Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Commissioner. Deputy Ó Murchú is itching to get back in again. Prior to that, I will make a point. It is good to hear the Commissioner speak in human terms today. I have been reflecting back on the years 2009, 2010 and 2011. We talked about that period ten years ago. There are still people living with, and through, that trauma. The conversation we had was very rigid. It was about deficits and surpluses. We were throwing out billions and banks were being bailed out. Basically, we were taking €5, €10, €15 and €20 out of people's pockets in the form of austerity to the tune of around €28 billion to €30 billion over a period of five years. People are still dealing with that trauma. Are they convinced that something like that is not going to happen again? No, they are not. They are quite concerned, because they are looking at the perfect storm of potential carbon taxes.

Fossil fuel, oil and gas prices have gone up in the past few days even and people are concerned. It is reassuring to hear the Commissioner's language regarding the lessons learned from ten years ago and to hear that there will not be a cliff edge in dealing with this crisis.

He referred to citizens and no doubt he was thinking of his experience with Italian citizens and how austerity impacted them. How do we assure Irish citizens that, while in the region of €34 billion was borrowed to deal with the pandemic in this country, they will not have to deal with the impact of this crisis in the same way they did with the previous one ten years ago?