Mr. Macdara Doyle:

The most urgent thing we need to do is to "build back better". That was referred to here and we have all heard the phrase at this stage. There is an opportunity here because the immediate challenges arising from Covid-19 are not the only ones we face. We have massive challenges coming down the line in terms of automation and the online issue. There is an opportunity here to build back better by establishing that kind of stakeholder forum where all of the relevant parties come together. Rather than tackling this in a piecemeal way, where you take one measure at a time, you try to deal with them all.

You can deal with the immediate Covid-19 challenges, and with the longer-term challenges of automation, skills, training, the endemic low pay in the sector, but there is, as the Deputy rightly said, a wider issue around the social wage and the cost of living that has to be addressed as part of wider Government policy. There are big issues. If we could use this opportunity to develop that new blueprint with all the relevant stakeholders around the table, there could be a thriving, sustainable sector which could be characterised by decent work, high standards, good career progression and meaningful careers, instead of low pay and insecurity.

I might ask my colleague, Mr. Gerry Light, the congress representative on the retail consultation forum to add a few comments on that.