people the Chairman described.

Turning to the final point the Chairman put to me, I accept that as businesses look at reopening, that is costly. There is additional cost involved in reopening a business, whether it is a restaurant or a retailer. The Government has said, and I reaffirm it now, that we will look at policy measures to put in place beyond the end of June to help the businesses to which the Chairman referred. They are employers throughout the country and they closed because the Government asked them to close to keep themselves safe. We will, in the coming weeks, lay out our plans to help those businesses further.