Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will be very brief. We acknowledge the huge strain which so many businesses have been under in the last 16 months, notwithstanding the massive support that the State has extended, and continues to extend, to them. It is because of that support that we have greatly mitigated the economic fallout and greatly reduced the number of businesses that might not survive. The decisions the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, in particular, has made around the extension of the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, the decisions we have made about local authority rates relief, and so on will help those businesses. We are of the view that the overwhelming majority of businesses will survive, but inevitably there will be some casualties.

The Pathways to Work programme that the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Heather Humphreys, and the Taoiseach launched earlier this week involves a number of Departments. It is an extensive investment in retraining and reskilling, apprenticeships, work experience programmes, and so on. This week at Cabinet, we sanctioned a further increase of 4,000 places at third level education next year. The Government is putting huge resources and investment into this area. Reducing the level of unemployment that has arisen as a result of Covid-19 will be a core priority for us.