Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for the clarification. We are seeing it in the number of people who have moved from the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP. If we look at the number of construction workers who have moved from being on the PUP, which they were in March and April, I am certain that if we had not given clarity regarding what our public capital spending was going to be later on in the year and had not given an indication we are going to maintain it for next year, the reduction of people on the PUP from the construction sector would not be as big as it has been.

Within that, if I were to pick out two aspects that have been really important, the first would be getting public housing projects under way again. Having people building them is important for all the reasons the Deputy knows but it is also really important for getting people back to work across the country. The second aspect is the work that has been under way in cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, where councils all over Ireland moved really quickly to do it. Consequently, they were able to employ people who, in the absence of this kind of work, might not have had work to do. For me those are the two standout examples of what has happened in the past few months.