Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Have the Minister and his Department done any work on the question of how many jobs will be lost and how many businesses will close completely? The Drinks Industry Group of Ireland has stated that approximately 40,000 jobs will not exist in 2022 that did exist in 2019.

The elephants in the room are the 8 p.m. closing time for hospitality and theatre and other performance arts and the Covid pass. When will these measures come to an end? The Minister is likely to say "When NPHET says so", but when does he believe they could come to an end? Thankfully, Omicron has not been as damaging as projected and all the key indicators are falling, yet we have a Government saying that it will probably be 31 March before these restrictions are lifted fully. For many who are warehousing their taxes because they cannot pay them fully, who have lost their jobs or who have had their incomes radically reduced, the idea of only being fully clear of restrictions on 31 March is hard to take.