Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is a fair question and observation. The difficulty we have is that the legislation must be linked to the restrictions. We are saying that lay-offs until 22 January 2022 are linked to Government restrictions. They are not lay-offs because of Covid-19, but because of interventions by the Government which restricted businesses' ability to operate at full capacity. Those restrictions have been fully removed since 22 January. There are going to be ongoing issues relating to Covid-19 for God knows how many years in some sectors and some companies and there are other supports and initiatives which will see the Government step in. Regarding this legislation and this link to Covid-19 restrictions, we had previously linked this to section 12A. We extended that in tandem with the restrictions to 22 January. I think it is a fair date; I am not sure how we could pick any other date or how that assessment could be made.

To be clear, then, the purpose of the Bill is to ensure that employees who were laid off due to Covid-19-related restrictions are not disadvantaged should they be made redundant. Again, the State is taking up that cost. I think we have made the best attempt to get this right and the Deputy will appreciate that, because I am not sure what other rationale we can work off, bar these measures being linked to restrictions.