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

On the first question, our plan is to phase out the payments gradually, beginning on 1 February. We are not going to move to a position whereby the payments will fall from €350 for some workers to zero. The plan we have, as it is currently legislated for, although I do have the ability to vary much of it by ministerial order, is that we will move from €350, to €203, to €100, at which point the payments will be phased out. We are scheduled to do that all the way up to April. While I very much hope the public health conditions will facilitate us in implementing that plan, we will have to see the advice from NPHET and the consequential Government decision on that.

The Senator's second question was on the presence of banks and whether new retail banks would enter Ireland. At the moment, the overall trend among European and global banks is not, in many cases, to move into new markets. For the foreseeable future, I anticipate any new financial service that is provided in Ireland to come through non-traditional financial service providers, that is, companies providing services through the use of technology as opposed to branches. The Senator is aware that some companies began doing this in recent years.