James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I must cut across Mr. McKeon because my time is limited.

Following up on that point, I agree with some of the points Mr. McKeon is making, not all of them. We need to have a discussion now so that if we have another major pandemic in two or three decades' time, we can be prepared. Obviously, the qualifying criteria for receipt of EWSS deserves questioning. Some major firms that remained profitable were in receipt of it. They could stand on their own feet without needing to engage in restructuring of their companies and having to let staff go.

When it comes to potential future schemes in the event of a global disaster or emergency like Covid-19, does Mr. McKeon think we should look at having a cut-off point or having some degree of separation between an industrial-scale payment for large industry versus supporting small businesses? Effectively, both were in receipt of EWSS in varying amounts. I would argue that bigger firms which are larger employers were bigger beneficiaries of this scheme than smaller employers, as they only needed to have a drop in operating revenue of 20% and effectively that was the cut-off. That does not necessarily mean they were unprofitable. I do not believe there was enough support for small businesses. I want to get Mr. McKeon's perspective on that.